First time poster, please be nice. Not the lowest price ever ($109) but still seems to be a nice discount, let me know if otherwise. Seems to have been popular in the past.
CamelCamelCamel.
My understanding is that you can bind your keys to any action (or multiple actions) your computer would make. I have macros set up to open regular files and programs, control volume and camera and microphone. Copy/cupast/paste are simple examples, but I also have keys set up to open my browser and multiple tabs of regularly used sites that interlink in some way.
Switching audio outputs
Speakers to headphones to Bluetooth source etc
I use it to control devices (lights, A/C, music) via home assistant, stream my security cameras to the buttons, and use MuteDeck for all the video conference controls.
Video editing. See other elgato listing
There's sooo many plugins that can extend the keys to do anything you like.
Some things I've done with mine:
1. Have quick shortcuts to Slack channels/direct messages
2. Show the number of open tickets assigned to me in JIRA
3. An MFA hotkey that types my MFA codes for me.
4. Hotkeys to control my soft phone. Answer/end/mute. Show busy status for my colleagues.
5. Arrange my windows 'just-so'. Puts Teams, Slack and Outlook onto one screen, in thirds.
6. Send commands to my home assistant (turn on/off aircon, set mode, temp etc)
you just gave me an idea - we have a really long pdf password at work that we use constantly on multiple files. Can I save that into this deck and hit a button instead?
Definitely!
Might also be able to use AHK to type it for you
@DiscountForThee: thank you. tried this but unfortunately IT rejected this app as it stores the pw in the PC/system memory unencrypted which they deemed risky
@ChatCPT: They may also reject a stream deck as the functions are stored in software, it doesn't save profiles to hardware and depends on the program to be running. Not sure if it does store plain text in RAM but I am guessing it does until told otherwise
how does the MFA hotkey part work?
Dedicated button for the Hub.
Absolutely - I'm a Business Manager in a school and bought one for my desk. One-button shortcuts to various programs / websites… stores keyboard commands and regularly used strings… there really isn't much you can't so with one of these - think of it as a fully customisable keyboard complete with LED screens to create customised colour buttons too.
I've even got a couple of buttons with Benny Hill and Circus music programmed, so whenever usual government incompetence strikes I can play the music and get a laugh out of everyone.
I use it for my Spotify controls, and most importantly shortcuts to all my Teams meeting like mute, reacts and hangup keys. I’m no streamer but this device is highly efficient for my daily work lol
As a Software Engineer I am only really it for shortcuts to programs, I couldn't really find a purpose for programming since all the hotkeys I use are easily done.
It at least makes keeping my taskbar clean without having everything pinned like I used to.
It makes life easier but I already had it so I didn't just buy it for using at work, I believe you can buy mechanical num pads and other items for a fraction of the price to achieve the same thing.
Don't stream - this thing is hands down a power users dream tool.
Theres so much you can do if you can be bothered to explore and then set it up once.
I have
I could go on, but if you want to do something particular there's probably a way to do it as theres a HUGE community scene to integrate and support anything and everything
6 key or 15 key?
I've had one of these for years and it can be pretty cool.
You assign stuff to the keys so you could assign one button to open all your work stuff or break it up so one button does a few that are often opened together.
Or you could assign one button to get ready for zoom call. Heaps of stuff.
I thought the big one would be good bu t half my buttons are stuff unassigned so maybe get this size or the smaller one if you're questioning it's usefulness.
I’m hoping this can be a Touch Bar replacement. The Touch Bar has been great in automating macros for key clicks, typing whole paragraphs, etc, when paired with BetterTouchTool. Sadly now gone from the latest Macs.
For good reason, physical keys are always better.
Not for everyone and not for all use cases.
For example the Touch Bar is great for scrubbing back and forward on video or audio tracks. I like the Touch Bar on the MBPs I still have and miss it on the new MBPs.
The valid criticism of the Touch Bar was the lack of a physical escape key which was a bad choice on Apple's behalf.
Surely you're not suggesting that you know your workflow better than some internet random?
And in the event that your Touch Bar breaks for whatever reason, you've lost access to all of your function keys at the same time. I agree, not for everyone. I shouldn't have been so generalised with my first comment sorry.
@ldd-mn: I'm not a fan of them either, but Apple people are weird and like weird stuff that Apple does :-)
@ldd-mn: Agree with this point that I hadn't considered; a malfunctioning Touch Bar is going to be pretty impactful compared to a key or two not working. In saying that, I've never had a Touch Bar malfunction myself but I am sure they can and do.
