STREAMING STEAMING HOT Pi

The Pi can’t run the official Steam client, but it can be used as a Steam Link, streaming games from your main PC to your living room TV. This function has been disappointing on previous models, but it works tremendously well on the newest Raspberry Pi 4. A Pi running the Steam Link app is functionally equivalent to Valve’s outdated Steam Link hardware, only dialed up to 10: the Pi is a much more powerful device. The app has been updated for the fourth-generation Pi – just run sudo apt install steamlink to install it – but we’d say it still has a little way to go. The old techniques for running it automatically don’t yet work, so you need to keep a keyboard and mouse connected to your Pi to launch it when the time is right, and the current implementation is tied to H.264 streaming.

The Pi 4’s hardware makeup caps H.264 at 1080p, which means the app isn’t able to stream games in 4K, despite the gigabit Ethernet port being capable of handling the amount of data required.

Valve may have discontinued the hardware Steam Link, but it continues to support the software version. There’s no reason the streaming stack won’t get an upgrade to support H.265 in the future, so keep an eye on it if you’re looking to exploit that new TV to its full extent. Alternatively, Nvidia’s Shield ($149) coupled with Geforce Now on your PC can stream 4K games over your network, and it’s a significantly more elegant solution to get the job done.