Suddenly nonstop latency spikes, yellow to red icon split moment blank screen, every 10 seconds on Steam Link App

[Tigers 🇺🇸🇺🇦]

Hey all. I've been having trouble in general since starting to use the Steam Link app on my Sony Bravia a few weeks ago. The performance is an absolute mixed bag. My setup is from a desktop hard wired into my router, the TV is on the 5ghz band wifi with near perfect reception most of the time. Though I have switched between both bands to compare any differences.

My specific issue today is that I was streaming from my host desktop most of the day just fine when suddenly, around 7:25pm this evening, I get the problem as described in the title. Yellow icon flashes several times before red icon, then the entire picture cuts out before returning, only to repeat the process less than ten seconds later. No audio lapses strangely enough. I switched over to the graph view to find that ping is a feasible 40ms on average until the lag spikes send it through the roof.

Now I've tried a bunch of different tweaks to the settings. Currently I have the host PC sharing direct connection to all devices. Hardware encoding is enabled. I have hardware encoding for AMD disabled after hearing a tip that this function doesn't work well at all. I have prioritize network traffic off. And number of software encoding threads set to automatic. I've left bandwidth limited at 20 MBit/s with the hardware encoding box checked.

I have tried all sorts of combinations of options, including limiting bandwidth after receiving a tip that higher bandwidth limits result in instability. I sometimes go through manual reset of all equipment and apps to see if it fixes the problems and it's a mixed bag of results. I'm really never sure how to make this app perform better, and this problem with the lag spikes is out of nowhere with no changes to settings that I'm aware of. It's becoming unusable fast.

https://paste2.org/YEhxhaC6 My logs from this evening.



Thanks in advance for the advice!

[_I_]

make sure its not using steams internet relays
and can ping the tv ip directly from the host
(host and tv should get a similar lan ip, 192.168.same.different)

windows network is set to private not public
wifi isolation on router is disabled
steam -> settings -> remote play -> allow direct connection = auto/all/my devices
also [advanced client options] limit bandwidth >= 40mb/s or unlimited

[Phil Mastro]

I've also been having similar issues. I get a "slow display" message, which I'd never seen before.

It doesn't seem to be a decoding problem, because I get the same lag spikes no matter what resolution I pick, even 852x480. I've had stretches in the past week where everything worked fine for a decent stretch of time, like 45-60 minutes of play at 30 ms display latency, and then it just goes wild.

Here are some things I've tried which didn't work:

• tried the regular and beta builds
  
• changed the bandwith limit
  
• disabled Energy-Efficient Ethernet
  
• tried software and hardware encoding
  
• tried software and hardware decoding
  
• tried Wifi instead of LAN (who knows, right?)
  
• tried a different PC
  
• shutting down background apps on the TV

I've also pinged my TV during these spikes, and I get 0 ms round trip response when cabled.

My TV is on a switch, so it actually boots every time I turn it on and is "disconnected" every time I turn it off. My TV is also a Sony (x900f), and I'll try and check tomorrow to see if/when there was a firmware/software update, and see if that seems to coincide with my issues.

Edit: Maybe this should have been in the Android section instead of the General Discussion, I don't know if it would get more traction there.

[Phil Mastro]

So I didn't have auto-updates on for my TV, so that can be ruled out as well. I did the system update while I was at it, but that didn't solve the problem either.

I also rolled back to version 11.8.8 of the Steam Link app, but that didn't seem to change anything, either. I'm not sure I want to factory reset my TV just yet, so I'm kinda out of ideas.

[Tigers 🇺🇸🇺🇦]

So after more fineagling I discovered that the TV hardware itself is just not up to the workload and is the root of all my problems.

[_I_]

the bane of cheaper smart tvs

they skimp too much on its processing, making menus and apps perform poorly

[Phil Mastro]

I don't know if this will help anyone in any way, but I just had a flawless session after closing all AMD software on my host PC, all that Adrenalin and Radeon stuff. Some guy on Reddit had similar issues with the NVidia overlay, so I figured it might be a similar problem for AMD. I dunno if it really solved the problem, but I figure it's worth mentioning, and I was getting around 30 ms of lag which I find very playable.

[Yannerc]

It has worked for me too. Thx Phil for the tip!

[Manny Calavera]

I'd like to add that this issue appeared a few months ago on my bravia. Wired connections and everything. Even put an ethernet cable between my pc and the tv, it makes me able to play steam link but not without the cutting out part.