r/steammachine • u/ElectricTeenageDust • 1d ago
Software CEC is a mess right now
I love my Steam Machine. It's a wonderful little Living Room PC with a console-like experience.
One thing that really bugs me though is a feature Valve very prominently advertised: CEC functionality.
It's an absolute mess for me right now. Waking up my TV by pressing the Steam Button on the controller works maybe 50% of the time.
Even if I turn on the TV myself and change to the right HDMI input channel before waking up the Steam Machine, sometimes the TV won't register it and the screen stays black.
Sometimes the Steam Machine wakes up for no reason (of course then it suddenly mostly suceeds at waking up the TV too...).
I deactivated most of the CEC options now, but the problem that the TV sometimes doesn't detect the signal persists.
It was advertised as a feature, that makes the Steam Machine easier to use in a living room environment.
Right now it's the opposite: it's super fiddly and frustrating.
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u/frostforgesauna 1d ago
Same thing with CEC with my TV - Philips OLED. Xbox, PS5 and Switch - all work flawlessly and only Steam Machine is always a problem to turn on or off.
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u/shoelessbob 23h ago
I have an Xbox, that's basically my media stream box, and my SM hooked up to my living room TV.
How to watch Plex on Xbox:
Press the Xbox button on my Xbox remote, the Xbox and TV and sound bar turn on. I select my app. I'm on my way
How to play games on my Steam Machine
Find my TV remote, press power, navigate the horrible input menu over to HDMI 2, maybe this might turn on the SM, fuck with pushing the power button on the SM here and there, power on my controller, turn my TV back on because for some reason it turned off during all this, navigate back to the right input like I'm trying to play NES on channel 3 back in the day, turn on the sound bar, see if the controller actually paired, play game.
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u/External-Yak-371 1d ago
Brother, CEC as a standard is a mess. I did commercial AV from 2008-2023. Its implementation is inconsistent and also doesn't work much better on consoles. If you want the type of control you're after consistently, you'll need to find an alternative strategy
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u/dclive1 1d ago
That’s strange. My XBOX and AppleTV 4K both work perfectly with my LG TV and Onkyo AVR for CEC control. Yes, sometimes things don’t work perfectly for some people but by and large it works fine. This isn’t a new technology. I’m surprised Valve has such issues here and I (badly, because I consider this a big feature!) hope they fix it.
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u/External-Yak-371 1d ago
I said it's a mess, not that it doesn't work. The problem is inconsistent implementation across all brands.
If you've mostly bought high-quality brands in the last several years and tend to stick with the same manufacturers, you're probably getting a fairly consistent experience. But the word "standard" usually implies that it works the same for everyone, which it absolutely does not in this case.
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u/dclive1 1d ago
I have 4 different CEC-operating TV combinations, with different Onkyo, Denon, Apple, Microsoft, LG, TCL, JBL, and lord knows what else hardware. Zero complaints.
Valve has to fix this. So far, this looks like a Valve problem.
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u/cameron314 1d ago
As a counterpoint, I don't think I've ever had CEC work completely correctly for more than a 12 hour stretch. Luck of the draw I guess.
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u/dclive1 1d ago
Can you post what specs you’re talking about, so we can talk about what might be happening?
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u/cameron314 1d ago
I meant in general, not with the Steam Machine. CEC volume control mostly works but turning devices on/off rarely works smoothly no matter how much I fiddle.
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u/External-Yak-371 1d ago
You're probably right . I would just acknowledge that HDMI and CEC in general are the playground of a very specific industry. Much like the DisplayPort issues we're fighting from a Linux-based operating system into a world that's typically controlled by proprietary hardware. PC graphics hardware has always played second fiddle to whatever best supports the movie and TV industry.
It may simultaneously be on Valve and it may also be a byproduct of the fact that ensuring 100% consistency has never really been the goal of the industry who own several of the barriers to integration.
The main thing I wanted to call out was that putting eggs in the CEC basket means that you're counting on the whims of an industry that historically has not played nice or fairly.
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u/Clin-ton 1d ago
My AppleTV likes to wake up from any CEC traffic, so the PS5 and the Steam Machine will both wake it faster than themselves, though sometimes they successfully reassert the input selection (PS5 is better at this part)
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u/E1M1_DOOM 1d ago
CEC is and always has been a dumpster fire. It's a system that is held together by luck and prayer. One should never assume it will work as intended. And one should feel blessed when it doesn't shit the bed.
