I’ve hooked it up to my TV to play some games with a PS4 controller. But I’ve encountered some really annoying issues. Audio not outputting through my TV speakers unless I go into desktop mode, then reset the console. When I go into desktop mode, the controller no longer registers so I can’t play. So I have to go back to gaming mode, where I can’t get sound from TV speakers. I’ve tried adjusting settings on both my steam deck and TV to no avail. That is, display options on desktop mode, and steam input settings.
The performance is also horrendous, with a very unstable ~20fps. This is even at 720p resolution and lower. When I reset the console docked, I have to unplug it then plug it back in or the screen just stays black.
It’s all incredibly frustrating. Is it just human error, or is SteamOS still really buggy when it comes to docking? I feel like it should just be plug and play, but I’m tired of having to set so many things up just to play on my TV. And then it being subpar visually compared with just using the deck’s own display.
Which dock are you using ? We can’t help much without information.
Yeah. It’s really that bad. They’ve been releasing quality of life patches, but Valve made a portable device that happens to support docking, not a device meant to be docked.
Based on your experience, I assume you have the official Steam Dock, which I find worse to use with the SteamDeck than any random USB C dongle that I have tried.
Edit: Be sure to check for updates. I recall some of the issues you mention (like the blank screen) were mentioned in SteamOS release notes this year.
There’s gotta be an issue in your setup. I’ve never had audio issues and performance should be identical when running at the same resolution.
Your TV is playing a large part in the degraded visuals. It may be receiving a 720p signal from the Steam Deck, but it then needs to upscale that to whatever resolution your TV is displaying. Most TVs are hot garbage at doing this task, and will make your picture look washed out, or even pixelated.
If you aren’t using the Official Dock and Charger, then you need to make sure they’re delivering enough power for the Deck and any attached peripherals. USB-C is much more complex than previous generations, and not all docks/cables are created equal.
These are problems I’ve never encountered in my ~2 years of owning a Deck myself, but I can’t give you more feedback without knowing what specific Dock and Television you’re using.
Using the official dock? Most of my problems were solved by updating the firmware. That does NOT happen automatically via the regular Steam Decker updates btw, need to trigger it yourself.
I know it’s not helpful but I don’t have any of these problems. Very much plug and play for me.
Yea, I’d try and alternative dock and maybe see if there’s something with the display settings - I have no issues using a simple USB adapter and some Xbox controllers.
I know the PS controllers can be finicky, as well as CEC causing problems - might need to see if those are some of the root causes by disabling/changing.
I had the no audio issue once. It “fixed” itself after I shut down my deck, connected it via a different dock I have lying around from my switch, rebooted and switched over to the original dock again.
Don’t ask me why, I guess somewhere something “remembered” a wrong audio setting or something and was forced to reset with the other dock.
Or it might be I had a cable not properly set and got it right when plugging back in.
I also frequently have an issue where I get no signal at all to the TV when waking up the deck, and that’s usually only fixed by rebooting the deck. Which I have to do blind or unplug it, because the deck knows it’s in TV mode, the TV just apparently doesn’t.
Also, yeah, I pretty much only play 2D / pixel art games docked. It’s not powerful enough to output a good looking picture to a big TV screen.
There’s some component in your docking setup (the dock or the TV) that’s causing this. I regularly dock to a 1440p monitor and a 1080p projector with zero issues.
That being said, there are multiple docks out there (even the official one) that don’t jibe with both the Deck and every display and thus give a subpar experience, as there are widespread reports of that. You kind of have to luck into the compatibility of both of those components, and even then there are also TVs out there that aren’t really dock-happy with anything.
Try docking to someone else’s TV next time you go visit someone, if it’s fine then you know it’s either your TV or your TV and dock not liking each other.
Try to enable “Game Mode” or “PC Mode” on your TV for that HDMI input. Also check the audio settings for supported formats and play around with the settings.
Also, what dock are you using?
I have none of those issues, but a couple of extra weird ones… this is the official dock btw. First, maybe it’s something I plugged in, but the Deck’s battery will be drained (slowly, over many days) if it’s plugged in and not turned on. Suspended or off is the same, I must unplug. Then the one that really pisses me off because I can’t wrap my head around it, I can’t unplug it unless I fully turn it off first. Doing otherwise tends to make my home network comatose! Basically nothing can see anything. Computers lose connection to the NAS, to the router… nothing works until I plug it back and turn it on, then I can turn it off and unplug. ffs.
It sounds as if the dock was the problem. I myself have a third party dock and haven’t had such problems.
Very interested in reading about this since I plan on getting a used LCD Deck and keep it docked (just through Usb-c, so without a dock in fact) a lot.
Sounds to me like your dock is garbage.
Jsaux one works fine. I just miss not having a steam controller when docked.
I’ve had a pleasant experience with my anker dock and tcl TV. My only issue is that the resolution upgrade can make the performance worse depending on the game.
