Steam Machine won't provide a console-like experience for media playback (yet)

Valve has just shaken up the PC and console markets with the announcement of the Steam Machine, a dedicated PC gaming rig designed to look and feel like a console.

With the announcement of the Steam Machine and two other pieces of Steam hardware, it has been revealed that media were invited to Valve to get the rundown on the upcoming hardware and to gather more details about the device that wasn't explained in the above announcement video.

Digital Foundry's Oliver MacKenzie explained in a recent video posted to the Digital Foundry YouTube channel that the Steam Machine currently doesn't have media playback capabilities on par with current-gen consoles, as the device doesn't come with native media streaming apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, etc. Instead, users will access all of these streaming platforms through a web browser. MacKenzie reports the Steam Machine has HDR functionality through the web browser, but the quality of that experience may not be the greatest in comparison to natively built apps.

• Read more: Valve says third-party Steam Machines may come with different levels of hardware
• Read more: Steam Machine can output 4K at 120Hz, but with a significant sacrifice

However, the lack of media streaming apps for the Steam Machine is only for the device's launch, as Valve has stated it wants to work with companies to create native apps to meet that need for users.

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"For media, I think the landscape has changed pretty significantly between the original Steam Machine's day and currently, where now the vast majority of that content is actually accessible through a normal web browser. So that will be a good initial layer of being able to get to all the content that you love. We would love to work with third parties to provide native apps and better integrated experiences for that," explains Valve

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From Digital Foundry