Valve's Steam Link Is Back On Sale For $15 USD

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Valve's Steam Link Is Back On Sale For $15 USD

In case you missed the deal back during a summer sale, Valve's Steam Link streaming device can be found again for $15 USD rather than its normal $40~50 price...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-Link-Halloween-15

[Maxjen]

It was 1$ recently: http://www.shacknews.com/article/101...this-icey-deal

I would have bought it if I had a TV.

[willmore]

At $15, if you can use it as a little Linux box, it might be worth it--the hardware is very solid and well made.

But, for its intended purpose, it's horrible. I picked on up in the recent sale at Amazon along with a controller. The controller is wonderful, but the stream box is just bad. The video quality is poor and regularly goes into a massively pixelated mode. There's no way you can play a game with one. Maybe it's better at lower resolutions, but at 1080p, it was unwatchable.

[torsionbar28]

At $15, if you can use it as a little Linux box, it might be worth it--the hardware is very solid and well made.

But, for its intended purpose, it's horrible. I picked on up in the recent sale at Amazon along with a controller. The controller is wonderful, but the stream box is just bad. The video quality is poor and regularly goes into a massively pixelated mode. There's no way you can play a game with one. Maybe it's better at lower resolutions, but at 1080p, it was unwatchable.

Dont use the wifi. Works perfectly on wired ethernet. Most people don't have the wifi bandwidth required for good 1080p streaming.

[kurros]

The SoC in the Steam Link is the same as the first gen Chromecast. it is woefully underpowered these days. Actually it was woefully underpowered at release, but I give the Link guys a break because I think it was held back for a long time waiting on Steam Machines/Controller/etc to be ready. I hope it gets a refresh someday, as the video decode performance isn't great compared to even an old laptop with Intel video and adds unnecessary latency.

[willmore]

Dont use the wifi. Works perfectly on wired ethernet. Most people don't have the wifi bandwidth required for good 1080p streaming.

I was using wired ethernet.

[Guy1524]

Bought it when it was on sale 2 fridays ago, still shipping lol. Im supposed to get it wednesday. I heard valve is doing this to empty stock because they are making a new one, but that is just a rumour

[toojays]

The video quality is poor and regularly goes into a massively pixelated mode. There's no way you can play a game with one. Maybe it's better at lower resolutions, but at 1080p, it was unwatchable.

I've found the Steam Link visuals to be quite good . . . but only if I'm streaming from Windows. Streaming from Linux it's pretty poor. I reckon the difference is that on Windows the video encoding is using the hardware encoder on my RX480, while on Linux it's not. In order to encode frames quickly enough with the software encoder and still have CPU cycles left to run the game, the encoder quality is sacrificed.

[rhysk]

Bought it when it was on sale 2 fridays ago, still shipping lol. Im supposed to get it wednesday. I heard valve is doing this to empty stock because they are making a new one, but that is just a rumour

Steam Links are based on Marvell ARMADA 1500 line of SoCs. Since the original hardware release, Marvell have come out with newer iterations of that SoC (ARMADA 1500 Mini Plus) then the most recent that supports up to 4K (ARMADA 1500 Ultra), so there's a pathway there for a refreshed Steam Link without too much redesign.

Other streaming boxes like the various Chromecast generations have already progressed up the ARMADA 1500 line.

[starshipeleven]

At $15, if you can use it as a little Linux box, it might be worth it--the hardware is very solid and well made.

But, for its intended purpose, it's horrible. I picked on up in the recent sale at Amazon along with a controller. The controller is wonderful, but the stream box is just bad. The video quality is poor and regularly goes into a massively pixelated mode. There's no way you can play a game with one. Maybe it's better at lower resolutions, but at 1080p, it was unwatchable.

There is something very wrong in your setup or you got a lemon, I know at least 5 different people with a Link and they all work perfectly fine at fullHD (over ethernet).

EDIT: yeah, all on windows, never even tried on Linux.