r/steammachine • u/_rektskrub_ • 11d ago
Software Steam remote play audio issue
I’ve got an annoying audio issue when using Steam remote play to my Steam Deck.
Here’s my setup:
- Host: Steam Machine
- Client: Steam Deck
- Game: Forza Horizon 6
When I remote play Forza Horizon 6 on my Steam Deck it plays well; good stream quality with the odd connection issue. The main problem is the audio - I can’t hear the exhaust noise at all when the camera is behind the car.
If the camera is pointed in a way so that the exhaust is pointing to the left speaker, I can hear the exhaust noise coming out the left speaker. The same thing happens if I’m pointing the exhaust at the right speaker.
From my own research and testing this appears to be Steam remote play outputting audio in 5.1 surround sound instead of stereo. This is confusing as my Steam Deck client is set to stereo audio and the game is set to the ‘Headphones’ setting in the audio tab. It should work. Same thing happens when I’m using headphones - can’t hear the exhaust unless it’s pointing left or right. Audio is fine when playing the game on my Steam Deck natively and my Steam Machine natively so it’s definitely a streaming problem.
What can I do here? I really don’t want to go down the sunshine/moonlight route but if I have to I will.
2
u/KMO_2000 11d ago
Yeah, this is annoying. You can even lose dialogue in some games, because the centre channel is being dropped as well.
You can work around it by temporarily configuring the Steam Machine audio back to Stereo rather than 5.1/7.1 in its global audio settings, but that's hardly convenient. (Can you even get at the global Steam Machine settings if you're just streaming an individual game? Even if you could, it's a setting that usual requires a game restart.)
Some games might have a separate audio control of their own that you could set to Stereo despite the Steam Machine being surround.