Steam Link better than laptop for streaming?

[Melton Mowbray]

Hi there, I am using my macbook pro mid 2010 to stream from my gaming pc to another room via powerline right now, and everythig runs fine at max streaming settings however there is a slight bit of noticeable latency when play games like call of duty. Would using a steam link in this setup make a difference, as the laptop is unable to decode due to nvidia errors where when I have it selected in settings i get graphical errors. I have also looked at the graph while streaming and the laptop which I beleive is the red line on the graph adds about 40+ms on average and the maximum latency i get from the network line is 20ms. If buying the steam link would make for better streaming I would definatly consider it.

[Tucu]

Post specs here and your streaming log to pastebin.

[Melton Mowbray]

Originally posted by Tucu:

Post specs here and your streaming log to pastebin.

Thanks for the reply, here's the specs of the laptop.

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
8GB DDR3 Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM
250gb Crucial SSD

How would i go about obtaining streaming logs on a mac, I looked in the steam logs folder however there wasnt a text file for streaming data.

[Tucu]

Check the sticky thread about streaming logs. Might be worth uploading both the client and host streaming logs.

[Melton Mowbray]

Originally posted by Tucu:

Check the sticky thread about streaming logs. Might be worth uploading both the client and host streaming logs.

Originally posted by Tucu:

Check the sticky thread about streaming logs. Might be worth uploading both the client and host streaming logs.

http://pastebin.com/4Q7FNQH8

Here is the data from the host pc, seems to have all of the data. From what I read on the sticky it seems the client does not keep streaming data and it is all in this file.

[Tucu]

You are having problems with both the network and the decoding.
What ping times do you have between the two PCs when not streaming. Try running ping for a few minutes and check the min,max and average ping times. Around 2ms average is normal for powerline.

What errors do you get when enabling hardware decoding your Macbook?

[Melton Mowbray]

Trying to ping the host ip from the client doesnt seem to work. The host is connected directly to the powerline as is the client (no connection through a router) while the host shares the wireless internet it receives through wireless with the client. Could this be one of the issues?

Regarding the errors of decoding the stream it seems to be a problem with nvidia's decoding, providing me with graphical errors such as green squares across the screen. I remember seeing the error on a list of known problems with in game streaming.

[Melton Mowbray]

Ping from host to client gave me this;

Minimum = 3ms, Maximum =3ms, Average = 3ms

[Tucu]

The host will have 2 ip addresses. One assigned by the router and one that you have either statically configured for the Ethernet adapter or an auto-assigned one. Try pinging that address. BTW what are the specs of the powerline adapters?

If you can't make the hardware decoder work in the Macbook, then the Steam Link would give you a better experience (1080 60FPS). But you should try to sort out the issue with the powerline adapters before buying it.

[Tucu]

Ah, those ping times look normal. How many seconds was that sample?.
If you use the utility supplied by the Homeplug vendor, what link rates does it display for each adapter?

[Melton Mowbray]

I think that the MacBook won't be able to support decoding the stream from what I remember reading, let me try and find the article.

The ping was only for about 10 seconds and I ran the ping test through cmd. I'll run one for a few minutes now. The power line adapters are capable of 500mbps, I'll also find the exact model numbers for you.

[Melton Mowbray]

Here are the power line adapters: http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/1090930.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=cgid:12504951290%7Ctsid:59158%7Ccid:200290250%7Clid:94813101410%7Cnw:g%7Ccrid:66128554130%7Crnd:15851463356697261088%7Cdvc:m%7Cadp:1o1%7Cbku:1&gclid=CJ2BzvG1rMoCFU2NGwodzegOiw

And here's a link to the article where it talks about the graphical errors when decoding on some nvidia cards: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3629-RIAV-1617#nvidiadeblockingsoftware

[Melton Mowbray]

I have also re-done the ping test for around 4/5 minutes and these were the results:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 7ms, Average = 3ms

[Melton Mowbray]

The power line utility provided by TP-LINK says that I'm getting 309mbps between the two devices.

[Tucu]

OK, those look fine. The slow network might just be a side effect of the Macbook being overloaded by the stream.
I just tried streaming to a 2010 15 inch MBP with a 330m and it seems to work fine with hardware decoding. Do you still have problems with hardware decoding on your laptop with the most recent Steam Client beta (need to opt-in in both host and client)?.

[Melton Mowbray]

Let me have a look at installing the beta clients to both devices, give me one second.