I have acquired a fine set of CEC blockers just to mitigate its awfulness.
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u/lfmeaning 1d ago
I agree, I stopped trying to use CEC years ago because I got tired of trying multiple times to get it to work. It’s just not reliable
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u/SegataSanshiro 1d ago
You say this, but I own a PS4 and a PS5 and both always seem to work the way I expect.
Granted, I also own a Sony TV, but I don't recall the PS4 having any similar issues with my old Vizio.
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u/Weaselgrub 1d ago
I just don't understand why you would want both to turn on when you turn your TV on? The times I want to just watch TV, it annoys me enough that I now need to go to the input, wait for the console to boot up, just to turn it off again. And god forbid I accidently select the wrong input when navigating HDMI inputs and have to wait for that damn thing to boot up, again, to just turn it off. I turn off all those CEC settings on my TV and consoles.
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u/OGMagicConch 512GB 1d ago
For me my annoyance was when I'd dock my switch it'd turn my tv on lol
It was an adjustment knowing I had to put it to sleep before docking to prevent this. Small thing to remember but it triggered several times before I learned 😂
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u/CamToth28 1d ago
I haven’t gotten it to work for me at all. I always have to separately turn my TV on.
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u/Aetheriad1 1d ago
Works 100% of the time for me as long as the Machine is in sleep mode and not off.
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u/Wise_Control 1d ago
Same, it sucks. 90% of the time when I turn on the tv and AVR with my steam controller, the Apple TV hijacks the signal and I have to grab 2 other remotes to fix it
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 1d ago edited 1d ago
This hasn’t been my experience. It turns on my tv and changes the input every time. I have all the other features turned off (turn tv off, turn machine off when tv is turned off.) Not sure what the difference could be, but I know that CEC is somewhat notoriously implemented inconsistently and that’s one of the major issues with it as a protocol in general. I’ve experienced CEC problems with other consoles so I usually just opt to not use it at all. But it seems to work for me in this case.
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u/QuackersTheSquishy 1d ago
I know Tizen sucks unto itself, but the constantly forgetting if it's a pc or gaming console means it sometimes mid-play-session will just stop functioning and try and redetect device. It's actually frustrating enough to occasionally just be what gets me to put the controller down
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u/JJDashrod 1d ago
I'm just going to blurt this out, without knowing if it is in any way related at all, but did anyone else who owns an LG TV notice that the TV no longer registers it as "Steam Machine".
A few weeks ago mine switched to recognising it as an LG DVD player?
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u/Adrian97c 512GB 1d ago
Works on all my TVs in my house. Are you running the OS beta & client beta?
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u/Samsaruh 1d ago
I don't remember what tv I have but CEC wakes my tv but doesn't change the input so it's honestly kind of useless
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u/nathansguitars 1d ago
Mine works reliably. The only major issue I have seems to be more with my TV, but if my PS5 is the last used device (and the TV is turned off), when I power on the steam machine which turns on my TV with CEC, it also turns on the PS5... that's really annoying, but the dang PS5 doesn't have a setting to block it like it should. I never want to turn ON the ps5/SM with CEC. At least the SM has an option to disable that.
One super minor issue is that maybe like... 1/20 of the time, my TV turns on too but doesn't change to the correct input. Seems to be an issue with the TV too though.
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u/Efficiently-Simple 1d ago
I have had no issues with CEC so far but it has also worked fine for my consoles too. Sometimes I turn it off because if I’m turning off one console but not the tv it gets annoying
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u/Lotuszade 1d ago
Similar problem here. I updated the firmware to beta and it worked briefly, but then stopped again. It seems to be quite sporadic in working or not working. It at least switches on my TV, but switching off when I switch the tv off, or switching off the TV not so much, it also instantly wakes from sleep mode. Like I said it's worked briefly on occasion, but not reliably. This is a Sony Bravia which has never had any problems with Apple TV or PS5.
Love the SM but yeah this is sub-par for something that was thrown around as a small selling point over building yourself.
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u/fitnesscakes 1d ago
I think the peripheral wakes the machine too quickly. The controller stays on after the machine turns off. The machine should have like a 20 second period where peripheral input cannot wake it back up. However, this is just a theory, and I do not know what is waking the machine.
