Steam in-home streaming open to all PC users

Steam's in-home streaming feature has exited beta and is now available to all users. This allows users to remotely install, launch, and play games between two Steam-connected computers on the same home wireless network.

Ozzie Mejia

May 21, 2014 2:30 PM

"Steam In-Home Streaming allows you to play your PC games on lower-end computers such as a laptop or home theater PC, or a computer running another operating system such as OS X, SteamOS, or Linux," explains the announcement post. "When you play a game using In-Home Streaming, video and audio are sent through your home network from your high-end gaming PC to another device in your home. From here, your keyboard, mouse, and controller input is sent back to the remote computer."

Initiating streaming requires users to log onto Steam on their Windows PC before logging onto Steam using another computer on the same network. Both computeres must have the user's Steam library open to begin streaming. Support for SteamOS, Linux, and Mac streaming is coming soon.

Steam in-home streaming is among the features promised by SteamOS. The beta was previously restricted to development partners and beta invitees. For more on Steam in-home streaming, visit the Valve's information page.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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Shacknews

 reply
May 21, 2014 2:30 PM

Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Steam in-home streaming open to all PC users.

Steam's in-home streaming feature has exited beta and is now available to all users. This allows users to remotely install, launch, and play games between two Steam-connected computers on the same home wireless network.
- K1Bond007
  
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  May 21, 2014 2:40 PM
  
  So what's the cheapest possible device to stick in the living room that acts as the gateway to your beefy PC in the other room?
  
  Should have talked to Amazon to get this to work with their FireTV.
  - BeowolfSchaefer
    
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    May 21, 2014 2:43 PM
    
    You may be able to run it on the fireTV, not sure off hand
    
    You'd use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.limelight
    
    I know it works on the ouya which you could probably find for $50 these days. Also your phone or tablets may work.
    - BeowolfSchaefer
      
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      May 21, 2014 2:56 PM
      
      should also say the best device I have seen so far for it would be the nvidia shield. You can get them for $200 now and may find sales or ebay units for a low as $150. It's going to give you the best experience since the Tegra 4 is one of the faster chip options out there. It's also portable so you have more options. As BlackCat9 says though a wired connection is recommended so pick up a USB Ethernet dongle but Wireless does work pretty well too.
  - [deleted] 355768971
    
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    May 21, 2014 2:45 PM
    
    [deleted]
    - pantsburgh
      
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      May 21, 2014 4:03 PM
      
      Wifi should be fine. I can't imagine Valve didn't think about optimizing this to use less than 150 Mbps. As a comparison, 1080p 60 fps at BluRay quality would be 108 Mbps.
      - vitek r
        
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        May 21, 2014 4:42 PM
        
        its more the issue of latency with wifi
        
        qsylvr
        
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        May 21, 2014 4:43 PM
        
        WiFi in the 5ghz range works great. The 2.4ghz range has so much interference from microwaves, baby monitors, etc that there's lots of delays and retries and everything is shitty.
        
        BeowolfSchaefer
        
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        May 22, 2014 6:25 AM
        
        This does seem to be one of the big differences. Use 5GHz if at all possible.
        
        pantsburgh
        
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        May 21, 2014 5:29 PM
        
        The ping on my wifi'd PC is 1 ms solid. The ping on my wired PC is < 1 ms solid.
    - Lucy Labia
      
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      May 21, 2014 8:31 PM
      
      It works ok for me wireless on 300 mbs n
    - marmite
      
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      May 22, 2014 6:02 AM
      
      What's the cheapest that WILL give great results?
    - nevlos
      
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      May 22, 2014 8:41 AM
      
      I've streamed both Dark Souls 2 and Spelunky over my stupid wifi g with zero problems. It's so awesome, and amazing how well it works.
  - boarder2
    
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    May 21, 2014 4:56 PM
    
    I've been thinking about getting one of these things specifically for this http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html
    - gokwyjibo
      
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      May 22, 2014 8:26 AM
      
      I've been thinking the same. I was a little concerned by fan noise, but I'm thinking it can't be that noisy.
- klearlyunseen
  
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  May 21, 2014 2:42 PM
  
  Wish this could work on my pi
  - qsylvr
    
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    May 21, 2014 2:47 PM
    
    Stay tuned. Android and embedded streaming clients in the works. You didn't hear it from me!
  - hanabal
    
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    May 21, 2014 2:52 PM
    
    im sure i've seen a youtube vid of it running on a pi. Not sure of the quality however.
- PointlesS76
  
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  May 21, 2014 2:42 PM
  
  Badass
- dael
  
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  May 21, 2014 2:47 PM
  
  I tried it on my HTPC. I was very impressed with setting it up, it's absolutely transparent and easy to use. However running games that require twitch reflexes is bad. I've been playing F1 2013 races with dudes at work lately and it was impossible to run laps through the streaming. It was close but not enough. It's sweet for slower reflex games though.
  - EnhancedInterrogator
    
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    May 21, 2014 5:19 PM
    
    wireless or wired connection?
    - dael
      
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      May 22, 2014 2:12 AM
      
      Wired
  - [deleted] 1154055892
    
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    May 21, 2014 5:41 PM
    
    [deleted]
    - dael
      
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      May 22, 2014 2:14 AM
      
      idk, with a controller it might be less noticeable and actually playable. For F1 2013 I'm trying to shave milliseconds off each turn and when it takes a 100ms to respond it becomes impossible.
- hanabal
  
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  May 21, 2014 2:55 PM
  
  release the controller and my home theatre setup will be complete.
  