Physical keys are a limitation in my personal setup. Some may prefer it though. I have a physical escape key. The Touch Bar has buttons of different sizes according to label, they lead into submenus and submenus depending on my set up for that particular app, and can scroll across to reveal more. For example, when I’m writing reports, I often use the same phrases so I have about 100 preset “phrases”, ranging from 10 words to 5 paragraphs or tables. Can’t do that with physical keys as I wouldn’t remember where they are unless they are labelled. That’s what I’m hoping the Stream Deck can replicate.
I'm still not entirely sure I'm getting what makes these so popular - they're basically just a few extra keys that can be bound to actions/macros? If so, can't that already be done with current keyboards and people can just set some of their more redundant keys to perform tasks and/or assign additional shortcuts and/or reassign the behaviour of the F1-F12 keys?? A lot of keyboards these days already seem to have extra buttons anyways.
$150 and another piece of equipment on the desk seems excessive just to be able to press a button to launch a browser or program, especially when I can literally just click the icon that's already pinned to the taskbar. So presumably it's more than just the hardware, and comes with software and some super easy to use interface or something?
(Not trying to hate, genuinely hoping someone will enlighten me)
edit: found this link from the other Elgato deal which demonstrates it pretty well, largely irrelvant for me and my very unsmart home, but I guess I can see the appeal now. Also didn't realise you could cycle through functions and customise the button display. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkHoEwVyVw
It's very easy to set up and has a nice little picture of whats assigned to make it easier and pretty.
The buttons can actually show dynamic content. Some plugins update to show different states, and you can have different pages, and context sensitive swotching
It’s macros but with a marketplace of pre made ones including ones made by big companies. The teams integration is amazing, having buttons for all the video and voice controls along with showing if you’re muted etc.
I’ve got buttons that show current HDD space, cou usage, network speed, my ip address (useful when using different VPNs), ones for different visual studio project builds and pipelines, etc.
Can you do some of it on a regular keyboard? Sure, but not as easily and not as well. Can you do all of it on a keyboard? Absolutely not.
The teams integration is amazing, having buttons for all the video and voice controls along with showing if you’re muted etc.
This. For me, it's worth it just for this alone.
I also use it to control Home Assistant and display sensor data such as humidity and temperature.
You cannot do remotely close to anything this does on a keyboard, as a pedantic power user I have tried for years and seen keyboard companies try for even longer (eg art lebedev keyboards)
The software is a big part of it, the community support to integrate anything and everything and the continual development is what you're really paying for when you buy elgato products.
Another way of looking at it, if your keyboard and software currently can do everything you want it to, then this isn't for you.
Some of my use cases from when I bought this years ago when it was more expensive
Not worth it when it was $300-$400 but at $150 it would be useful for some people. Take a look at the plugin page to see what's possible
https://marketplace.elgato.com/stream-deck/plugins?app=strea…
Stream deck mini is also $79 which probably suits my wfh use case more. Lowest price of all time according to CCC
https://www.amazon.com.au/Corsair-Elgato-Stream-Deck-Mini/dp…
Already up to $115.80 for me
Full price now :(
Back to $180
Back to $180 for me
So as a person who just plays games and sometimes has youtube or netflix in the background playing on my other monitor. is this worth it in anyway? What do people like to use this for?
Probably not. You can do volume controls per program on it so you can control the different applications volumes easily and independently.
See my other comments - give the mobile app a go to see! It’s free and has the exact same functionality.
For anyone that doesn’t know what these are for or if they’d use it - there’s a mobile/tablet app of it now that lets you have 6 buttons for free ($80 lifetime license for 64 buttons). Simply install the software on your pc and the app in your phone/tablet. Super simple setup and works lag free and instantly. Install it and play around if you’re not sure.
where is this found? elgato website?
yeah i have 2 of these at home good to have one for my gaming pc one for my mac.
This is cool but if you don't want to spend, powertoy can do some basic macro things from my memory. For more advanced, AHK does good jobs if you trust it. Some keyboards like razor also have customisable key setting.
Anyonw know of a cheaper alternative that you can find on aliexpress?
The elgato stream deck app on your phone is free for 6 buttons. Works exactly the same as the hardware version.
Anything cool that I could use this for when WFH to make my life a bit easier? No desire to be a Twitch streamer.