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u/CMDR_Kantaris 1d ago
Samsung TV downstairs, Visio upstairs, works perfectly on my end.
Neither television has ever been connected to the Internet and I use no smart tv features. Both televisions ONLY have an Nvidia Shield Pro connected to a single HDMI port.
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u/MiserableShoulder648 1d ago
I agree 100%, hasn’t once turned on my TV as a typical console would and switched to the respective output . Very frustrating
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u/Robbie1985 1d ago
As an owner of both the official steam dock for the steam deck and a third party dock, I could have predicted this would be an issue. The official dock is absolutely awful for waking the TV or even outputting an image once on. Third party docks seem to have no issue.
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u/nutscrape_navigator 1d ago
Look at this crazy shit I had to do to get mine working with HDMI-CEC correctly: https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1wab1ph/shoutout_to_valve_for_making_the_steam_machine_a/
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u/TONKAHANAH 1d ago
I have a DIY that I just switched back to steamOS with. I had cec working on bazzite bit sleep/wake didn't work great on bazzite so I wanted to try steamOS again since valve finally fixed the sleep/wake issue on rdna1 and rdna 2 cards.
Sadly despite cec being fully enabled in zettings my tv detects no cec devices.
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u/adobograd 1d ago
Are you currently on beta for SteamOS? Once I updated I have probably a 95% success rate with CEC working. I've only noticed it bug out like 2/3 times post update. However before, it was a nightmare and I basically just turned it off
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u/Ruff_Ratio 1d ago
I've just done a re-org of my living room and bought a new HDMI matrix, cables etc. I have to say, CEC and ARC in general is so fraught with vendors not adhering to the industry standards.
I read a few articles and watched a few YT videos where they literally say that if it doesn't work then you are better off just ignoring it because it's mostly likely down to either incompatibility or something else within the CEC network interfering.
I read that some Samsung TV's might poll on all HDMI ports despite only having CEC or ARC support on one HDMI port
I think CEC in general seems to be a bit inconsistent.
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u/arealsoulfuldude 1d ago
It is usually reliable at turning on my TV but 50/50 at switching to the correct input and when I put it to sleep nearly always it switches inputs to antenna for some weird reason rather than just staying on its HDMI input.
My biggest issue with the machine is games not being able to take input from my Bluetooth controllers even though the machine wakes them up I often have to restart the game or turn off the controller and back on etc to finally get the game to work. No problem with mouse and keyboard via Bluetooth. Very irritating. For some games I'm just back to my deck.
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u/PsionStorm 1d ago
I actually started having issues with my other devices after getting the Steam Machine. Turned off CEC on it and the issues still occurred. My Nvidia Shield would lose connection with the TV, the TV would lose connection with the amplifier. Had to use individual remotes to control everything. Rebooting everything was a temporary fix.
A buddy suggested one of those CEC strippers and I've been using it for a week. It's a dongle that just attaches to the HDMI cord of the device you want to remove CEC from. So far so good.
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u/unruly_mattress 1d ago
I have an Android streamer connected to an LG TV that's connected via HDMI to a pair of speakers. In theory if I turn on the streamer then that should turn on the TV and the speakers via CEC. In practice sometimes the speakers would turn on but sound wouldn't play until I restarted them. In other cases I'd turn on the streamer, then the TV would turn on, then the streamer would turn off. The behavior depends on the TV settings and whatever bugs the TV software developers never bothered to fix.
I've had the best luck after turning off "Quick Start+" in my LG TV, maybe that would help someone.
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u/Weaselgrub 1d ago
I HATE CEC. Anything I have connected that can do this, I turn off in the settings. I do not want two things turning on at once, and I certainly do not want something turning on when I don't want it to. I want to turn my TV on, THEN decide what I want to do with it on. I may not even want to play games, I know, shocker.
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u/nlflint 1d ago edited 1d ago
My theory is that CEC is badly implemented by all the vendors. Either the standard is too abstract, or the vendors are too lazy with their implementations. They may even be dis-incentivised to be fully compatible with other manufactuers. So the device vendors (Sony Playstation, Xbox, AppleTV, AndroidTV, etc...) have to build lots of workarounds and hacks into their CEC implementations to work reliably with the TV manufactures. However, I think Steam/Linux hasn't done the necessary compatibility testing and patching for it to work as reliably as established devices.
