r/Steam_Link • u/p3t3or • Feb 20 '18

Native Apps Take Note Steam Link - Native Netflix / Hulu / Amazon Prime apps.

https://www.mmorpg.com/hardware-reviews/nvidia-shield-tv-2017-move-over-steam-link-1000012494
10 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

7

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '18 edited Feb 21 '18

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '18

The Steam Link app through Samsung's TVs isn't great but it's WIP. The machine itself while unable to do 4k is pretty good, I get essentially no tearing nor latency on a powerline network. Never run into any real bugs except some games don't handle controller input well, but that's not Valve's fault. Others are very friendly for steam link.

I love it though. It was dirt cheap ($12 with shipping). I think you can even stream the desktop to play non-steam games and apps? Haven't tested that however.

Valve does have a huge opportunity here to expand their hardware brand and their linux-based OS/firmware. Many of us are in too deep (it may even be a problem how much they monopolize game sales) but I'm also a fan of making gaming easier and more open source so...have at it Valve! I do think their pushing on these kinds of products does have something to do with the slow but steady proliferation of gaming on Linux. Of maybe 150 games in my library about 50 work on Linux which is pretty damn good. Also many are old games with no support anymore, but the ratio of new games porting to Linux or launching natively is much higher these days.

3

u/painejake Feb 22 '18

I mean its down to the developers to build their apps for the Steam Link.

That said, Valve could be doing an awful lot more to push the Link to help make this happen.

1

u/p3t3or Feb 22 '18

That is very much my point.

4

u/zerozed Feb 21 '18

Seriously? The Link can be purchased for a fraction of the cost (under $15 on sale) whereas this Shield sells for $200. Link functionality is actually free if you get a TV with it built in.

I've got a couple of Links and a couple of Roku's (with hundreds of channels) hooked up and I'm probably still more than $100 less than a Shield. I'm not knocking the Shield if that's your thing, but I'm in no way tempted to ever purchase one.

0

u/p3t3or Feb 21 '18

I think people are missing the point of the post...

1

u/p3t3or Feb 21 '18

lol and being downvoted... The point of the post is that Steam Link can benefit from these native apps. Never thought I'd have to explicitly spell out what is obvious. Holy fucking christ.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '18

The steam link is way cheaper though and I can get to my desktop and watch all that stuff from my browser. Why would I need to shell out all that cash for that thing? Also the controller looks awful, rather have my trusty steam controller.

2

u/p3t3or Feb 20 '18

I'm definitely not saying buy a shield. I'm saying Steam Link could do some good by implementing native apps into it either in this build or future builds. Going through the desktop is clunky and non-gamers will not take to it (Think family members). They opened up the API for this a couple(?) of years ago but nothing has been done with it since. I think steam should take the initiative and approach these companies to make an app.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '18

Steam Link supports native apps, you can install Kodi and RetroArch already. It's up to Netflix (etc) to develop apps and cooperate with Valve to deploy them.

1

u/p3t3or Feb 21 '18

Pretty much what I just said.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '18

It would make it easier, I do agree with that. I just don't think it is needed. Would it hurt, definitely not just don't think it will.