The latest on Steam Machines comes courtesy of a Q&A with Valve, in which they further explain the capabilities of the devices. Additionally, Valve reveals that while the SteamOS’ in-home streaming feature will be a useful one, it does have a major caveat.

As Valve explains, those who take advantage of the SteamOS in-home streaming feature will be able to access their Steam library from several devices, like a secondary PC connected to a TV, a Steam Machine, or even a less-powerful computer like a MacBook. However, while in-home streaming is active, the PC from which the content is being streamed will be inactive. In other words, streaming with SteamOS takes your gaming rig out of commission.

While a slight inconvenience, it makes sense that Valve would want to discourage gamers from using their gaming rig while streaming to another device. The PS4, for example, works in a similar fashion when streaming through Remote Play — gamers can only access the console directly or through a Vita handheld not both.

The good news about in-home streaming, though, is that the streaming device needs only be connected to the same network as the gaming PC and not to a central server as well. Hopefully that means streaming quality will be the highest possible through this route. Nothing is worse than a lag-filled stream, especially in a game that requires precision and speed.

To help test out different systems, Valve intends to run a beta for SteamOS that will offer all of the Linux-based platform’s feature-set to users. The beta will also feel out demand for the platform, letting Valve know how strong the potential Steam Machine market might be.

For Steam Machines, however, in-home streaming is only one of the major appeals of the device. If all goes according to Valve’s plan, gamers will be able to access a Linux-based platform at an affordable price. Prototypes are out in the wild as we speak, so it shouldn’t be long before more Steam Machine-related details start hitting.

How do you feel about game streaming locking you out of your gaming rig? Does this impact the appeal of the feature?

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Source: Valve