Problem with encoder in-home streaming, weird combined with Parsec and Apple TV

[xoniq_nl]

Hi all,

My wife wants to play Hogwarts Legacy soon, so I decided to make room in my server for a 1080 Ti Xtreme GPU, and setup a new Windows (11) install. All done and passed through.

Now when I want to use Remote Play on the Apple TV, at first I thought my network wasn't fast enough, confirmed everything works at 1 Gbit, so no issue there.

But the image stayed terrible, and unplayable lag. Tried with NFS Rivals, and I wasn't even able to view the track because of artifacts.

Then I found the 'statistics' overlay within Remote Play, and noticed a 100+ latency, because of image/video. Then I wanted to investigate, started Parsec to look into the VM, and suddenly the latency went to almost nothing, and the game was absolutely playable, tried it for a half an hour to make sure it isn't a fluke.

I stopped Parsec, wanted to play some more, but it all went back to hell, and when turning on Parsec, its all good again. I noticed the encoder switched around while turning on/off Parsec:

WITH Parsec:
>>> Capture method set to DWM NV12 + NVENC HEVC

WITHOUT Parsec:
>>> Capture method set to Desktop BitBlt RGB + libyuv + NVENC HEVC

Then I searched the entire night, and could not find a solution. What does Parsec change on the fly to make it be great, which I cannot resolve on my own? How can I force the proper encoding? I have the exact same experience on the Apple TV 4K, and my iPhone 12, with the latest OS and app.

I'm very new to Remote Play, so I was going in dark, but I'm almost there, only this need to be resolved and then it's playable for my family. What I've tried so far:

- Disable "NVIDIA GeForce Experience" Game streaming
- Disable "NVIDIA GeForce Experience" Game overlay
- Reinstall drivers
- Windows 11 is up to date
- Wen't through all settings in Steam on desktop, during Big Picture Mode, on all clients
- Read the entire internet about this issues, which suggested the things I already disabled/checked

Please help me out, make my first Remote Play experience (without Parsec) open great.

[Arg0n]

I also did some research, but I guess you will get better help in the Steam Link discussions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/

"Desktop BitBlt RGB + libyuv + NVENC HEVC" Seems to the "default" capture method. And I found that capturing may fall back to this when your network latency goes over 30ms. I don't know whether that's true.

Source: https://machbbs-com.translate.goog/hostloc/581872?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

I also couldn't find a way to force the encoder into a capture method.

I found a github issue where ppl talk about the encoding and are trying different scenarios to see what encoding they get: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/8423