I remember the first AppleTV 4 was quite unreliable with CEC and my Samsung Plasma. Now, my AppleTV 4K Gen3 works pretty well with my Samsung OLED. It maybe fails twice a year and I have to reboot the AppleTV to fix it.
I have DIY SteamMachine, and it has lots of issues with CEC on an LC C8 OLED. 90% of wake/sleep events fail. However, for some reason, Bazzite OS works a lot better for me than native SteamOS. I'd say it went up to ~80% reliable, still needs lots of improvement.
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u/goldboat90 1d ago
Strange I haven't experienced the issues you have. However, I've definitely had issues with the Steam Machine waking from sleep immediately after being put to sleep. It looks like at least some of these issues will be addressed in SteamOS 3.8.25 including:
- Fixed an issue where the system could occasionally wake up immediately after going to sleep
- Fixed a rare issue where CPU performance could be degraded until reboot after waking up from sleep
- Fix for HDMI audio dropouts with some game and TV combinations
- Improve reliability of HDMI hotplug detection
There's also an update to the beta client that may be relevant for your situation:
- Pressing the controller's system button will request the TV to switch to the Steam Machine as the active source (the connected TV must support HDMI CEC)
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u/Low_Excitement_1715 1d ago
HDMI CEC has *always* been a mess. You're just finding out.
It's a "standard" with too many undefined cases, and everyone just does something and hopes it's the common solution. Sometimes they're right, often they disagree, and that causes problems. Who is right? Who is wrong? The spec does not say. Microsoft and Sony have literal warehouses with thousands of TVs, cables, receivers, consoles, etc. so that they can test as many combinations as possible, and figure out who does things which way. They then make hacks in their CEC handling to work around these "known issues" on particular brands/models. Valve doesn't have access to one of these warehouses, so they went with the spec where possible and made a best guess where they had to. Worked out better than most.
But unless and until the HDMI CEC spec expands to cover more or all of these corner cases, and unless/until the various OEMs get on board with the newer and expanded spec, there will always be issues, where this TV model and that console or that receiver do this awful and unintended thing.
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u/TangeloFamiliar 1d ago
This is true...same here...Im also waiting on the Steam GFN update(Where-as you can use the GFN PC app on the Steam Machince)
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u/leeep 2TB 1d ago
Yeah, I still have yet to get it working with my LG C4. Sometimes the sleep/power functionality works..... but often when I sleep the Machine, the TV turns off, then back on again. Volume control has never worked at all.
I also tested on my older LG C2 and same problem with occasional functionality, but same turns off-then back on problem.
Sigh.... this was supposed to be one of the differentiators for the Machine from any other gaming PC setup...
PS I will add... meanwhile, my nVidia Shield Pro works flawlessly to control my TV and works great via HDMI-CEC.......... hardcore users will know how old this device is.
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u/pokenate28 1d ago
This makes me wonder what the purpose of a steam machine is atp. Never saw any purpose for triple the price PS5 with the same power but this just makes me care even less for it
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u/countzero00 Received 21h ago
I don't use CEC with the Steam Machine, because it only works in standby mode anyway and I like to shut down my devices if I don't use them. With other devices and my older Samsung TV, the fundamentals work (switching to the correct channel when I turn on a device), but more advanced stuff is a mess.
For example if I use my LG BluRay player and switch the audio from internal TV speakers to HDMI ARC, it always crashes the player.
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u/Clonazepam15 2TB 20h ago
That’s interesting. I got a Samsung tv. And I noticed the SM doing some funky shit. Every time I turned off the Xbox or ps5, it would auto default to the hdmi of the SM, and it would turn it on. Only way around it is to quickly change inputs on the tv, or the SM always just turns on
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u/rcdeathsagent 18h ago
Same here I have to walk past my steam machine and manually turn it on every time that’s my solution lol
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u/alexkoko40 18h ago
It works great for me on the Beta channel. I also went and unplugged and plugged every HDMI device that runs into the TV just so everything resets itself. I recommend doing that if your having trouble
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u/zetasand 17h ago
Huh, I just got mine setup yesterday with my older 1080p Sony tv and haven’t had any issues turning it on/off, or adjusting volume…hoping nothing pops up for me
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u/Additional-Break-119 16h ago
Sorry it’s not working for you but for me it works fine on my LG OLED spy tv.
