Setting up your home for gaming is important. Let's figure this out together.
Setting up your home for gaming is important. Let's figure this out together.
Hello, welcome! I see you're looking to simplify your home setup by reducing cable clutter. Your aim is clear: connect your tech cabinet to your office via a single Ethernet cable, avoiding separate gaming PCs and streaming setups. The current diagram uses mostly Ethernet cables, which fits your vision. You mentioned considering a "USB-C Docking Station" with these features—would that be helpful? Let me know if you'd like suggestions on how to achieve this goal.
The method described is the most straightforward approach. USB-C ports don’t function as illustrated; they require a compatible host device for proper operation. When multiple Ethernet ports exist on a device, traffic isn’t automatically managed between them—they remain separate unless additional software routes the data. A dock lacking a host connection won’t have any software to facilitate communication.
Your Samsung TV supports running apps via the Steam Link app. It also connects directly from the TV to the router using a wired link, which can then be routed through a gigabit switch to a PC. If the NVIDIA shield uses the same wired network setup as your router, it may be able to stream games from your PC. Streaming over this wired connection can replace the HDMI cable, unless another factor makes using HDMI more practical. I agree with the other user that USB C docks often behave differently than expected.
I wouldn't suggest it. Switching to streaming didn't help; the lag and lower image quality were clearly noticeable right away.
I’m disappointed with the streaming options you’ve tried. They only function intermittently, the quality is poor, and latency is terrible except for visual novels. Since you don’t have a high-end PC, USB docks aren’t ideal either. I realize there might be another solution that works better.
You're questioning the Steam Link Samsung App, Nvidia Shield, and general wired or wireless streaming options. In my view: Wireless connections usually introduce more delay, even at higher frequencies, though it might still be manageable at 60 FPS. Wired connections could have some lag, but it shouldn't exceed a few frames per second—around 16 ms per frame. Picture clarity will likely get slightly compressed, but the app supports bitrates up to 100 Mbps, which is significantly higher than my previous 15 Mbps for 1080p at 60 FPS. That should have been sufficient with a GTX 1060 or GTX 680. Personally, I've used a wired setup for over five years with a Plasma TV and didn't experience much performance drop. As a casual player without high frame rates, I probably didn't hit the 60 FPS limit. My older PC (i5-3570K) was adequate, so hardware isn't the main concern. It seems encoding and decoding on both ends could add at least $200 in costs—possibly including capture cards. Unless such devices exist, they probably won't match today's streaming quality. For that price, investing in a better upgrade might be more practical than trying to fix network or device issues.
It's nice having a choice, but switching from a direct HDMI link to streaming will be clearly noticeable as much lower quality. Even with high bitrates, video streaming loses fine details and colors. They also advise against using very high bitrates because they boost latency further. I own an old Steam Link box when it was being sold cheap, paired with a Steam Deck and a Linux PC. On all counts, even with a wired connection, it feels like a big step back—especially since most games run smoothly at 60fps or higher. You might manage to bypass some latency by keeping the cable, but controller input will still suffer. You’ll just add more processing steps, so don’t expect perfection.