  This works pretty sweet, works easy as on my Nuc running linux. played dishonored and it worked great.
  
  If only I could get hearthstone streaming to my tv. that would be so awesome
  - skankcore
    
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    May 21, 2014 2:58 PM
    
    For Hearthstone you have to bite the iPad bullet. It's that good as a native tablet app.
    - [deleted] 92559685
      
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      May 21, 2014 3:13 PM
      
      [deleted]
      - skankcore
        
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        May 21, 2014 3:13 PM
        
        By Blizzard's definition of that word, yes.
        
        Turd Ferguson
        
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        May 21, 2014 3:28 PM
        
        I'm waiting eagerly for that and Hitman Go.
      - OzzieMejia
        
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        May 21, 2014 3:19 PM
        
        Yes it is.
      - BeowolfSchaefer
        
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        May 21, 2014 3:22 PM
        
        They said this summer I think
        
        Serpico74
        
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        May 21, 2014 4:22 PM
        
        Q4 on Android and iPhone. Could mean holidays, could mean early next year. The fact that they're rolling that release with the iPhone version tells me that they're redoing the interface for phones.
    - Serpico74
      
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      May 21, 2014 4:23 PM
      
      I'd argue that its slightly better than the desktop version. Being able to play such a competitive game anywhere is pretty great.
- crummynz
  
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  May 21, 2014 3:33 PM
  
  This is so slick. It's acceptable my wireless network and near perfect when wired.
- NastyNorman
  
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  May 21, 2014 4:19 PM
  
  I found there was too much lag, specifically too much mouse input lag on a game like FTL. My PC and HTPC are both wired so maybe the default modem from my ISP is being a bottleneck.
  - qsylvr
    
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    May 21, 2014 4:42 PM
    
    Try fiddling with the hardware acceleration settings (on both the client and the host) - some hardware/driver combos add a lot of latency.
- Sir_Shaggy
  
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  May 21, 2014 4:41 PM
  
  I never thought I would see Batman: AC on my 6 year old POS laptop. My mind is blown!
- Tchest
  
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  May 21, 2014 5:03 PM
  
  Does it do touch for any of you? I've been playing XCOM with touch controls on my Surface Pro but still need to use the pen because touches won't register.
- freshyk
  
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  May 21, 2014 6:11 PM
  
  I wonder how much improved it is since I tried it in beta a few weeks ago. I tried to stream Skyrim from my PC to my Mac Mini which are on the same wired network and it chugged pretty bad. I would love this to be super smooth.
- lighttemplar
  
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  May 21, 2014 7:26 PM
  
  If you get stuttering audio, try changing the sample rate on your client to 48000. I was having terrible audio stuttering and that fixed it for me.
- [deleted] 2145831294
  
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  May 22, 2014 7:46 AM
  
  [deleted]
  - Tchest
    
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    May 22, 2014 7:59 AM
    
    You need another pc running Steam. That pc will connect with controllers, audio etc. You can get seriously tiny PCs nowadays though.
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/7566/intels-haswell-nuc-d54250wyk-ucff-pc-review
    - Halen
      
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      May 22, 2014 8:05 AM
      
      I've been using an NUC during the beta for in-home streaming. Works great.
      - [deleted] 2145831294
        
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        May 22, 2014 9:24 AM
        
        [deleted]
        
        Halen
        
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        May 22, 2014 1:23 PM
        
        Oh there's some lag, but it varies from game to game. The two PC's I use are connected to a gigabit switch, so it's probably as minimal as possible. I assume wireless would add additional lag. I use Windows 8 on the host PC, and my NUC runs Windows 7. Both PCs are on 24/7 for additional reasons. Not sure about the Steam controller--I use a wired 360 controller.
        
        [deleted] 2145831294
        
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        May 24, 2014 3:44 AM
        
        [deleted]
    - [deleted] 2145831294
      
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      May 22, 2014 9:23 AM
      
      [deleted]
- isochronous
  
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  May 22, 2014 12:14 PM
  
  THIS IS AMAAAAAAZING. Finally I can play AAA games on my mid-powered HTPC by offloading processing to my gaming desktop!