How do I play PC games on my TV from another room?

The gaming PC lives in the office, the big TV lives in the living room, and the sofa is where you actually want to play. Dragging the tower across the flat, running a twenty-metre HDMI cable or buying a second PC are all bad answers.

The streaming apps you have tried each come with a catch: a Sunshine host to set up from a web panel, a PIN to type every time you pair, a client that only wants Steam games, or a picture that stutters the moment someone else opens a video on the Wi-Fi.

And when it finally works, the controller is the letdown: the game sees a generic pad, rumble is gone, and your wheel or arcade stick is not even recognised.

Streaming a PC to a TV is three jobs at once: capture and encode the picture on the PC fast enough not to add lag, decode it on the TV box with its hardware decoder, and carry your inputs back the other way. Most tools do the first two well and improvise the third by emulating a controller on the PC.

The TV also needs a real 10-foot interface. A settings page designed for a mouse is useless from three metres away with a remote, which is why so many setups end with a phone in one hand as a remote control for the TV app.

1. 01

   Install ChimpDeck on the TV

   From Google Play on the Android TV or Shield, or from the Play Store on your phone with «Install on another device». The whole app is driven with the remote or a game controller.

2. 02

   Install ChimpDeck for Windows on the PC

   One installer brings the host, the USB bridge driver signed by Microsoft and the virtual display adapter. It installs per user and never asks for administrator rights again.

3. 03

   Pair without typing anything

   Open the PC page on the TV while both are on the home network. The PC shows who is calling and a six-digit number; if the TV shows the same number, accept. No PIN, nothing to memorise.

4. 04

   Plug your controller into the TV box

   USB into the Shield or box: Windows sees the real device, with its official driver and all four rumble motors. If the pad does not show up, here is what to check on the Shield.

5. 05

   Let the PC take the TV’s shape

   ChimpDeck for Windows learns the TV’s resolution at pairing and serves it on a virtual display of exactly that size, so there are no black bars and your monitor comes back when you stop.

6. 06

   Pick a game and play

   Add games with box art on the PC and they appear on the TV; the Desktop is always there. From the sofa everything is one press per option with the D-pad.

• The TV’s exact resolution

  3840×2160 or whatever your TV is, learned at pairing and served in the same session.

• Your real controller

  Wheel, HOTAS, arcade stick or pad: the actual USB device on the PC, force feedback included.

• A true 10-foot interface

  D-pad navigation, focus visible from three metres, one press per setting, no scrolling.

• A session that survives Wi-Fi hiccups

  If the picture stops, the host pauses for up to 10 minutes and the app reconnects by itself.