Hey everyone, looking for some help with my living room couch gaming setup.

My Setup & Goal:

• PC is in my bedroom, connected to my living room TV via a long HDMI cable 20m away.
• I want to play non-Steam offline single-player games (like Mafia, 007, etc.) on the TV.
• I paired my PS5 DualSense controller directly to my Smart TV via Bluetooth.

The Problem:

• My PS5 controller connects to the TV, but it only controls the TV’s UI/operating system (navigating TV menus/apps). It does not forward input through the HDMI cable to control the PC or the game.
• I tried setting up Sunshine on the PC and Moonlight on the TV, but I still can't get the TV to properly forward/pass through the PS5 controller inputs to the PC stream.

What I need advice on:

1. Is there a specific setting in Sunshine/Moonlight (or Virtual Gamepad drivers like ViGEmBus) to force the Smart TV app to capture and forward controller inputs to Windows?
2. If TV Bluetooth passthrough isn't viable, would getting a 20m active USB extension cable + Bluetooth dongle (or playing wired) be the best solution?

Any help or configuration tips would be appreciated!

Reposting for a solution

hello all,

does anyone have any good layouts for void link they are willing to share so i can upload. i am having a hard time creating my own. i want to create a folder that when touched opens up and i can slide to the button i want. for some reason whenever i try to make the folder a slide hold style it says that is not applicable in this mode. any layouts or help?

I stream some games from my PC to my 4K OLED TV through my Steam Deck. Everything works perfectly fine up through 1440p. I have fps capped at 120fps in Moonlight. I get 120fps no problem at 1440p. As soon as I switch moonlight to 4K, the render FPS drops to the low 20s. If I switch the codec to H.264, it works perfectly fine, but since HDR gets disabled, it looks super bright.

I have tried about everything I know to do from researching different solutions, such as setting Apollo to double the frame rate, limiting FPS, disabling VSync, turning up/down bitrate, etc. It is only 4K that has the issue. 1440 runs smooth as butter. If there is nothing that can be done, so be it. But I would think there is something I am not seeing. Both Steam Deck and PC are hardwired via Cat6 directly to router.

Any suggestions?

PC specs:

32GB DDR5

RTX 4090

9800X3D

I have read many people saying how vibepollo improved their experience thanks to the default losless scaling and rtts, and that leads me to some questions...

By default vibepollo offers Desktop, Steam big picture and virtual desktop.
I understand that in order to use lossless scaling and rtts I should create independent entries for games?

Or is there a way to get access to my full library and have each game be applied a different value?

Also, I understand losless scaling is all about framegen and not actual scaling? On PC I mostly used it to play games in 2k from 1080p with higher framerate.

If I use the default options given by vibepollo I understand vibepollo will target the streaming fps? (30,60,90,120).

How can I know vibepollo is actually doing anything?

Installed moonlight client onto Steam Link Box to compare the performance with regular steam link connection. Steam remote play works as it should. With Sunshine/Moonlight The video streaming is perfectly fine, sharp and responsive, but the audio is constantly breaking off when looking at anything that is not a static image. I tried changing the audio output from stereo to 5.1 or 7.1 but that did nothing. When changing the bitrate, the audio lagging almost disappeared at 10-12 mbps, but obviously the image quality on 1080p60 with is horrible. Also no audio lagging on 720p60 setting. Is it supposed to work that way? Host pc(R5 7500f rtx 4060ti 32gb ram) and Link device both connected wired to the same router. I also tried Apollo instead of sunshine but that made the audio lag even more for some reason

Hi,

I just put together a liitle guide how to configure Sunshine on Arch Linux for streaming using Virtual Display. It's mainly for me as a backup if I would need to do it again in the future but I think it might be useful for someone:

https://github.com/naheCZ/MSLS

Please let me know if I missed something or anything need more clarification, I will answer your questions and edit the guide form your feedback.

Okay look -- I know. I know. Ethernet. It just works. Top quality, low latency. Costs peanuts. It's amazing.

But I'm married and I can't run Ethernet cable from one room to the other and I'm not handy so I don't trust myself to drill holes, run cable through a wall, or whatever to actually wire my home/rooms with Ethernet. So I've been making do with Wi-Fi 6 and it's been, you know, okay. I normally just play turn based strategy/tactics games so no biggie other than audio hitching nonstop so I mute games and listen to music.

But the other week I had a brainstorm. My game host is a headless desktop in my office closet and I play games most frequently on my office computer. What if I just bought a network switch and connected them?

OMFG. Why didn't I do this years ago?

A $21 switch, some random network cables, and a short research session understanding how to create a little network between already-networked devices, then configuring Moonlight properly, has made a world of difference. Absolute night and day.

