Streaming games around your home
What’s possible, and how is it done?
While you wait for Google’s Stadia and Microsoft’s Project xCloud to become viable and available in Australia, did you know it’s already possible to stream games you own to devices around your house, including mobiles and TV screens?
You can play your Xbox or Playstation games on your PC, for example; or beam your PC games from your study to your loungeroom TV over your home network; or play your PC games on an Android phone. You don’t actually need much to make this happen – a wired home network helps but is not strictly necessary, and the rest is really just software and possibly controllers.
We’re not going to look at every permutation and device here
(there are a lot), but we thought we’d walk through some of the major options available to you.
Streaming PC games to mobiles or televisions
When we’re talking about streaming from a PC there are, as you might expect, quite the array of options. We don’t have the space here to look at all of them, but let’s start with Steam Link, since a lot of PC gamers will likely have an established library of Steam games and it’s relatively simple to get running. Although Steam no longer makes the dedicated Steam Link hardware, a software client for Steam Link is available on Android and iOS (including Apple TV). It’s also built into a number of Smart TV platforms (most notably Samsung’s), and there is a client available for Linux that can be installed on a Raspberry Pi. Steam also lets you stream from one PC to another, so long as both PCs are logged into the same Steam account, though the process for this is a little different.
To get Steam Link running you need to do two things:
01 Enable Remote Play in the
Steam settings. In Steam on the PC you want to stream from, go to Settings > Remote Play and enable it.
02 Install Steam Link on the client platform (iOS, Android or Raspberry Pi). If it’s a Smart TV with Steam Link you can just start the app. You will need a controller (though touch screen control might be possible), and the Steam Link app can pair with a variety of wired and wireless game controllers. After starting the app, it will search your local network for running Steam apps. When it finds it, it will provide a pin number.
03 Head back to your PC running Steam. It should have a popup box asking you to enter the pin number to authorise access.
04 Once you’ve done that, the client will test the network connection. If it’s up to snuff, the Start Playing button will appear. Press it, and Steam on the PC will go into Big Picture made, and that screen will be mirrored on your device. Choose your game, and play away.
As mentioned, Windows-toWindows streaming with Steam is also possible. It’s actually done through the main Steam app rather than any Steam Link client. When you have Steam open and logged into the same account on multiple PCs, if you go to your Library on the PC you want to play on you’ll have a new option to launch games. Just press the ‘Stream’ button and it will stream from the host PC.
If Steam isn’t your bag, then you can try one of the many other options available. Moonlight ( moonlight-stream.org) requires you have an Nvidia graphics card in your PC while AMD Link ( www. amd.com/en/technologies/ radeon-software-amdlink) requires an AMD card. Rainway ( rainway.com), Remotr ( remotrapp.com) and Parsec ( parsec.app) are more hardware agnostic. Any one of these platforms can stream a PC’s desktop display to both Android and iOS devices, and several also include Macs, Linux and Windows PCs in their client lists.
Streaming PC and Android games to Xbox
A few years ago Microsoft enabled streaming to Xbox using a version of the Miracast streaming protocol. You need to install the
Wireless Display app on your Xbox, which should be available in the Microsoft store on Xbox – just perform a search for Wireless Display. Once you’ve installed it and have it running, it turns the Xbox into a Miracast (a.k.a. Smart View) client.
Then head to your Miracast/ Smart View-supporting Android device and switch it on using whatever Miracast app you’re using (there are dozens in the Google Play store). On Samsung devices, launch the SmartThings app, which includes Smart View and then choose the Xbox.
On a PC, press the Windows-P keys to open up the Action Centre and select the Connect to wireless display option. Hopefully your Xbox will appear in the list of possible devices, and your PC will then be mirrored on the Xbox.
Streaming Xbox One games to PC or mobile
You can also stream games the other way using the Xbox app, allowing you to play your Xbox games on a PC or mobile device.
For mobiles, you can stream from both Xbox One consoles as well as Xbox Series X and S. For Windows, you can only stream from Xbox One consoles – for some reason Series consoles will not stream to Windows. On both mobiles and Windows, you can use a paired controller (such as an Xbox 360 Bluetooth controller).
You first need to go into your Xbox settings and make sure that Remote Play is enabled.
If you want to play on Windows, you can then launch the Xbox Console Companion app on Windows. In the left panel, click on Connect, which will search the local network for your Xbox, then select it from the list of detected Xboxes. Then click on the Stream button to see the Xbox screen mirrored on your PC.
If you want to play on an Android or iOS device, you’ll need to install the Xbox app from the platform’s app store. Then, launch the app and connect it to your account and Xbox. Tap on the connect button at the top right, and select Remote play on this device. You’ll need to head back to your Xbox to authorise this, but once you do you’ll your Xbox display will be mirrored on your mobile device and controllable with a paired controller.
Streaming PlayStation 4 and 5 games to PC or mobile
And finally we come to
PlayStation, which, like Microsoft has a tool that will let you stream games from your PlayStation 4 or 5 console to be played on a PC or mobile.
To start, on your PlayStation, you need to go to Settings > Remote Play Connection Settings and ensure it is enabled.
Once you’ve done that, leave the PlayStation running and download the PlayStation Remote Play App. It’s available for Android on Google Play, for MacOS and iOS on the Apple App Store and for Windows 10 from www.playstation.com/en-au/ remote-play/.
Launch the App, then sign into the PlayStation Network using the same credentials as on your PlayStation. Choose your console (PS4 or PS5), and the app will perform a search of your network and automatically connect to a device with a matching PSN login, mirroring the PlayStation screen on your PC or mobile.
You can control it with a controller paired to your PC or mobile, and it even allows for some mouse and keyboard controls (you can use the arrow keys in lieu of the
D-Pad, for example). Enjoy your PlayStation games anywhere you want to play!