Steam Deck

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[Help] How can I play games on my TV while still using the steam deck as a controller? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by cnhguy@lemmy.world to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

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I want to play games like civ that are better played using mouse controls via the touch pads, so I want to use the steam deck as a controller. But the screen is a little too small and some games don't have good ui scaling so I want to be able to play on the TV. What's the best/easiest/cheapest way I can play on the TV while still using the steam deck as a controller? I have a Vizio tv that doesn't support steam link but does support casting. Thanks!

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[–] morgan_423@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As I promised below, here's a detailed report of what I did to make my Deck dockable and also have it be the game controller while doing so.

REQUIRED: A hub like this. The plug coming off of it connects to the power port on your Deck; everything else in this setup connects to the hub.

2 ) REQUIRED: Any HDMI male-male cord (assuming that your display/TV has HDMI) that is long enough to give you comfortable distance between where you're sitting and the display, with some slack. This will plug into the hub and the display to connect them.

You could go with a wireless HDMI setup for less bulk I guess, but that's expensive and there might be latency involved? I have no experience with wireless HDMI so I couldn't guide you there.

OPTIONAL POWER CORD COMBO, done for longer power cord reach than the included Deck plug, which can be used instead, it's just shorter (default cable is 6 or 6.5 feet, I think. If that's long enough to connect you and the power sources you use, and have slack, then just use the included Deck power cord and don't worry about this optional power setup).

Part one of the power combo is a normal 65W adapter plug that I already had laying around for an old laptop. I didn't have to buy this, but I guess something like this would work, this very much resembles mine in looks/stats.

Part two of the optional power set up done for longer power cord reach than the included Deck plug: I use this cable to connect the hub to the power adapter. The extra three to four feet this gives is now plenty long enough between me and the power supplies I use and also have comfortable slack, but you could probably find a longer version of this if you needed to.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You now have the needed base stuff (hub connects Deck, power, and HDMI for display all together), but here's some extra comfort stuff I did.

Cable ties can help to keep the power cable and HDMI cable together as they run up to the hub, keeping them from splaying apart, and keeping them neater and easier to deal with. You can get them cheaper and/or smaller quantities than this, I just included the link to show you what the thing is that I'm talking about.
You can leave the hub loose and hanging off to the side if you wish (if you do, then a power cord extension to increase the hub-to-Deck distance will likely be needed, as the default hub power cable is short), but I found that the hub being separate was just too inconvenient. So I actually attached the hub directly to the back of the Deck using Velcro tape. The tape does separate the hub and Deck a little physically so that they don't conduct much heat between themselves, so don't worry about that.

I have small hands, so I attached my hub horizontally across the Deck on the back, above and not covering the vent, and I still have plenty of room to use all of the buttons and triggers. If your hands are bigger, you might get a little cramped, I'd measure it out first before going with the attachment solution.

I didn't like the way the hub cable had to bend very close to the power port on top of the Deck to be able to plug into it, so I got an adapter to plug into the port from the top, with the female plug redirected to the side, to try to reduce the strain the hub cable was putting on the port. This may just have been a figment of my imagination and no harm was actually being done without the adapter, but I wanted to be better safe than sorry.

My apologies for the novel, but I thought having my whole setup would be helpful since it solved the issue you're having for me months back. Have fun.