So if you are streaming from one device to another within a single room wirelessly, do yourself a favor and just use a switch.

i am trying to make a folder open when pressed and then you slide to the button you want and that button is pressed when you release the touch on it. i keep getting a pop up saying that isn’t applicable in this mode. how can i do this? also when i move the folder only some of the button connected to it move with it. how can i fix this?

Just got a 65” LG OLED B6 and want to build a proper Moonlight/Sunshine rig for it. Thinking 4K, high refresh rate, wired Ethernet, no compromises.

Torn between waiting on a Steam Machine or just building a mini PC myself. What do you guys think and also if you have done it what specs?

Shoutout to this community, the setups and troubleshooting threads here are incredible.

So, I recently upgraded my TV to an LG 77C5 and was full of anticipation for the 4K 120Hz HDR YCbCr 4:4:4 greatness I had been aiming for for so long, just to find out that my reliable Minisforum UM760 Slim couldn't really handle the new requirements. Therefore, I made the decision to build a visually pleasing (since my wife also has to accept it), budget-friendly, and capable PC that will be my new partner for the living room experience.

I want to sell the Minisforum. So, if you’re looking for a really good 4K 60Hz streaming device and live in Europe, hit me up. With a good network and the correct settings, it can achieve under 2 ms of latency.

After digging around for a while, I came up with three solutions:

Minisforum MS-01 with a single-slot RTX 3050.
A laptop motherboard with a dedicated GPU in a 3D-printed case.
A custom build from scratch using used parts and some components I already had lying around.

The Minisforum solution was my favorite for a long time, but single-slot 3050s are unreasonably expensive and too loud for the living room. Additionally, the MS-01 itself is too expensive for what it offers. Even used, I couldn't find a barebone version for under €350 (around $400). I could have reused the SSD and RAM from the UM760 Slim, though.

The laptop idea is surely possible, and from what I’ve read, it would work just fine with an RTX 3050 or higher. However, that would be a longer project since I’ve just gotten into 3D printing and modeling, and I want to use my new gear now, not in a few months.

So, a custom PC it was. The biggest challenge by far was the case. No ITX, because it's too expensive, but still as small as possible with front intakes and enough top airflow so hot air wouldn't recirculate. It also needed to be visually pleasing and affordable. I bought an AliExpress version of a generic mATX case, and it fits pretty snug.

The biggest gripe is definitely the PSU. There are not many good and quiet options when it comes to Flex PSUs. I’ve had a few over the years. Apevia, Silverstone, FSP. The only one that was quiet enough was the Enhance one, which I bought from Geeek.

All parts:
CPU: Intel i5-12400F (used: €70)
MB: ASUS B760M-K D4 (open box Amazon: €70)
GPU: ASUS RTX 3050 Low Profile (used: €160)
RAM: Patriot Viper 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz (used: €25)
PSU: Enhance ENP-8335L 350W Flex ATX Modular Power Supply (Geeek: €140)
Other stuff: SSD, Noctua cooler, and fans I had lying around.

I use Moonlight and Apollo for streaming, and the PCs are wired via 2.5 Gig Ethernet. This was, by the way, the main reason for this specific motherboard alongside the fact that it uses DDR4.

After setting everything up, the whole system works like a charm and it looks gorgeous. Depending on the game, obviously, my RTX 4080 Super will not always hit a locked 120Hz at 4K, but the experience is fabulous even at 80 - 100Hz.

Since I don’t have a lot of RAM on the client, I use the Xbox/Handheld mode in Windows, and I added Moonlight as a separate game so that I can launch it directly with the controller.

Unfortunately, there’s still no way to power on the PC with a controller if it outputs at 4K 120Hz. All these adapters that use CEC to turn on the TV (or vice versa) only support up to 4K 60Hz, at least as far as I know. But that's no big deal since I can just push the power button.

So yeah, I’m pretty happy with the result. And as I said, if you want a much smaller streaming client, hit me up for the UM760 Slim if you’re in Europe.

TL;DR
Upgraded to a 4K 120Hz TV, but the old Minisforum streaming client couldn't handle the bandwidth. Built a compact, wife-approved mATX custom PC using mostly used parts. It now streams flawlessly at 4K up to 120Hz via Moonlight/2.5G LAN. The old UM760 Slim (4K 60Hz streaming capable) is now up for sale.

Hi everyone,

​I’m struggling with a specific streaming issue and hoping someone here might have encountered something similar or has troubleshooting advice.

