Couch gaming on PC

[godinman]

Hi All,

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I guess we'll see!

I have a gaming PC, it does everything I want for playing single player or online games but I want a couch gaming experience. I'm considering buying an Xbox Series S when they come out, which would obviously solve this, but it seems a bit of a waste in a way as I already have access the xbox games on the PC.

I could easily run a HDMI over Cat5 extender, and USB/bluetooth to the TV (I've got a cable route already).

So, what are the software options for using the Xbox app on the big screen? Do the games on the xbox windows app support the same amount of local splitscreen gaming as on the console? Is this something I can make fairly seamless? Ideally I would just launch the app from my PC, point it at the TV HDMI output (or duplicate the screens) and then not need to touch a keyboard/mouse again unless I want to.

I hope that makes some sense, thanks for any advice.

 

[3080guy]

Cant comment on split screen gaming, other than I didnt own much on PS4 which was suitable for gaming that way. I found my 55" TV smaller than I expected (too small) regarding PC fonts at 1440p, and the refresh rate of the TV wasnt great (TV is only a few years old) ... I have a 144hz monitor which I much preferred and... after buying a wireless mouse and keyboard, I ended up going back to the PC and PC monitor which just felt and looked so much more immersive (27inches up close feels bigger than 55 inches at a distance). I knocked it on the head, basically. And cant really answer your query about software split screen concerns, I didnt even get that far, but hope my 2 penneth lends some insight, maybe.

 

[Kohaashi]

You could always sell the desktop and get a gaming laptop.

 

[bazzabear]

This is a bit of a side point - but I tried connecting my TV to the PC via HDMI a week or so as an experiment. It looked fine, but the sound (using the PC to play Spotify music) was really flat for some reason. This was played via the TV to a Sonos Playbar. Playing the same song direct to the Playbar without involving the TV was massively better. So I'm not quite sure what's going on there - if there are some hoops to jump through to get decent sound out of a PC connected TV.

 

[Metalface Mark]

I run a hdmi 2.1 cable from my pc to my living room tv, its 10m cable, i then use ultramon and have two profiles set, one for my monitor and one for my TV, one switch to change over. Ive got wireless keyboard and mouse so just pick them up and move over.

If your going to be doing similar ultramon is essential and saves a lot of hassle. Set up two shortcuts, so for me i just press shift and F1 for tV, shift and F2 for monitor, and the audio also switches over from my pc audio to my tv surround sound.

If im playing RTS game or something like that i play on my ultrawide, but if its more of a couch game ill use my TV and sit back and relax. Best of both worlds

Id say as a minimum you would want a wireless mouse, it just saves a lot of hassle when coming out of one game and going into another, or get a little bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo, you can pick these up for less than a tenner, if your not going to be using anything other than xbox controller for games then it would do the job.

 

[Zefan]

Steam Link or raspberry pi running the right software.

:edit: oh, didn't read the post fully about split screen... No idea sorry

 

[Metalface Mark]

This is a bit of a side point - but I tried connecting my TV to the PC via HDMI a week or so as an experiment. It looked fine, but the sound (using the PC to play Spotify music) was really flat for some reason. This was played via the TV to a Sonos Playbar. Playing the same song direct to the Playbar without involving the TV was massively better. So I'm not quite sure what's going on there - if there are some hoops to jump through to get decent sound out of a PC connected TV.

My TV sound is on an LG soundbar with surround sound wireless speakers, the graphics card controls the sound for me when im on tv and it works well, no sound issues. Sounds as good as my Desktop sound more or less although for that im using a soundblaster AE5 plus with surround sound also.

 

[godinman]

Cant comment on split screen gaming, other than I didnt own much on PS4 which was suitable for gaming that way. I found my 55" TV smaller than I expected (too small) regarding PC fonts at 1440p, and the refresh rate of the TV wasnt great (TV is only a few years old) ... I have a 144hz monitor which I much preferred and... after buying a wireless mouse and keyboard, I ended up going back to the PC and PC monitor which just felt and looked so much more immersive (27inches up close feels bigger than 55 inches at a distance). I knocked it on the head, basically. And cant really answer your query about software split screen concerns, I didnt even get that far, but hope my 2 penneth lends some insight, maybe.

