Steam in-home streaming, slow decoding

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

I finally got around to installing linux on all of the old laptops that relatives have left with me and I wanted to use them to be able to stream from my desktop or gaming laptop to my bed. I've had very poor performance on the client side of this (i.e. the laptops running linux).

One just has such horrible hardware that it can't do video playback at all really, but I thought the other would be more promising. However, whenever I stream something to it it get slow decoding and 20-30 dropped frames. I'm curious as to whether this is simply due to inadequate hardware, or if there is anything I can do to improve the performance? As it stands there is really no reason to use the laptop for streaming as the playback is so bad. Unless I'm playing something turn-based where time delay isn't a big deal.

The laptop's specs are:
AMD E1-2100 APU w/ Radeon HD Graphics x 2
3.4GB RAM (4GB)
AMD Radeon HD 8210
Linux Mint 17 32-bit

2

What resolution are you streaming at? If 1080p, have you tried 720p to see if results improved? What games have you tested? What's your network setup and are you running wired or wireless? So much information missing here that would be critical to assessing potential issues.

3

I stream at the client resolution (automatic), in this case it would be 1366x768.

I neglected the network information because I am able to stream just fine between my gaming laptop and desktop and either of them to my wife's macbook. All over wireless. The main issue is the slow decode on my laptop (that's what it says in the in-home streaming performance output).

4

The 20-30 dropped frames sounds like wifi problems, but the slow decoding really just looks like the cpu/gpu can't handle it. I don't think there is really more there than that.