In Home Streaming sound pops and crackles constantly after update

[eyablon]

Just installed the Dec 9 2016 Steam update and in home streaming now has a constant popping / crackling sound using Steam for Mac as a client with a Windows 10 host. I have tested Kerbal Space Program and Stellaris and the issue is present in both.

The issue was not present prior to the Dec 9 update. That update did make changes to IHS sound:

http://store.steampowered.com/news/?feed=steam_client :

Fixed audio stuttering and dropout when streaming games to a Mac.

Sadly it seems like the cure is MUCH worse than the disease as I rarely had any stuttering or dropout previously but now have CONSTANT popping making In Home Streaming basically unusable.


Any ideas?

[ßèar]

The cracking and popping shoud be from the inability for your computer specs (partically your processor or graphics card now unable to accept all the new content, changes and updates added in the Dec update. The sound might be from the new 360 degrees sound they are testing, you can disable this by searching a topic called disabling HDFT? (Not quite sure what the intials are by it is pinned by valve) for csgo..

Hope you are able to find it, but if some reason you are unable to, reply to this thread and I willl find the link for you.

[eyablon]

I tested this on 4 other Macbook Pros and found the same issue. Finally found a workaround:

I was able to adjust the audio output bit rate on the Macbook Pro using the OS X built-in "Audio MIDI Setup" tool:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202968

When I changed the output device from the default 44.1khz 24-bit to 48khz 24-bit, all the clicking/popping seemed to go away.

I filed a support ticket with Steam so hopefully they will fix this bug in a future release and the workaround won't be required.

[Thorlokk]

Originally posted by eyablon:

I tested this on 4 other Macbook Pros and found the same issue. Finally found a workaround:

I was able to adjust the audio output bit rate on the Macbook Pro using the OS X built-in "Audio MIDI Setup" tool:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202968

When I changed the output device from the default 44.1khz 24-bit to 48khz 24-bit, all the clicking/popping seemed to go away.

I filed a support ticket with Steam so hopefully they will fix this bug in a future release and the workaround won't be required.

Thank you so much eyablon! This instantly fixed it for me too!

[scarlac (Mac)]

Originally posted by eyablon:

I tested this on 4 other Macbook Pros and found the same issue. Finally found a workaround:

I was able to adjust the audio output bit rate on the Macbook Pro using the OS X built-in "Audio MIDI Setup" tool:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202968

When I changed the output device from the default 44.1khz 24-bit to 48khz 24-bit, all the clicking/popping seemed to go away.

I filed a support ticket with Steam so hopefully they will fix this bug in a future release and the workaround won't be required.

This fixed the issue for me as well. It may be that the Windows host gaming machine is outputting in 24bit 48kHz and the client mac machine doesn't know how to handle the extra information (thus the crackling). One way to test it would be to reconfigure the host Windows machine to play in a lower quality but I'm too lazy to test it out :D

[zac]

I'm a bit surprised that this is an issue. macOS is the one OS that doesn't force resampling of audio streams. Steam must be doing something funny for video playback. Unfortunately, I doubt that fixing this is a priority for them. Thanks for the tip!

[Pin]

Originally posted by eyablon:

I tested this on 4 other Macbook Pros and found the same issue. Finally found a workaround:

I was able to adjust the audio output bit rate on the Macbook Pro using the OS X built-in "Audio MIDI Setup" tool:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202968

When I changed the output device from the default 44.1khz 24-bit to 48khz 24-bit, all the clicking/popping seemed to go away.

I filed a support ticket with Steam so hopefully they will fix this bug in a future release and the workaround won't be required.

You are a prince among men my friend

[khrabanaz]

Thank you so much! This fixed it for me.

[Ender]

Thank you so much! instant fix here. went with 48khz 24bit integer.


If I had to guess, their fix earlier in December probably solved a similar problem if one was already set at 48khz 24 bit? they just moved the problem from one sampling rate setting to another? Total speculation.