Thanks guy, I'm not too worried about losing the immersion of gaming on a proper monitor, I've still got my 34" ultrawide for any 'proper' gaming I want to do. It's just that I'd like to be able to have a mate round (um, yeah, thanks Covid) and play splitscreen while sitting on the sofa with a few beers.

You could always sell the desktop and get a gaming laptop.

See above, it's not about just gaming on the sofa (I used to do that but come upgrade time I couldn't justify the cost to performance compared to a desktop), it's about getting the social console gaming fun potentially without having to buy a console.

This is a bit of a side point - but I tried connecting my TV to the PC via HDMI a week or so as an experiment. It looked fine, but the sound (using the PC to play Spotify music) was really flat for some reason. This was played via the TV to a Sonos Playbar. Playing the same song direct to the Playbar without involving the TV was massively better. So I'm not quite sure what's going on there - if there are some hoops to jump through to get decent sound out of a PC connected TV.

Thanks, that's noted. I've been meaning to move by soundbar back on to my TV and have optical out on the desktop so could easily run a cable around to it if needed.

I run a hdmi 2.1 cable from my pc to my living room tv, its 10m cable, i then use ultramon and have two profiles set, one for my monitor and one for my TV, one switch to change over. Ive got wireless keyboard and mouse so just pick them up and move over.

If your going to be doing similar ultramon is essential and saves a lot of hassle. Set up two shortcuts, so for me i just press shift and F1 for tV, shift and F2 for monitor, and the audio also switches over from my pc audio to my tv surround sound.

If im playing RTS game or something like that i play on my ultrawide, but if its more of a couch game ill use my TV and sit back and relax. Best of both worlds

Id say as a minimum you would want a wireless mouse, it just saves a lot of hassle when coming out of one game and going into another, or get a little bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo, you can pick these up for less than a tenner, if your not going to be using anything other than xbox controller for games then it would do the job.

Thank you, I'll definitely look that up for switching screens.

Steam Link or raspberry pi running the right software.

:edit: oh, didn't read the post fully about split screen... No idea sorry

Yes, that seems to be the sticking point!

-------

What I basically want is a windows 10 xbox interface emulator or something. I guess I'm going to have to try and borrow a couple of xbox controllers from someone and test out some gamepass games. As really the only thing that needs to work well is fullscreen, controller only xbox for windows, straightforward multi controller support and games to actually support splitscreen on windows. The same goes for Steam big picture and I'll be golden.

 

[Kamakazie!]

Steam link works fine for split screen. I;ve even used Steam Stream + Link to do 4 player games across 3 PCs though it starts to get a bit flaky with controllers on the remote PCs and ends up hit and miss.
Certainly can be viable if you are just playing locally via the link though.

That said, I think the TV app and the one on the nVidia Shield are better experiences than the old link hardware.

 

[DONOHUE07]

I've been using my PC on my living room TV for a few years, mixed results, pc games tend to focus on k/m, especially shooters and strategy games. Split screen seems to be very much a console thing, and I would say that's dying out too.

My PC now his hidden away in the loft and im using it as a headless game server, I play on a chromebook and numerous TV's with the new googleTV chromecast running moonlight, in conjunction with Moonlight, Google Stadia and Virtual Desktop on the Oculus Quest I have achieved an excellent gaming setup, I do intend to phase out the PC in time though

 

[kinger8938]

I soley use my PC via the TV as essentially a console.

I'm not a multiplayer gamer these days so from a single player point of view it's perfectly fine.

I use a basic wireless keyboard that has a laptop style mouse pad built in. I use that to navigate windows/launch a game then just pick up my CB1 controller.

Most games these days natively support controllers and work as they would on console. Exceptions being games only found on PC such as RTS/MOBAS and so on or titles out before the PS3/360 era. It was during that generation that they started to blur the lines a bit with ports etc.

I did want it to be as simple as just using steam big picture and never needing a mouse to launch games etc but unfortunately it just doesnt work well enough, or a pop up will come up meaning you need a mouse to get rid of that

 

[3080guy]

This is a bit of a side point - but I tried connecting my TV to the PC via HDMI a week or so as an experiment. It looked fine, but the sound (using the PC to play Spotify music) was really flat for some reason. This was played via the TV to a Sonos Playbar. Playing the same song direct to the Playbar without involving the TV was massively better. So I'm not quite sure what's going on there - if there are some hoops to jump through to get decent sound out of a PC connected TV.

