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Steam Link Hardware Overlay Issues
When streaming via legacy Steam Link physical hardware, after a non-specific period of time the Streaming Overlay menu functionality (holding back button by default) stops working properly. The Overlay menu will stop showing up visibly when holding the hotkey, but still holds the controller’s input focus until triggering the hotkey input again.

Issue affects the Overlay Menu and Network Performance overlays. This issue is usually preceded by the streaming picture going black for a second, then coming back. Intermittently every now and again, the blacked picture issue will still happen. These issues are only occurring with the Steam Link hardware and not on any other devices using the Steam Link software application. I have to end streaming and reconnect to get Overlay functionality working again.

I have both the Steam Link hardware and my host computer connected via hardline Ethernet. All network and HDMI cables are good and I have tested with multiple cables for each. Hardware encoding is modest at 1080p stream and game resolution using a Radeon RX 6700 XT in the host computer. Network performance is confirmed good and the video card has plenty of encoding overhead when issue happens.

Has anyone else with physical Steam Link hardware had this issue?
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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments
slouken
May 30 @ 7:16am 
This happens when the display pipeline is CPU starved and resets. Can you narrow it down to what's causing this? e.g. only on WiFi or only using specific controllers, or only at certain bitrates?
#1
_I_
May 30 @ 8:33am 
does the link hardware thermal throttle when hot?
#2
CrookedRain
May 30 @ 12:45pm 
Originally posted by slouken:
This happens when the display pipeline is CPU starved and resets. Can you narrow it down to what's causing this? e.g. only on WiFi or only using specific controllers, or only at certain bitrates?

I'll try and do some additional troubleshooting, but I haven't been able to get a specific set of repeatable variables for this issue occurring yet. I can provide some bullet points on things I do, things I've tried, and things I've observed, in no particular order:

  • Steam Link hardware is running latest Public version build 921.

  • I've factory-reset the Steam Link hardware multiple times, with no effect on resolving issue occurrence.

  • This issue does not happen when streaming to other hardware I've tested (Steam Deck, MacBook Neo, iPhone 16 Pro Max, Raspberry Pi 4), so this seems to be a client-based issue specific to the Steam Link hardware.

  • The timing of issue occurrence varies unpredictably; sometimes it will happen within a minute of the stream starting, just navigating Big Picture menus with no game content launched at all.

  • I've sideloaded Moonlight onto the Steam Link hardware, which functions at 1080p60 with 30Mbps bitrate without the micro-blackouts. I'd stick with this, but only issue here is that Moonlight passes a generic Xbox controller to the host, which nixes many custom Controller configurations.

  • The physical Steam Link hardware sits on top of a TV stand, it is not enclosed so it has plenty of airspace and ventilation. The hardware itself does get warm to the touch (not hot) during operation, but the device itself has never thrown out any kind of specific overheating or throttling alarms.

  • I always hardwire both the Steam Link hardware and my host computer directly to my network with CAT-6E Ethernet cabling for reliable backhaul.

  • For Client Streaming settings on Steam Link hardware, I typically use Beautiful preset with hard-selected 1080p stream resolution and 30Mbps bitrate limits using hardware encoding, as my network and host computer can support this easily using H264.

  • Adjusting Client-side streaming resolutions/bitrates and changing from hardware to software encoding on Host-side does not resolve, nor has any direct correlation, on issue occurrence; it still happens even if I dial Steam Link hardware's Client settings back to 720p/Fast with Automatic bitrate limits.

  • For output display settings, I hard-set the Steam Link hardware's video display output to 1920x1080x60Hz, avoiding automatic selection (which would pick same resolution @59Hz for my TV, even though the TV supports full 60Hz). Adjusting these settings to lower output display resolution/refresh rate or enable/disable CEC does not resolve issue occurrence.

  • For controllers, I use either an official Xbox controller (newer dual-radio version), an official DualShock 4 controller, or the original Steam Controller. I connect one of these at a time to the Steam Link hardware using official Xbox Wireless USB Adapter (smaller form-factor version), official Sony Wireless Controller USB Adapter, or the original Steam Controller's included 2.4Ghz USB Adapter. (Update: confirmed issue persists across multiple types of controllers.)

If it helps, high-level host specs are:

  • MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon mobo
  • Ryzen 7 5700X3D
  • 32Gb DDR4
  • Radeon RX 6700XT 12Gb
  • 1TB WD-BLACK SN750 NVMe SSD

I'd try to give a snapshot of the Detailed Performance output in hopes that it could help, but after the first micro-blackout occurs, the graph (and the rest of the hotkey-based Streaming Overlay menu) ceases to display on-screen until I've completely exited and restarted the stream. There are no huge spikes in encoding/decoding or network performance before it happens, either.
Last edited by CrookedRain; May 30 @ 7:34pm
#3
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Steam Link > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: May 29 @ 5:41pm
Posts: 3
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