Black Screen Flickering Using In Home Streaming

[yt/colossal_falafel]

Hello - I'm running into an issue with both my Steam Link hardware and Steam Link in home streaming to other devices. Both my tablet and Steam Link devices are experiencing black flickering screens when streaming. I've read a lot of forum entries regarding this, but nothing pointing to an exact solution, so I figure I'd add my setup to the mix.

Host:
i7-4770k
2xAMD 7950 in Crossfire
16GB RAM
2x1080p monitors
W10x64Pro, up to date
Steam - latest update
All drivers are up-to-date (chipset, GPU, LAN, etc)

Streaming clients:

Steam Link (latest update applied)
Wired connection (gigabit network into 100mb/s Steam Link Ethernet port)

Tablet
Intel Atom (quad core)
2GB RAM
Steam - latest update
Wireless connection (5GHz, consistently tested at ~120Mb/s)
All drivers are up-to-date

Network setup:
Asus N56u w/QOS active
Entire network is wired gigabit Ethernet. Tablet is the only device streaming, which is done via a SOHO dedicated WAP capable of ~300Mb/s throughput. Asus router is used only as a wired router.

Symptoms:
Steam Link - the device occasionally has a black flickering screen for less than a second. The flicker is inconsistent but is very disruptive. Occurs in all games, sometimes multiple times per minute.

Tablet - prior to a recent Steam update, streaming was flawless. I stream Act of Aggression consistently to the tablet, which never had an issue up until late last week. Now, screen flickering occurs almost constantly (one time/second) - which makes the stream completely unplayable.

Both systems experience the same issues seemingly regardless of host and client options - although the tablet flickers MUCH more often. I've tried toggling hardware encoding on/off, adjusting streaming resolution limits (1080p, 720p, and auto-based on resolution), limiting bandwith, and changing the streaming quality from fast to balanced to beautiful. Nothing so far has fixed the flickering issues. FPS when turned on fluctuate between 30-60fps, but typically sit around 60fps.

I've tried exiting all other streaming apps (Splashtop, Raptr) while streaming and have closed all non-critical programs prior to streaming, but nothing seems to stop the flicker.

Please help! I'm a huge fan of in-home streaming and the Steam Link, but at this point it is unusable.

[henryg]

If you turn off hardware encoding on the host, this should stop the flickering. You may need to turn it off from Big Picture mode's settings pages (gear icon) instead of the normal desktop UI - specifically make sure that the AMD checkbox is unchecked.

We are working with AMD to get this resolved ASAP.

[huangzhiqian]

it can also software decode at client，but need a faster client.

[nwgat]

@henryg amd just updated their Media Framework https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/AMF might be useful to use that

[SpeedShop14]

Originally posted by µiåk:

@henryg amd just updated their Media Framework https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/AMF might be useful to use that

how can we use this to fix the flckering issues?

[ShadowNate]

Not we. Valve could potentially find some use for it to fix the bug.
Which still happens and never got fixed since last year's Novemeber.

[sherpa]

Originally posted by henryg:

If you turn off hardware encoding on the host, this should stop the flickering. You may need to turn it off from Big Picture mode's settings pages (gear icon) instead of the normal desktop UI - specifically make sure that the AMD checkbox is unchecked.

We are working with AMD to get this resolved ASAP.

Any progress on this? I still suffer from it.

[yt/colossal_falafel]

I ended up getting a GTX1070 and I'm no longer seeing this issue. Looks like it was due to AMD drivers

[ShadowNate]

Yes, the problem seems fixed now.
Try the latest AMD drivers (16.9.1 Sep 13 version WHQL) and the latest Steam beta client build (on both host and client PCs) and make sure that hardware encoding/ decoding for AMD are selected on host and client PC (wherever you have the AMD GPU). A Steam beta client update could automatically disable the hardware encoding/decoding for AMD GPUs, so you need to double check them.

[Adelin]

Hello ShadowNate,
Unfortunally, it may work / not work for every user.


At last something changed and you are able to enable amd hardware encode and hardware decoder, without any problem :)

latest beta client (september 13)
For me there is 0% frameloss now, i can see the mouse cursor moving on laptop.
But now i have a "screenshot" of the game instead of a video stream.

The "screenshot" won't refresh, and there is a flickering starting at half a second rate, increasing more and more often, till it's osmething like 1/20 s less or more (i can't figure the true flickering rate but it's so fast, the "screenshot" fade, and the display reduce by maybe 50% perceived lighting by eyes.

I did a fresh install of KDE Neon, in place of kubuntu 16.04 just to see if it was a problem with linux.

I have 370.28 nvidia drivers installed on laptop with gtx850M (optimus)

On my desktop, i uninstalled again september 13th 16.9.1 amd drivers, used DDU in safe mode, rebooted and reinstalled them.

Desktop windows 10 64 family anniversary with latest hotfix.
Z87-plus motherboard
i54670k
16gb gskill 2400mhz
hd 7870 sapphire oc (dual x fan)
1tb sshd seagate

1Gbits cat 6 shielded (not crossed cable)

and the list can go on.

I reinstalled the steam normal client, then beta client, just to be sure.

Maybe i should try to reinstall windows 10, but it is working fine from months, i don't wanna bork my system.

[hi_bread_jeans]

I seemed to have the same issue latest drivers latest host latest client on a Sony Bravia smart tv..to get rid off the flickering black screen I went to my PC in big picture mode went to settings went to remote play changed client options to beautiful and also in advanced host options I unchecked the Nvidia hardware encoding and Intel cause I run an amd setup so just enabled hardware encoding on amd and left software encoding threads to automatic and the flickering has stopped...so if it helps anyone give it a whirl... ☮️

[mario]

Originally posted by LukeWarm_exe:

I seemed to have the same issue latest drivers latest host latest client on a Sony Bravia smart tv..to get rid off the flickering black screen I went to my PC in big picture mode went to settings went to remote play changed client options to beautiful and also in advanced host options I unchecked the Nvidia hardware encoding and Intel cause I run an amd setup so just enabled hardware encoding on amd and left software encoding threads to automatic and the flickering has stopped...so if it helps anyone give it a whirl... ☮️

Alright my man, this helped! I've done the same but left NVIDIA hardware decoding on as I run on RTX, thanks mate!