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PC control over ethernet adapters (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by Fonderthud@lemm.ee to c/techsupport@lemmy.world

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I'm looking to connect my PC in my home office to my living room TV. Right now I'm looking at unpowered usb over cat5/6 and powered HDMI over cat5/6. Both of the adapters say they're good for ~150' and I'd be doing a 40' cable run with pre terminated cat6. Cost of about $70 for adapters and cable on amazon.

I've wired a garage and build my own PCs so I'm not afraid of the install but I have basically no networking experience. I'm aiming to play single player games from my couch and I don't know if something like this is going to be an enjoyable experience or if there is a better way without breaking the bank.

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[–] JohnnySledge@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would you be able to post links to the devices you’re looking at to get some context?

If these devices are what I’m thinking of then they don’t typically run through a switch/router. Instead, they’re meant to run directly connected from device to device as if they were one long cable. The biggest downside to these types of devices is the latency and bandwidth limitations they introduce. Some of these HDMI over Ethernet devices cap out around 1080p60 (maybe even as low as 30 hz) and can add noticeable latency. With that said, I don’t think the usb over Ethernet should introduce a noticeable delay and think that one is fine — if it’s what I’m thinking of.

Have you considered using a fiber optic HDMI cable? I have had success running a 50’ fiber optic DP1.4 at 5120x1440p120 with no noticeable latency (though I don’t play a lot of FPS) that I bought off Amazon for like $80. If you could stretch your budget a little more perhaps the usb over Ethernet (or fiber) paired with a fiber cable for HDMI might suit your needs.

Alternatively, if you aren’t gaming at super high refresh rates and latency isn’t super critical, then streaming to a device connected to the tv in your living room might be a better choice. I’ve run both a raspberry pi 3/4 and an nvidia shield using steam link and found that to be great when gaming from different rooms in my house. Using a wired connection end-to-end the network latency is usually within the frame-time when playing at 60 fps and hasn’t been noticeable for me (again I don’t play a lot of FPS games).

[–] Hotspur@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, before you install all this hard infrastructure, would really recommend trying out LAN streaming. If you have a spare laptop that you can link up to the tv with hdmi you could try it out and see if it functions for you. I’m very impressed with how well moonlight works (shield streaming you can enable via GeForce experience I think)

The use case I’ve thought about for the hardwire connection is that I’d love to be able to able to mirror what my wife is watching on tv on my second d monitor sometimes. My assumption there is that I’d need to run a video out to a capture card I guess and have that output up. Otherwise I’d have to set the tv up as an additional monitor and play the stuff she’s watching for her.

[–] Fonderthud@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

May have something I can try streaming on. I haven't tried any streaming or remote programs. Thanks for the suggestion, guess I'm behind on what's out there these days.

[–] JohnnySledge@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

If you use steam the remote play/steam link is super easy to set up. If you have steam on both devices, are on the same network, and are logged in to the same account on both devices then steam pretty much handles everything for you so all you have to do is click play on remote pc.

[–] Fonderthud@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

https://a.co/d/iba2HEg and https://a.co/d/7VZjuGp

I mainly play RPGs and strategy games, Fallout 4 is the most intense game I play right now with plans for Starfield later. My TV is 1080p, don't know the refresh rate but doubt it's impressive. I've got more budget and was tossing around the idea of a raspberry pi to remote in but figured hard wire would allow for a better experience at lower cost.

[–] JohnnySledge@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Those are the devices I was thinking of. If my understanding of these devices is correct, they require a direct device to device connection and would not work with packet switching devices like a switch or router. That means you would need two Ethernet lines running from your office to your living room in order to get both usb and HDMI. In addition, you run into the bandwidth issue I was describing earlier where the HDMI signal caps out at a maximum of 1080p60 and it could be lower if the signal degrades enough over the long distance.

In my opinion your either better off going with a single fiber optic cable that can handle both usb and display (like thunderbolt or one of the newer usb standards) or using a cheap device that supports game streaming. Using a single cable is fairly expensive as the cable itself isn’t cheap and could require ancillary hardware. It could also necessitate snaking cables in your walls. As for game streaming the cost of entry can be pretty low as you primarily just need something that can decode the stream for the tv. An old laptop (I’ve even had some success with an old acer chromebook) or even a phone might be sufficient for you to give game streaming from your pc a try to see if you like it and if the latency is sufficient. My vote would be to cobble something together for free to try out game streaming to see if you like it and then go from there. RPi3’s are capable of running game streaming and don’t break the bank.

[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

If you have money so spend, you might want to look at optical thunderbolt. Linus from LTT uses it to have his PC and all the noise and heat in another room.