How to Set Up Steam In-Home Streaming and Fixing Quirks?

In-home streaming is easy – you just need to install it on your PC and stream it via the home network to any other device including your TV or another PC. Using in-home streaming solutions, you can encode video signal and send them to another system on the same network. You can compare it with Netflix. In this article, we will discuss how to set up steam in-home streaming and to fix its quirks.

What do you require for in-home streaming?

During streaming, you usually run a game on your PC. While it displays on your PC monitor, you can control the game with keyboard and mouse. Steam captures this streaming data and beams the signals both audio and video to another PC. Moreover, in-home streaming facilitates you to execute Windows games on a Mac or Linux PC.

Basic hardware requirements:

• A host PC to run Steam on Windows. It must be capable to run simultaneously a game while encoding its video signal.  
• A client PC (Steam Link) to run Steam on Windows, OS X or Linux or even SteamOS.
• A home network for connectivity. Preferably it must be a high-speed network, and the router must be stable. Ideally, the host PC and the client device must be connected via a hard line over a gigabit Ethernet.

How to set up in-home streaming

Surprisingly it takes just a few minutes! Here are the steps to follow:

• Log in to Steam on your gaming PC and go to the Settings menu.
• Select the tab -In-Home Streaming.
• Select the tab – “Enable streaming.”
• Select “Enable hardware encoding” under Advanced Host Options.
• Again login to the account (Steam account) on your client PC.
• From the menu, you can see available PCs to stream from on your network with proper labeling as “Ready” or “Offline.” If your PC is ready, it should show up as Ready. Thus select it to begin streaming automatically in Big Picture Mode.

 

Tweaking Steam in-home streaming brings maximum performance.

Here are a few tips to help you out!

• If your client PC performs high, it brings a balance between video quality and overall performance. In this case, the streaming lag will be minimum.
• If you enable hardware encoding, it will help in quickly rendering the game streaming into video using GPU. Otherwise, the CPU has to do all the work, which could hamper performance.
• Network prioritization helps in proper trafficking of data across the network during the streaming.
• Set as automatic bandwidth and Steam will determine the required bandwidth during streaming.
• Set the resolution appropriately so that it best matches with your TV.
• To avoid input lag switch from the ‘balanced’ to ‘fast’ setting. However, the picture quality may compromise due to it.

We have discussed on the know-how of Steam In-home streaming. In case the streaming does not work with your setup, Steam community is there to help you out. It’s a group of hardcore streamers with out of the box solutions for any streaming related issue.  Hence, go forth and enjoy in-home streaming with Steam!