Steam In-Home Streaming Explained

Now that SteamOS is finally available for download, be cautioned it's in a beta state and this is not the full end-game SteamOS you'll be downloading, many users are reaching out to the forums for help with questions Valve has left unanswered.Perhaps the most common question users seem to be confused with is how exactly Steam's In-Home Streaming feature will work.  "Will we need to be using a Steam Machine to play the stream coming from our high-end machine?"

• Chandler Tate
• December 14, 2013
• in Features, PC

Now that SteamOS is finally available for download, be cautioned it’s in a beta state and this is not the full end-game SteamOS you’ll be downloading, many users are reaching out to the forums for help with questions Valve has left unanswered.

Perhaps the most common question users seem to be confused with is how exactly Steam’s In-Home Streaming feature will work.  “Will we need to be using a Steam Machine to play the stream coming from our high-end machine?”

And from what I could gather from all the different forums I’ve read over the last 24 hours, that is not the case.  Steam describes the feature as follows: “You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have – then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!”

This technically means if you buy the low end, streaming only Steam Machine which Valve has said will come, the stream will originate from the High-end PC/laptop –> Steam machine –> Low-end PC/laptop.

But other users are saying there is another way to go about streaming your games to other devices as well, although this exact method hasn’t been confirmed by Valve as far as I know. Users are saying that you will also be able to stream you games from your:

• Steam Machine –> Desktop
• Desktop –> Steam Machine
• Desktop –> Mac
• Mac –> Desktop
• Desktop –> Laptop
• Desktop –> Tablet

Forum members on the Steam website are claiming that as long as your home network can handle the stream, you’ll be able to play the game being streamed on any device that has the Steam Client or SteamOS installed.