- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,080
- 136
HARDWARE
Cute little box, about the size of a Roku but heavier. Just enough ports on the body to be useful for its intended purpose, an extension of your gaming computer.
Setup was a breeze. Just plug in the cables and your controller or mouse. If its connected to the internet via ethernet or wifi it will auto-update on its own. If its on any network with a computer and steam account running, it will automatically connect to it. All you have to do is enter the code displayed on your TV into the box that pops up on Steam. Box and Steam do everything from that point on with no hassle.
When you run a game from the TV it automatically mutes your computer, but does not shut off the monitor. It simply mirrors the display.
SOFTWARE
Simple and runs in the background. Normally you only see the Big Picture mode for Steam, which is clean and neat. Has some settings you can alter which specifically affect the Steam Link, but for the most part it just extends your Big Picture mode. Can also be used without big picture mode as if your TV was just a mirror of your desktop. So far as I can tell it will not allow you to use it like an extended desktop.
In that there are some issues. My computer monitor runs at 1920x1200 and the TV of course is 1920x1080. If I don't want games to look squished or play with black bars I have to switch my desktop resolution to 1920x1080, then back again when I'm done gaming. The Steam Link will scale down and scale up, but you get wonky looking images that way.
Along those lines, it doesn't look good. Even with a gigabit port and a gigabit switch, I get grainy and pixelated images. Also it hiccups quite frequently. Makes turn based games annoying and shooters infuriating. Color is less than perfect as well. I cannot imagine what it would look like on wifi.
Audio sounded great. No hiccups or static or anything.
Frankly for the cost I dont think its a good deal. When you get right down to it, all the thing does it repeat your display and audio over your network. For 50 bucks you could get a super nice extended HDMI cable and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo. Which I think is what I'm going to do.
If you have multiple TV's and computers scattered all over your house and every room is wired for ethernet, then maybe I could understand the need for this device. Assuming of course you can stomach the ugly video. But if your TV is anywhere near your gaming computer, I think long cables and/or already standardized wireless technology would be better, not to mention cheaper.
I'll be sending it back to Amazon and ordering a long HDMI cable.
Maybe in a year or two I might buy a Steam computer, we'll see.
Cute little box, about the size of a Roku but heavier. Just enough ports on the body to be useful for its intended purpose, an extension of your gaming computer.
Setup was a breeze. Just plug in the cables and your controller or mouse. If its connected to the internet via ethernet or wifi it will auto-update on its own. If its on any network with a computer and steam account running, it will automatically connect to it. All you have to do is enter the code displayed on your TV into the box that pops up on Steam. Box and Steam do everything from that point on with no hassle.
When you run a game from the TV it automatically mutes your computer, but does not shut off the monitor. It simply mirrors the display.
SOFTWARE
Simple and runs in the background. Normally you only see the Big Picture mode for Steam, which is clean and neat. Has some settings you can alter which specifically affect the Steam Link, but for the most part it just extends your Big Picture mode. Can also be used without big picture mode as if your TV was just a mirror of your desktop. So far as I can tell it will not allow you to use it like an extended desktop.
In that there are some issues. My computer monitor runs at 1920x1200 and the TV of course is 1920x1080. If I don't want games to look squished or play with black bars I have to switch my desktop resolution to 1920x1080, then back again when I'm done gaming. The Steam Link will scale down and scale up, but you get wonky looking images that way.
Along those lines, it doesn't look good. Even with a gigabit port and a gigabit switch, I get grainy and pixelated images. Also it hiccups quite frequently. Makes turn based games annoying and shooters infuriating. Color is less than perfect as well. I cannot imagine what it would look like on wifi.
Audio sounded great. No hiccups or static or anything.
Frankly for the cost I dont think its a good deal. When you get right down to it, all the thing does it repeat your display and audio over your network. For 50 bucks you could get a super nice extended HDMI cable and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo. Which I think is what I'm going to do.
If you have multiple TV's and computers scattered all over your house and every room is wired for ethernet, then maybe I could understand the need for this device. Assuming of course you can stomach the ugly video. But if your TV is anywhere near your gaming computer, I think long cables and/or already standardized wireless technology would be better, not to mention cheaper.
I'll be sending it back to Amazon and ordering a long HDMI cable.
Maybe in a year or two I might buy a Steam computer, we'll see.
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