steam deck full tv entertainment setup

25 Jul, 2025

I’m writing this sort of as a documentation of what I did, inspiration for others, consolidating some info that is spread out and as another place to hold info as other places might get deleted or locked down in the future, and try to be considerate of beginners :)

Since my PS4 essentially died a while ago, it was now time for the Steam Deck to take its place. For the ones not familiar, the Steam Deck is a handheld console released by Valve based on Linux and has both a dedicated Gaming Mode that opens Steam, and a separate Desktop Mode. This means that with a dock - of which there are many, not just the official dock - you can use it like a computer and a TV console, not just a handheld console.

sidenote: PC setup

I have used the Steam Deck as a PC in the past, attaching a keyboard, mouse and screen to it via the dock and using it in Desktop Mode, so if that is something that interests you (maybe to try out Linux?), you can do that. You will see a KDE Plasma desktop and it uses Flatpak and a Discover section where you can easily install from a catalogue. This comes in handy for the TV setup as well.

TV connection

For now, the Deck is hooked up to the TV via the dock and a HDMI cable. Caution: First contact between the two might result in “No signal” on the TV even though everything is plugged in and on. The solution is disconnecting the power cable from the dock, waiting until the TV gets signal, then plugging it back in. I only had to do this the first time, afterwards it worked instantly.

If you have the displeasure of owning a Smart TV like I do that always wants to recognize and categorize the connected devices, choose Manual Setup and pick “PC”. Other options like console don’t work on mine because it expects me to select from a dropdown menu that only has options like PlayStation etc.

controller setup

External controllers work just fine, in my case it’s the wireless PS4 controllers I have. For pairing, take the Steam Deck out of the dock, make sure Bluetooth is on and follow the pairing process of the controller you have, in my case holding the PS and Share button until the lights blink, then accepting the device on the Deck. Steam automatically recognizes it as a PS4 controller and adjusts the symbols shown.

If you want the controller to work in Desktop Mode as well, you need to set it up there. Head over to Desktop Mode; the controller might cut out or not work yet, so you’ll need to set this up holding the Deck. Enable Bluetooth in the desktop settings (controller should connect automatically already because it was previously paired in Gaming Mode) and make sure that the settings around when to enable Bluetooth are set to restoring last session (that means if it was on it will be on next time, if it was off it will start off).

Open (in this Desktop Mode still) Steam > Settings > Controller > Desktop Configuration > Edit Layout. I was not able to set actions for the right four buttons (X, O etc.) because they already have the usual mapping like O for exiting. For the rest, I chose R1 as left mouse click, R2 for right mouse click, right joystick as Mouse, and I also set up the center Touchpad as Mouse for ease of use and backup option.

If in need of an on-screen keyboard, I press the PS and Square button. That is default enabled and doesn’t have to be set up.

I also changed the resolution to 1920x1080, made the TV the primary screen and turned the other off in the settings so nothing accidentally opens on the Steam Deck screen and the UI elements aren’t so extremely small. This might reduce video quality for you, but is optional anyway, so feel free to not do that or increase resolution again as needed.

browser

So far, this setup means the console will start up in Gaming Mode and I can game on the TV with an external controller. Should I want YouTube or streaming services, I’ll switch over to Desktop Mode, having previously ensured the controller would be usable so I can navigate from the couch. I downloaded LibreWolf (my preferred fork of Firefox, choose whatever you like) and set it up with my usual browser extensions like uBlock, Sponsorblock and more. I set YouTube as startpage for ease of use. The Desktop Mode remembers what was open last time I closed it or the console shut down, so switching into it, everything should be open already or quickly open. It might be weird at first to use the controller as a mouse and navigate around, but hey, at least I can block ads and sponsorships now and the browser can access anything, not just the apps that are on the console.

DVDs

I ordered an external DVD/CD drive. Make sure to read and research to make sure it isn’t just a burner and has both reading and writing, make sure you have the necessary space and hubs on the dock. Good to know: While I want to use this to watch DVDs, you can also play old CD games on the Deck this way.

For the DVD contents, VLC Player is enough. If not already installed, you can find it in the Discover section in Desktop Mode. Now, this is where the fun (sarcasm) really began in my case. Because while everyone online (even a person at Polygon) said they just downloaded VLC and was good to go, I discovered that mine didn't come with the necessary codecs to play my DVDs. Usually, VLC would ask you what codecs you want installed, but this installation just quietly installs VLC in the background and calls it a day.

No problem, I thought, I will just use the console (via pacman, the software that handles installing) to install a necessary library for it. Wrong!
For some reason, my Steam Deck had a root password set that I don't remember setting. You can find endless threads online of this happening to other people as well. It wasn't my Steam password, it wasn't the PIN for Desktop Mode, it wasn't the computer name or 123 or deck or steam, it wasn't even the temporary root password that Decky sets if you install it (in case you ever need that: it is 'Decky!'). I could not figure it out. So I had to follow this video to reset it.

Afterwards, I thought I was set. No. Valve sets the system to read-only by default. I had to sudo steamos-readonly disable to even write to it. Then I couldn't install anything because it couldn't find fakeroot or debugedit, because Valve removes these from their arch-based system for some reason. As I wanted to install them, the Deck wouldn't trust any keys and install would fail. So I went

sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
sudo pacman-key --populate holo
sudo pacman-key --init

(--init wouldn't work for me at all before doing the previous two).

That finally imported all fresh Arch PGP keys and resolved the trust issues (if only trust issues were this easy to resolve elsewhere).
Afterwards I installed fakeroot and debugedit via pacman. Next up I installed yay (you can skip this one and keep using pacman, but I love yay and using the AUR, sorry).

Then, and only then, could I install libdvdcss. The only thing that stood between me and the DVD contents. After this successfully installs is when you should sudo steamos-readonly enable to reenable the protection again. I may or may not have put that off... anyway, a quick test and now everything worked.

The process for viewing DVDs in this mode is letting the system recognize it (usually a popup and a little CD symbol in the tray), mount it and right-click > Open in VLC Media Player. It will begin to play if everything worked out. If not, the title will flash briefly at the top before the VLC screen remains black. That was what had happened to me before.

There's also the option of adding VLC to Steam Gaming Mode by right-clicking it on Desktop Mode and clicking 'Add to Steam'. You then can use it as Non-Steam Game in the Gaming Mode and no longer have to switch into Desktop Mode.
Please know that unless you set a Controller Layout before you launch it, you can't use the controller within it to navigate the menu. Set it up in the Controller Settings (the little controller symbol on the right when you are in the Library and have selected VLC Player) like you did in Desktop Mode. Afterwards, when you launch it, it's covering the entire screen and you have to go to Media > Open Disc > Play.

Note: Blu-ray is a lot more difficult to get running because of the DRM encryption. I have no need to run Blu-rays yet (and only have a DVD player), but if you need to, there’s libbluray, libaacs and libbdplus by VideoLAN. Depending on whether your Blu-ray uses AACS or BD+, one of those might work. They don’t come with keys necessary to decrypt for legal reasons, but you can find key database files online that you can import. Death to Blu-ray, man¹. More info in the Arch Wiki.

Anyway, that is my setup right now and what I did to make it work. It may not be glamorous and using it is not as smooth as other devices, but hey - I like to learn, I like to use what I have instead of buying a new console/whole DVD player, and I like to have some control over my media and the ads I am exposed to. It was a worthwhile trade-off for now. I can probably also just hook the external DVD drive up to the TV, but I haven't tried yet.

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Published 25 Jul, 2025

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