If you have an Xbox, it goes without saying that the best experience is sitting on your couch in front of a big HDR TV with good gaming features. But sometimes your TV isn’t available maybe you’re out of the house, someone else is hogging the living room, or you’re just too lazy to get out of bed for some Gears of War. Microsoft has you covered with Remote Play, allowing you to stream games from your Xbox right to your phone, tablet, or PC.
Remote Play lets you stream games from your Xbox to your phone, tablet, or PC. It’s convenient and easy to use, but you will have to set it up first. It should be noted that this is different from Xbox Cloud Gaming (formerly xCloud), which streams games from Microsoft’s own servers to your device. Remote Play renders those games on your home Xbox to another device. The feature doesn’t require an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, but you will need a compatible controller.
Prepare Your Xbox for Streaming
Remote Play is supported by the Xbox One, One S, One X, and the newer Xbox Series X and Series S (with some caveats, which we’ll get to in a moment). On your Xbox, open Settings > Devices & Connections > Remote Features and check the Enable Remote Features box. Ideally, you should also change Power Mode to Instant On (so you can turn the Xbox on from afar). Then click the Test Remote Play button to ensure everything is set up properly.
- It will let you know if there are any weak links in your system that might lead to a poor experience. You don’t need a fast internet connection if you’re playing at home, but you do need a stable one, so I highly recommend hooking your Xbox up to your network with an Ethernet cable, if possible. (And if you do so, you’ll want to go to Settings > General > Network Settings and disable the wireless network you were connected to before.)
Stream Xbox Games to Your PC (Xbox One Only)
- To play your Xbox games on a laptop or desktop, you can stream them through the pre-installed Xbox Console Companion on Windows 10. Unfortunately, this only supports Xbox One consoles for the time being, so owners of the latest Xbox Series X and S are out of luck for now. However, Microsoft is currently working on a new app that will support both xCloud and local streaming from the new consoles.
- Open the app and select the Connection option near the bottom of the left sidebar. (It’s the icon of an Xbox with some radio waves coming out of it). You should see your Xbox listed in the main window; click on it and power it on, if it isn’t already running, and then click the Stream button to begin playing. You’ll want an Xbox controller hooked up to your PC as well.
- If you need to adjust the streaming quality, head to Xbox Console Companion’s Settings in the sidebar, click the Xbox One tab, and change the Video Encoding Level. Microsoft recommends Low if you’re on a 2.4GHz wireless network, Medium if you’re on a 5GHz wireless network but far away from your devices, or High if you’re on Wi-Fi with a very strong connection. If you’re connected over Ethernet, try Very High for the full 1080p/60fps experience.
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