5.1 Audio Support for In-Home Streaming

[boyd]

Support for quadraphonic and 5.1 surround audio has been added to the latest Steam Beta Client when streaming from a Windows host. Your Windows host does not need to support 5.1 audio to use this feature; 5.1 audio can be recorded on a machine with 2 speakers and then played back on a client with a 5.1 setup.

To enable 5.1 audio support for In-Home Streaming, opt into the Steam Beta Client on your Windows host. If streaming to another computer running Steam, you will also need to opt that client into the Steam Beta Client. If streaming to a Steam Link, support is already included in the latest version of the Link firmware.

The Windows Steam Client and Steam Link will attempt to automatically detect the client side speaker configuration and enable 5.1 audio recording when appropriate. You can use the In-Home Streaming settings in the Steam Client and Steam Link to see what speaker configuration Steam detected and manually select a different configuration.

FAQ

What 5.1 audio can Steam record?
Steam currently only records 5.1 audio from processes launched through Steam. Other host system audio will be mixed with audio recorded from the game process as stereo audio.

Is 5.1 audio supported when streaming to a Linux or OSX client?
Yes, however you will need to go into the In-Home Streaming settings and select your speaker configuration manually.

Will streaming 5.1 audio from a Linux or OSX host be supported in the future?
We are investigating adding support to stream 5.1 audio from both platforms.

Will 7.1 audio support be added in the future?
We are investigating adding 7.1 audio support to both the Steam Client and Steam Link.

[Tucu]

Great news!

[Cdnr1]

nice now we need linux host support then its complete forget osx they suck :)

[tomaszg]

Great!

[EviLFazZ]

Thanks boyd of Valve ...and... yes please to 8Ch (7.1) audio support

[tomaszg]

How about some AC3/DTS passthrough option? Could be done by ALSA special device, but since audio probably already was compressed to stream, it would be a waste of computing power.

[Quad]

I hate to be a pain in the butt but what about the distortion issue (w/ the Steam Link)?

Play back a sine wave around 17kHz and you'll immediately hear what I'm talking about. All of the frequency range has the distortion, its just easiest to hear once you go above 15kHz. You can also easily make out the distortion around 240Hz (sounds kinda watery).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39407288/SteamLinkAudioQuality/High_Frequency_Distortion_(Direct_Recording).m4a/

Edit: I switched to OS X and It is even worse on OS X (also running the latest beta client).

EDIT: Bug seems to be with the Steam Client and not the Steam Link. The info here is still accurate, it just applies to all In-home streaming instead of only the Link.

Oops

[daaw_gees]

Damn, was really excited for this. Newest Beta causes the stream to fail as soon as I start it up. Anyone else?

[An Overburdened Warrior]

Damn, my steam link doesn't arrive til Monday! :(

[Blahman]

No audio in Rocket League and Project Cars, stereo in DIRT Rally. Anyone get this working, and if so which games?

[Dav]

Am I right to assume this only works through HDMI?

[RobotCaleb :|]]

No audio in Rocket League here, either.

[RobotCaleb :|]]

I also get music player playing with d-pad. Specifically in Rocket League.

[- DUHASSTMICH -]

Well, that's what I waiting for... ordering the steam link! :]

[werner]

Ok I have enabled 5.1 audio but I got some problems with some games. Sonic All Star Racing Transformed. I get 5.1 sound at the intro but then once I hit the main screen the sound fails entirely. Switching back to 2.0 sound fixes that. Sonic Generations, the game crashes if I enable 5.1 audio (black screen)
I am streaming to a Steam Link hooked to an Onkyo 646 surround sound receiver.
I will

[werner]

Also no sound in Rocket League and in Trine 2.