Gadgetory

so my steam link originally shipped to me about four months ago I didn't open it because I already have a gaming capable media center PC which can run steam in-home streaming in big picture mode without any help from standalone hardware and frankly I just haven't had much time to play games lately anyway but better late than never right the phoenix auteur is a full-size minimalistic li designed keyboard complete with gold-plated cherry MX brown switches check it out at the link in the video description to learn more so in terms of i/o the steam link is equipped with three USB 2.0 ports HDMI 1.4 for video out 100 megabit per second Ethernet and a connection for the 5 volt 2 and a half amp power port that's only 12 and a half Watts by the way and it's otherwise completely devoid of adornments save for the Steam logo on the top cover but come on who's interested in the top cover we can get under the hood and okay well we should have known that based on the 2005 class with the exception of HDMI connectivity that we weren't going to find much in here the details are actually fairly sparse online with valve not even bothering to put actual hardware under the hardware specifications on the product page but with a little more digging we found a reddit post and the steam link SDK post on github that shed a little more light on the situation the steam link features a single core arm v7 processor running at about one gigahertz so similar to the Raspberry Pi 2 model B with a dedicated hardware h.264 decoder 256 Meg's of RAM and 500 Meg's of flash storage though it should be noted that is not for user storage or games or anything it is intended to be used for the custom Linux based operating system that it runs and presumably any applicable steam link app releases that are developed thanks to the availability of the aforementioned SDK now as yet I can't find any information other than the original valve announcement on ongoing steam link app projects but let me know in the comments if you've heard something that I haven't while this Hardware isn't anywhere near capable of chilling and watching Netflix as the kids say in ultra HD 1080 Twitch Netflix or YouTube should be possible if not the greatest experiences and surely there could be other interesting uses for it but enough speculation what does the steam link do today well as helpfully points out in their short and very adorable animated promotional video it takes the power of your gaming PC uses that to render games and code the frames as a video stream and transmit them over your home network by the way do yourself a favor and use the wired connection I know it's only 100 megabit but trust me in-home streaming does not use more than 50 to 60 megabit per second and better latency reliability is worth it to the steam link so all the steam link does is take inputs from the user via USB from the couch and transmit those back to the PCs somewhere else in the house to control the game and control your flexibility is a very strong point your options include mouse keyboard gamepad or multiples of those using a USB hub or even thanks to ongoing hard work from developers more exotic stuff like racing wheels thanks to a third-party tool called virtual here that allows Windows Mac and Linux users to share peripherals over the network sounds a lot like invidious game stream doesn't it well yeah actually but unlike game stream devices like Nvidia shield lineup it does not work with GeForce now you can check out my full review of Nvidia Zaandam and internet game streaming service here and there are no handheld gaming devices that run steam yet but it is much cheaper than a shield console and it works with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards in the source gaming rig but then how well does it work pretty darn well I mean setup was a breeze mostly assuming that the steam link and your PC are on the same subnet you basically power on your computer and make sure it's running Steam select the stream PC in the list of connections note down that four-digit pin and enter it on the streaming pc boom you're done although there are some tips that I have to make your life as simple as ours was number one use a wire number two if you must use wireless use 5 gigahertz to avoid common 2.4 gigahertz interferers like microwaves and baby monitors your router should have an option to create separate SSIDs for different bands just note though that your five gigahertz range is likely inferior to your 2.4 gigahertz range so make sure that you're close enough to consistently get your full bandwidth in spite of the usual network congestion so while the steam link wasn't perfect at release that's one of the nice things about reviewing a product months down the line it tells you if the manufacturer really cares or if they've given up support to start working on the next thing and I really have to hand it to valve here each changelog seems to be a direct response to the issues and requests that are brought up in the community forums bringing since release considerable improvements to stream reliability enabling seemingly essential features like being able to forget a wireless network and putting your xbox controller to sleep when powering down the link and thanks to another recent update 32-bit CRC checking to detect and take action to correct corrupt network packets for a more pain-free reliable experience I mean honestly as far as I can tell the majority of the negative comments surrounding the steam link these days are due to issues that are 100% preventable which is pretty cool so what about that leg then gaming or the network and it sounds great but is it actually usable well yeah after a couple of matchmaker games in rocket League and blitzing through the first couple levels in Metro last light our new writer did I mention that this video is the very first work of a new team member you can let him know in the comments if you hated it was thoroughly impressed by the lack of any noticeable input lag however upon switching to csgo it did become apparent that there was some amount of legs so it was time then to break out the makeymakey and the 240 FPS iphone camera to uncover the extent of it not actually bad but it ties in pretty well to the conclusion that most of you were probably expecting here it's perfectly fine for single-player and casual multiplayer games however I couldn't recommend it for anyone wanting to play competitively in games like csgo Street fighter or the like that is to say unless you're playing against your little cousin who's in town for a visit which leaves us only some closing thoughts game support used to be a major issue with steam in-home streaming where you'd frequently have to run upstairs click a stupid pop-up box run downstairs see if it's working rinse and repeat until tired but thanks to the steam Link's ability to tab out and use your steam link keyboard and mouse as though you are sitting in front of that computer it is no longer an issue and this also addresses really most of the need for apps like Netflix since you can also use it for that pretty cool the theme link does not replace a console or a dedicated gaming PC connected to the TV remember that the remote computer cannot be used for little Sally's book report while you defeat dragons downstairs but as it stands the steam link is inexpensive enough and once configured easy enough to use that in a house with multiple screens and at least one serious gamer I can't think of a good reason not to pick one up crunchyroll is the site created by anime fans for anime fans so they offer the most current episodes of new shows plus a large collection of the most popular anime series in their spring lineup they've got Ace Attorney twin star exorcists Andrey's ero startling life in another world and coming in summer 2016 berserk is coming to crunchyroll and all the content on the site is professionally subtitled just head over to crunchyroll.com slash Lynas which is linked in the video description and you can sign up for a 30 day free trial none of this ten day free trial or 15 day free trial dunno thirty day free trial of crunchyroll premium which gives you a whole month of free anime completely without ads and if you enjoy the many benefits of premium like 1080p streaming getting new episodes of shows straight from japan within an hour of their premiere and being able to stream anywhere anytime from a variety of devices like your phone tablet or game console you can continue your premium membership to crunchyroll for only 695 a month so head to crunchyroll.com slash Linus and check it out thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit the like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon by buying a cool shirt like this one or with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum which is linked in the video 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