Nice! Can you consider implementing picture in picture feature in the next updates? :D

How many millisecond improvements are we looking at with the low latency video option? I'm using an nvidia shield

What does "low latency video" do? Prioritize H264 over HEVC/AV1?

some hardware decoders can be used in some kind of low latency mode (probably with a litte bit more power draw). and i think it tries to enable that. it helps to minimize the delay between pressing buttons and seeing the result on the screen (basically).

sadly this still isn't the case for the firetv cube 3rd gen.
i installed it, but i can't see an improvement. maybe very slightly. its still in the range of 25-30ms (so very far from low latency). av1 also still broken.

Fixed hover behavior when using a tablet stylus

I love you guys, I really need that as an accessibility option or I can't play my games and I couldn't really anymore since 2 weeks. I know I am in the minority and you probably won't see this but this is my mvp fix. Please keep it! Tysm.

One bug I noticed with that, I can't drag my on screen icons/buttons of the steam UI or on screen UI anymore WITH the pen but need to use my finger. Not a big deal, just a minor bug I found

Originally posted by High IQ Antisemite:

What does "low latency video" do? Prioritize H264 over HEVC/AV1?

So, certain Android codecs have a "low latency" mode. What the new feature on the Android beta seems to do is actually *query each codec* and figure out if any of them support the low-latency modes, then prefer using *that*, rather than just saying "give me your 'best' codec of this particular type."

On some devices (and I believe the Nvidia Shield TV is one), it'll give you the codec with low-latency mode support by default anyway. For those devices, "Enabled" and "Use System Default" will probably not actually make any difference; it'll just take a tiny bit longer starting up (because it'll go through the available codecs to find one, rather than just trusting the device to give it the 'best' option).

On some *other* devices, however, it'll give you a codec by default that supports the best *quality* without any consideration *whatsoever* for low-latency support. And on *those* devices, putting on "Enabled" instead of "Use System Default", Steam Link will instead go through each of the possible codecs to try to figure out which (if any) support the low-latency modes. On some devices, it'll now find and use one that supports low-latency and *isn't* what the device would normally have given you, and on the devices where that's true the performance increase could be *dramatic*.

Originally posted by mrx1983:

sadly this still isn't the case for the firetv cube 3rd gen. installed it, but i can't see an improvement. maybe very slightly. its still in the range of 25-30ms (so very far from low latency). av1 also still broken.

Okay, I'm gonna finally take off the mask and stop pretending to just be a relatively-informed Steam Link user and qualifying all my comments with "seems to" and whatnot, and instead out myself as one of the dev team (which Slouken can confirm). Because I've spent the past couple of days bonking my head against precisely the problem you mention, so I can actually shed a little light on it.

Firstly, the unfortunate reality is that on some Android devices, because Steam Link does not fully control the presentation layer of the video decoding, the "display latency" values aren't always useful or meaningful. The Fire TV Cube is one such device.

Which means that you are almost certainly seeing display latency that is way worse than the 25ms Steam Link is claiming.

This is because the Fire TV Cube 3rd Gen has some truly wacky video decoding behavior -- namely, you start feeding it frames and it just sort of sits there staring at a wall and chews on them for a bit before it actually starts displaying anything. This means that once it starts doing so, Steam Link is like "oh, I asked for it to draw a frame and it did, yay!" (and basing the display latency value on that) while being unaware that the frame the Fire TV Cube just displayed is potentially up to almost two seconds late (in the worst case scenario that I've seen), compared to the one we think we're getting.

Unfortunately, the changes to v1.3.22 of the Android Steam Link app do not address this. They do actually lessen the issue somewhat, but performance is probably still going to be Not Great on that particular Android TV device under 1.3.22.

That said, I think I have hit on a fix for the FTV Cube's video wonkiness which should make it into the next beta build and which, in my testing, vastly improves this thing's performance. So, stay tuned...?

(As for AV1, though... I'm afraid that's just plain broken on this device.)

Originally posted by Packetdancer:

<snip>

Originally posted by mrx1983:

<snip>

I assumed what you said about the display latency reading, while mine feels OK with both HEVC and H264 for the casual titles I use it for, I use H264 on my 3rd gen Cube because I suspect it's decoding faster with it. I've had zero luck with 4K on the Cube g3 with any codec.

I've looked at other devices, but the Shield TV needs an update, and still have two Steam Link hardware units but they need restarted before using them at this point or they don't perform correctly.

Originally posted by Unvaxxed Feudalist:

I use H264 on my 3rd gen Cube because I suspect it's decoding faster with it.

You would be correct; the H264 codec on the Fire TV Cube 3 has less of a "I need to sit and ponder the nature of life" startup pause than the HEVC one does. It's still not great, but it's not as bad.

I'll be curious to hear if things feel better for you after we get the next beta out, though. :)

Originally posted by Packetdancer:

Originally posted by mrx1983:

sadly this still isn't the case for the firetv cube 3rd gen. installed it, but i can't see an improvement. maybe very slightly. its still in the range of 25-30ms (so very far from low latency). av1 also still broken.

Okay, I'm gonna finally take off the mask and stop pretending to just be a relatively-informed Steam Link user and qualifying all my comments with "seems to" and whatnot, and instead out myself as one of the dev team (which Slouken can confirm).

....

That said, I think I have hit on a fix for the FTV Cube's video wonkiness which should make it into the next beta build and which, in my testing, vastly improves this thing's performance. So, stay tuned...?

thank you for all your efforts, and i will stay tuned for the next beta.
i have no idea why amazon released a cube in that state.
i'm also not sure if this is a hardware problem of that cube, or just the lack of a good firmware/os. its just disappointing that especially the flagship device has to deal with this kind of problems.

Originally posted by mrx1983:

i'm also not sure if this is a hardware problem of that cube, or just the lack of a good firmware/os. its just disappointing that especially the flagship device has to deal with this kind of problems.

The simple answer? A "streaming box" in terms of what *Amazon* means by the term is something different than we might mean.

If you're streaming 4K video from, say, Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, it does not *matter* much if you have latency in the decoding pipeline, as long as the video and audio stay in sync; if you hit "play" and the movie takes 1.5 seconds longer to start than when you hit the button, you probably barely even *notice*. As such, a lot of companies are going to prioritize *quality of video* over *speed of decode and presentation*.

Which is fine for, y'know, Amazon Prime Video or Netflix.

However, when it's a *bidirectional* stream -- where you're sending back input which directly affects the state of what's being streamed -- that difference becomes a whole HECK of a lot more relevant. :|

Originally posted by mrx1983:

thank you for all your efforts, and i will stay tuned for the next beta.

New beta's in the Android store (Slouken made a post) on the beta channel!

Unfortunately, submissions to the Amazon app store take *forever*, so if you want to try the beta on the Fire TV Cube over the weekend you'll need to sideload the app; there's a direct download link in the post.