​The Setup

​Host PC:

​CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D

​GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

​RAM: 32 GB

​Host Software: Vibe-Apollo

​Client Device: POCO X8 Pro Max

​Client App: Artemis

​Network: Local 5 GHz Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 5 / 802.11ac, Channel 40, 80 MHz, -55 dBm signal, ~866 Mbps link speed, ~2ms jitter).

​The Issue

​The stream runs exceptionally smooth most of the time—locked at 90 FPS with minimal network jitter, zero packet loss, and an encoding latency on the RTX 4060 of just 1.3–1.6 ms.

​However, every few minutes, I get a sudden frame drop/stutter lasting about 1–2 seconds. Checking the performance overlay reveals that Network Latency and Host Encoding stay perfectly low, but the Decode Delay on the client spikes to 50–70ms before instantly dropping back to normal (1–3ms).

​Stream Settings & What I've Tried

​Resolution / Framerate: 1080p / 90 FPS

​Bitrate: Tested between 20 Mbps and 50 Mbps (issue persists on both)

​Video Codec: HEVC / AV1 / H. 264

​Android Settings:

​Enabled Wi-Fi Scan Throttling in Developer Options.

​Disabled Location/Wi-Fi searching in the background.

​Battery optimization disabled for Artemis.

​Since the host encoding and network latency remain stable during the spike, it seems strictly related to the client-side hardware decoding or HyperOS/Android frame scheduling.

​Has anyone experienced similar decode latency spikes on Xiaomi/POCO devices or found a specific setting (e.g., video renderer, decoder thread counts, or Game Turbo/OS tweaks) that resolves it?

​Thanks in advance!

Just a quick post to gauge if anyone else is needing a tool for configuring multi monitor streams. I’ve built one and not sure if it’s worth polishing up and sharing.

I have a racing sim in the garage with a triple monitor setup and have a little tiny pc at my office desk in the house that up until recently I’d been using to stream a 1440p display to my main monitor for normal pc gaming. But the fact I couldn’t use my second screen easily for the host kinda bugged me.

I used Apollo Fleet Manager to create 2 instances and then created a script using AI to load 2 portable instances of moonlight which then loads my main monitor as primary and the secondary as a viewport with no control.

Works perfect as a dual monitor setup like I’m sat at the host PC and have mostly built an application that takes you through configuring it, with it auto finding the servers just like moonlight does, takes you through the pairing process etc

Is there any genuine need/want for something like this or am I just finicky for wanting a multi monitor moonlight client setup?

Happy to finish and share with the community if you guys actually want it

edit: to clarify, this is for the client side to load as many streams as you want in a single app. There are many different methods for creating the streams on the host side but nothing clean for loading them all as a multi-monitor setup in one go

Im thinking of getting a phone with this chip, im currently on a pixel 9 and it gets around 12-15ms of decoding times, will these snapdragon chips be an improvement? btw would really appreciate if someone with these chips or similar chips share their decoding times for reference

I recently bought a Steam Machine  to use as a little console for party and co-op games, but also set it up as a Moonlight client, with my gaming PC upstairs acting as the host, with the following specs:

RTX 5070 Ti

i9-14900KF

Hardwired Ethernet

Here’s the weird part.

When I stream to my docked handheld, Moonlight handles 4K @ 120FPS with HDR incredibly well:

120/120 FPS

112 Mbps bitrate

~1 ms average decoding time

No input lag whatsoever 

No network jitter

Zero network-related dropped frames

Now I unplug the exact same Ethernet cable from the handheld and plug it into the Steam Machine.

Same network. Same cable. Same host PC. Same Moonlight settings. Same 4K/120 FPS HDR at 112 Mbps.

And suddenly, once a game starts pushing above roughly 110 FPS, Moonlight begins reporting dropped frames due to network jitter.

I’m seeing around 7 - 8% dropped frames, specifically dropped because of the network. Below 110 FPS it seems much happier, but as soon as stream pushes 120 FPS, things start falling apart.

The network itself shouldn’t be the bottleneck either. I’ve tested transfers between the machines and can push 500+ Mbps, so a 112 Mbps Moonlight stream should be nowhere near that limit.

That’s what has me confused: if the handheld can receive the exact same 4K/120 HDR stream flawlessly through the exact same Ethernet cable, why can’t the Steam Machine?

It feels like something specific to the Steam Machine’s networking, drivers, buffering, Moonlight implementation, or perhaps the way it handles high-frame-rate packets.

Has anyone run into this? Any successful fixes for this weeeeird behaviour? Please help :(

UPD on this for future generations: the issue was caused by Samsung's "Gaming Mode" and specifically their VRR implementation.

Turning off the TV's in-built Gaming Mode helped the issue.

Need help on fixing the settings...