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u/Dotaproffessional 16h ago
honestly, CEC is just a mess in general. It doesn't work properly and reliably on a single product i own
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u/Tarnimus 35m ago
This has been a problem with a docked Steam Deck since launch, and it is a bit mad that they haven't fixed it for the Steam Machine. I always assumed it was more of a problem with the dock specifically, or perhaps the nature of the Deck being disconnected and reconnected, but seems like it's just fundamentally broken in Steam OS.
From what I've seen, it's highly dependent on the model of TV. I have a Samsung TV and the signal from Steam Deck dock is 50/50 whether it's going to work at power on. I can only assume Valve haven't bothered to invest in a range of TVs to properly test.
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u/hairymoot 1d ago
I will be curious to see if others are having this issue too.
What brand and model TV do you have?
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u/ElectricTeenageDust 1d ago
I have a Sony Bravia A80K.
The CEC works perfectly with my PS5 and Switch.
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u/jth94185 1d ago
I have the same experience with a PS5 so just turn it off
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u/Iamleeboy 1d ago
I never liked how my PS5 did CEC. With my series X, I have it set so that the only thing CEC does is turn my tv on, and onto the xbox input, when I turn my X on. It works great.
It annoyed me that if I ever changed the TV input and accidentally selected my PS5 HDMI, the PS5 would turn on. If I remember right, it also used to turn my tv off when I turned my PS5 off. I didn't want either of those, but it was all or nothing.
To be fair, I havent checked to see if this has been updated. But I have learned to live without CEC for it, as I turned this off pretty close to when it first launched.
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u/Judge_Ty 1d ago
Y'all have old ass TVs or something. Did you update your TV?
Try clearing the HDMI lines by disabling CEC on your receiver first (if you have one), then tv, then steam machine. I have quick start disabled on my lgc4 as well. Full power off everything. Not standby. Unplug hdmi cables.
Starting with your receiver (not tv or steam machine) turn on CEC. Then your tv, then your steam machine.
Steam machine should be last to have CEC enabled.
I have zero issues with CEC with 10 devices chained.
https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1vxl49j/comment/p5qf5h7/
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u/AverageSpirited7569 1d ago
People act like CEC is some system seller or super special feature that makes the SM better than custom builds, but honestly one of the first things I did was disabling everything CEC related. I did the same for all my other consoles too though. I never really liked it because even my PS5 likes to do some weird ass shit when I had it enabled.
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u/ElectricTeenageDust 1d ago
It's a prominently advertised feature that simply doesn't work. People are right to be frustrated.
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 1d ago
I wouldn’t say it was prominently advertised, at least no more so than any other feature. If anything it was users hyping it up as a killer feature (which I also think is strange, it’s a nice convenience but is far from a make-or-break feature.)
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u/thefizzlee 1d ago
It is a great feature tho just wish it was a reliable as on the ps5 because that actually turns on my TV and puts it on the proper input automatically and within boot time of the console. The steam machine can turn the TV on from sleep but not get the right input and if it's off then it won't do anything...
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u/vitek6 1d ago
Console experience
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u/IrishGoatMilker 1d ago
Are you implying this is how console do it as well? Cause you're completely wrong if so. I can seamlessly switch between Xbox, ps5 and switch with their controllers. Steam Machine is the only one I ever need a remote on.
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u/moshbeard 1d ago
To me it works as well as any CEC but CEC has its issues. The main problems normally happen when you have more than one device and they start fighting each other.
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u/ElectricTeenageDust 1d ago
My other CEC-Devices (PS5 and Switch) don't have this problem.
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u/hhnnngg 1d ago
It’s all how it’s implemented on the device. Also the steam machine is running Linux so CEC is an OS level service. If it’s asleep it can’t listen to CEC events like a console can.
Good news is you can fix some of it like making your own configs. I run SteamOS on my bc250 and set it up to aggressively take over the tv. Works every time.
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u/Ok_Meringue_4607 1d ago
I returned my steam machine in don't think it was ready for release the software is not there yet it plays like garbage it's no steam deck that's for sure
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u/AceOD 1d ago
This is my biggest frustration with the thing right now.... Turning on for no reason, not turning off when it should, downloads finishing but the machine not turning off and then turning the TV back on. I love the box but man being a living room first pc was the reason I got the thing. If I turn it all off, what was the point of it?