Some sets allow basic equilisation which makes a big difference, if you can tweak it to playback frequencies how you want to hear them. Your TV will have settings which are applied to sound, so ideally bypass what you dont use to process sound in the audio chain.

 

[DONOHUE07]

I soley use my PC via the TV as essentially a console.

I'm not a multiplayer gamer these days so from a single player point of view it's perfectly fine.

I use a basic wireless keyboard that has a laptop style mouse pad built in. I use that to navigate windows/launch a game then just pick up my CB1 controller.

Most games these days natively support controllers and work as they would on console. Exceptions being games only found on PC such as RTS/MOBAS and so on or titles out before the PS3/360 era. It was during that generation that they started to blur the lines a bit with ports etc.

I did want it to be as simple as just using steam big picture and never needing a mouse to launch games etc but unfortunately it just doesnt work well enough, or a pop up will come up meaning you need a mouse to get rid of that

My biggest issue with using my PC as console was all the launchers amd needing a mouse to trouble and cluck window pop ups, I found that Playnite, a 3rd party launcher with controller support worked perfectly.

I highly recommend it to anyone that plays PC games on the sofa, by far the best way, and does give it the console feel

 

[kinger8938]

My biggest issue with using my PC as console was all the launchers amd needing a mouse to trouble and cluck window pop ups, I found that Playnite, a 3rd party launcher with controller support worked perfectly.

I highly recommend it to anyone that plays PC games on the sofa, by far the best way, and does give it the console feel

I will check that out, yep the mouse is still needed in some way but I found having this small wireless keyboard thing helped with that and made it less of an issue.

All the launchers these days can be a bit silly. Most this time I just have the games icon on the desktop or something to make that easier but typically every now and then for some reason, epic will forget my auto log in details then you need to have the keyboard handy for that sort of thing..

That is my main positive for console gaming, just that its simple. It works, no messing about (mostly)

I have a friend who's saying they may look into PC for the next generation of consoles and I try to be as honest as possible and say that it's not straight forward, especially as they haven't gamed on a PC before

 

[godinman]

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm going to give it a go.

Initially I'll just use a HDMI and USB extender cable/hub (measured up and only need 10m) and go from there. I might add a 3.5mm headset cable in the future and I've got a bluetooth adapter I can plug in to the USB so that I can get a wireless xbox controller working, I've already got a bluetooth mouse/keyboard around here somewhere which will work for now (although I might upgrade if I start using them a lot).

My biggest issue with using my PC as console was all the launchers amd needing a mouse to trouble and cluck window pop ups, I found that Playnite, a 3rd party launcher with controller support worked perfectly.

I highly recommend it to anyone that plays PC games on the sofa, by far the best way, and does give it the console feel

I've looked at this and it seems perfect! What a good system, that looks like it'll give me the best sofa gaming experience possible without shelling out £250+ on a new console.

 

[Haggisman]

Steam link works fine for split screen. I;ve even used Steam Stream + Link to do 4 player games across 3 PCs though it starts to get a bit flaky with controllers on the remote PCs and ends up hit and miss.
Certainly can be viable if you are just playing locally via the link though.

That said, I think the TV app and the one on the nVidia Shield are better experiences than the old link hardware.

Unfortunately the Xbox game pass games don't work nicely with Steam streaming

 

[DONOHUE07]

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm going to give it a go.

Initially I'll just use a HDMI and USB extender cable/hub (measured up and only need 10m) and go from there. I might add a 3.5mm headset cable in the future and I've got a bluetooth adapter I can plug in to the USB so that I can get a wireless xbox controller working, I've already got a bluetooth mouse/keyboard around here somewhere which will work for now (although I might upgrade if I start using them a lot).



I've looked at this and it seems perfect! What a good system, that looks like it'll give me the best sofa gaming experience possible without shelling out £250+ on a new console.

Paynite is awesome, very customisable amd even works with VR games from oculus with a simple plug in, cant believe its free to be honest