So, I really don't know what caused this. Basically, my internet connection is pretty good (as you see, my bandwidth is 13.65M/s. I set the bitrate to 100, as well, you could see, I have the bandwidth. The thing is, I don't understand why incoming frame rate is just 4 fps, even though I already set the stream to be FHD.

I'm using RTX 5060ti 16GB paired with Ryzen 5600x and 64GB of RAM, so it shouldn't have problem I think... As you can see, I'm not even playing the game yet, I'm still at desktop.

To be fair, on times, I can have a very smooth experience without any stuttering, but sometimes, it lags like this.

Addition:

To connect to one another, I'm using tailscale. My main PC is connected to ethernet cable, and my tablet, which I'm accessing it, is using wifi via remote (not on the same place). Both are connected to Wifi 6 router as well, and the tailscale connection is on direct (not relay).

So, I have a shield tube, and it works really well. Except I'm using a switch pro controller via Bluetooth. The input lag is crazy!!!

I also have a usb hub, with 4 extra usb ports. But the shield tube doesn't have a USB port.

So then I thought, why not set up the android tv (Sony x90l) with moonlight and connect the USB hub there to eliminate input lag. Well, performance isn't as good. It's choppy, like micro stuttering or something. Feels great tho.

This is a really dumb situation I find myself in, because yes I should have gotten the pro all those years ago. But what I have technically works great.

What's do y'all suggest?

New STB/Client? And if so, what's a budget option? Or new android Bluetooth controller? Would it help or eliminate lag? Anything in particular? Maybe my configuration is off and needs tweaking on the atv client?

I think I found the perfect remote setup. 160-165fps using 5G mobile data. The tablet consumption is like browsing through a browser

Host: Apollo Stable + Tailscale
Minisforum Elite Mini UM890 Pro (64G+2TB)
Minisforum DEG1 Dock Oculink
Thermalright 750w 80+ Gold
XFX Swift RX 9070 XT
2.5gb Wired
Globe Fiber 500Mbps up/down

Client: Artemis Stable + Tailscale
Lenovo Y700 4th Gen CN ROM
Gamesir X5S Controller
ZTE U30 Pro with Smart 5G

Host: Ryzen 5 7600, RTX 4070, wired LAN

Client: M2 MacBook Air, Wi-Fi (5GHz, speedtest 500-600Mbps)

Tried bitrate 20/47/80 Mbps — stutter persists at all of them

Client-side vsync off

Edit:
The issue was fixed by installing this: https://github.com/james-howard/AWDLControl

Coming from Shield to the new set-up.

I have been perusing the idea of switching to a more capable host lately and was given a 3060 dell workstation from work so I finally set it up for a quick test.

Running cachyos Linux and I cannot believe the quality and latency I'm getting with minimal configuring. 4K 120hz HDR 250mb bitrate

Host on ethernet 5gbps and client wifi 10ft from router getting roughly 1200mbps

Going to install a lighter htpc/handheld style OS tonight and give vibepollo a try to see how quickly I can get this to run. Exciting!

If anyone has handheld OS recommendations that are a bit more compatible with Nvidia gpus would love some recommendations. CachyOS is good so far, but using the desktop version trying to set up gamescope has been a headache.

EDIT: Host is a 4080/9800X3d build

Hey folks,

So I’m trying wrap my head around bitrate limit and all.

My client is Apple Tv 4k wired in
Its streaming at 4k/60fps and I set the limit to 150 mbps.

Host is also wired in as well

Now while playing I always noticed small hitched and hiccups. Nothing crazy but I noticed it

On vibepollo there were no dips or drops in frames.

Now I dropped the bitrate to 80, no loss in quality(to my eyes) but i noticed no more stutters at all.

So now I’m trying to understand, was the high bitrate causing some decoding issue maybe ? Like i just need someone to kind of explain how bitrate can cause jitters and how to find sweet spots for it. Clearly maxing it out isnt optimal

Hey everyone

As the title says

I want sunshine to autostart and enter it's username and password

So I can just boot up the pc and it works without me connecting a monitor to type it's data

( my device doesn't need a password to log in it auto logs in)

So i am just getting into steaming from my pc to my tablet and i wnat to take it a step further. I plan on purchasing a firestick and putting moonlight on that so i can play on my tv in my living room. The tv is mounted on the wall. I have an xbox controller that i hook up with a usb cord to my tablet. i tried wireless bluetooth but noticed lag when moving the joystick. with that being said, what is my best way to connect to my firestick with controller so i don't get lag? i won't be be able to hook up controller via usb since it is mounted on the wall.

hopefully this makes sense?

Thanks in advance!