Help with Steam Link and WMC not getting along

[whs001]

I have steam link box as well as windows machines on my network. What I am trying to do is get my main windows 8.1 64bit media center box to stream media center to the other machines or the steam link. (mostly the steam link) I have the steam link in the bedroom and until a recent steam update I was streaming just fine to the steam link. Here are my symptoms:

1) now when I go to launch windows media center remotely it opens full screen (black screen) but you can hear sound. Just the picture is missing. Does not happen if you get it to launch windowed mode.

2) if I add windows media center to my steam client running on the main media center pc I can see it listed in big picture. It launches on other machines and the steam link and this time you can see video but it stutters and shakes something awful.

Neither 2 situations are acceptable when trying to watch media center recorded tv remotely.

Not sure what steam changed and I even am going to post on their forums as well asking about it.

Here is what I would like someone who knows about my issue to help me with.

Either:

1) help me fix the black screen issue
or
2) help me with the screen stutter flicker problem when using big picture to launch windows media center.

I keep thinking its a switch option or launch parameter but I cannot figure that out.

Please any suggestion would make my day. Thanks.

[Crash2009]

you can see video but it stutters and shakes something awful. I keep thinking its a switch option...

The first thing I would eliminate, would be....

Autonegotiation and duplex mismatch

Many different modes of operations (10BASE-T half duplex, 10BASE-T full duplex, 100BASE-TX half duplex, ...) exist for Ethernet over twisted pair, and most network adapters are capable of different modes of operation. 1000BASE-T requires autonegotiation to be on in order to operate.

When two linked interfaces are set to different duplex modes, the effect of this duplex mismatch is a network that functions much more slowly than its nominal speed. Duplex mismatch may be inadvertently caused when an administrator configures an interface to a fixed mode (e.g. 100 Mbit/s full duplex) and fails to configure the remote interface, leaving it set to autonegotiate. Then, when the autonegotiation process fails, half duplex is assumed by the autonegotiating side of the link.

You don't mention how you have all that cabled, but I would start by having the SteamLink and the main media center PC (HTPC) on the same switch. This would simplify the network and allow you to troubleshoot the NIC on the HTPC. The NIC might need different drivers (not necessarily the newest)...go directly to the manufacturer. Sometimes the HTPC's NIC needs an adjustment to match the SteamLink. This was/is a common problem with the Xbox which is 10/100 (NonGIG) and most HTPC's are 100/1000 (GIG).

Searching here at TGB for Auto Negotiation and/or Duplex Mismatch will reveal just how common this problem is, as well as give you details on how to repair.

[whs001]

Right on the network stuff. I failed to mention several things. I'll try to put some more detail to this.

First I run a gigabit ethernet back bone. Everything is hardwired in each room of my house. I have a router and have 3 switches going off it directly to feed the various rooms. The HTPC is not on the exact same switch as the steam link but I can change that for testing np. I will say the steam link has a locked 100MB ethernet port and the rest of my devices all support gigabit natively. I would also like to add that when streaming games from the HTPC directly to the Steam link or any pc running steam in same house things are as near as I can tell perfect. I used to use a pstv to stream from my ps4 and I can tell you that thing was far from perfect even with it hardwired lol. I was a bit ago before steam updated able to stream media center to the steam link and other steam clients in the house. I can rdp into the HTPC from a different pc in same house and run Media Center fine so I am def gonna blame steam on this. Just wish I had more to say than just blame. I'm afraid I don't know much about how the tech works just that for the most part it does or did lol. To get media center working originally I would steam link to HTPC and then minimize big picture. This left me with a RDP session (i call it) to the desktop where I would launch MC from there and just watch w/e I liked. It worked for long while till one day I am guessing steam got an update and bam it did not. My fall back was to use a shortcut in big picture to launch Media Center. So far that launches Media Center with picture and audio but its shakky and basically crap. For the record launching media center via Big picture mode in steam has always done those things. I figured its a launch parameter of some kind set in steam to get it working better but I cannot confirm this or know which parameter it is. All I can say is it's a gut feeling. I was thinking it might be a video settings compatibility issue. One time I had a problem where windows 8 desktop was kinda (make objects larger) setting and that was messing with my resolution on steam link. I since then sorted that out by setting that zoom settting to normal or small settings and it was sorted quickly. I am running 1080p from HTPC to the Steam / Steam Link boxes. I also made sure Media Center has 1080p setup in the settings of media center.

[Crash2009]

Another cause of stuttering shaking picture is the 29/59 problem, which you can do nothing about. Forget about Steam for the moment and open up WMC and play one of the recordings you have trouble with in Steam. You can check for evidence of the 29/59 problem by pressing 411 and then INFO on the remote. Then use the left and right arrow buttons to scroll horizontally to the several Debug screens. Down in the fps section you might notice the frame rate rapidly changing from 29 to 59. Some have reported seeing 15/30 fps...not sure what that means.

I am not sure what the latest scoop is on this but in the past it was said that AMD video cards displayed the problem less than Nvidia.

Search 29/59 bug

[Crash2009]

Not sure if your switch's are compatible, but you might be able to test this easy enough.

UpLink the 3 switches together....either room to room or run 2 extra lines back to the router and use a joiner.

Here is the theory on why...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAN_switching

The switching algorithm is relatively simple and is the same for most of the routed protocols: a host would like to send a packet to a host on another network. Having acquired a router's address by some means, the source host sends the packet directly to that router's physical (MAC) address. The protocol (network layer) address is that of the destination host.

The router examines the packet's destination protocol address and determines whether it knows how to forward the packet or not. If the router does not know how to forward the packet, it typically drops the packet. If it knows how to forward packet, it changes the destination physical address to that of the next hop router and transmits the packet.

[Crash2009]

Here is what the WMC debugger looks like. press 411 INFO on the remote. right arrow > takes you to more debug pages.