Surround sound will not work

[Wafflesauce]

I've been at this issue for a while, I have my media PC that I stream to plugged into 5.1 surround sound receiver on my TV. My windows settings on said PC is set to 5.1 surround sound. When I go into my client settings it auto detects my speaker configuration as 5.1.

The issue is that my host computer seems to not be sending a surround sound signal at all. It's only sending a stereo signal that the system then shamelessly slaps over the surround sound system. My best theory is there's some issue because I don't have any surround sound device plugged into my host PC it just won't work which...kinda sucks.

If there's any advice for circumventing this issue it'd be greatly appreciated.

[_I_]

what client are you using?

you can try grabbing steams streaming speakers from gethub
https://github.com/FCGWolfe/SteamLinkAudioDrivers

make sure to set windows audio to the streaming speakers, and set them to 5.1

[Wafflesauce]

Originally posted by _I_:

what client are you using?

you can try grabbing steams streaming speakers from gethub
https://github.com/FCGWolfe/SteamLinkAudioDrivers

make sure to set windows audio to the streaming speakers, and set them to 5.1

It is Windows to Windows streaming and I am seeing the steam streaming speakers available in my audio devices on my host machine. I can see they have 5.1 configuration available when I go to my audio control panel, right click on them, and hit "configure speakers" but according to my taskbar they only ever remain in stereo.

https://imgur.com/a/kHZSMgF
https://imgur.com/a/b1CtTJO

From what I read online steam's supposed to work by reading the speaker configuration on the client machine then automatically applying that to the streaming speakers on the host but it's not. It's only remaining in stereo despite the fact my client machine, in its remote play settings, is auto detecting a 5.1 speaker configuration.

[_I_]

what does it do when you hit the test button?

[Wafflesauce]

On my client machine that's actually plugged into the sound system it does what I expect it to do when I hit the test button on the receiver's audio device. It plays a jingle tone through each of the corresponding speakers in the setup.

On my host machine I kinda can't tell since it's on the other side of the house from my sound system. I have gone to it while it's streaming a game, alt tabbed and hit the test while it's running and heard the test sounds come from the other room but I can't really sprint back in time to check if it's using the proper surround sound channels or still just sending stereo, I'd need to call a friend to help me out with testing that part.

But considering the steam speakers still had no spatial sound option applied that said 5.1 on my host I'm going to guess it was still just sending a stereo signal to my client.

[Wafflesauce]

This is what the audio device in my taskbar on my client PC looks like
https://imgur.com/a/KMxOCO8

And this is what my client streaming settings are
https://imgur.com/a/Y9A8xk1

You can see it's auto detecting the 5.1 configuration on the clientside.

I have also checked to make sure it's not just the games in question I'm playing having either borked or non-existant surround sound support. This client PC is running an i5-4670k with a GTX980 while my host is running an RTX3070 with an R75800x. I basically fixed up my old PC for use on my TV after getting a new one.

While obviously not hitting 4K with them when running natively on my client, trying titles like NieR Automata, MGSV, and whatnot do reveal they are not using proper surround sound when being streamed from my host.

The most recent game I've been playing that inspired me to finally ask for help on this was Forza 5 because when it slaps stereo audio over 5 speakers you end up with a full five channels of engine sound without clear direction and it's not great.

[_I_]

add the steam link app to a phone to stream to control the host desktop

[RiscIt]

Did you ever get this working? Having the same issue using remote play for Hogwarts Legacty from my desktop gaming PC to our living room media PC. Both support, and are connected to, 5.1 speaker systems. Everything appears to be set to 5.1 but all I get is stereo.

[toastemeister]

Same issue when using the Steam client (aka PC to PC) on the client side. Fixed using the Steam Link Application for Windows (the standalone application for streaming available from https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay) on the same client. Bizarre that the Client implementation is somehow different than the Steam Link application implementation. It would be nice if Valve could fix this because it is easier to use the Steam Client to launch games on the remote side than with the Steam Link Application.

[CrowDh]

Still a good work around in 2024
Sad that Windows to Windows doesn’t support surround… even when both systems have it working perfectly.

Originally posted by toastemeister:

Same issue when using the Steam client (aka PC to PC) on the client side. Fixed using the Steam Link Application for Windows (the standalone application for streaming available from https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay) on the same client. Bizarre that the Client implementation is somehow different than the Steam Link application implementation. It would be nice if Valve could fix this because it is easier to use the Steam Client to launch games on the remote side than with the Steam Link Application.

[_I_]

windows supports surround, 5.1/7.1/atmos
just windows alerts or whatever wav it uses are only stereo

games can do surround with no problem

if the host has a 5.1 speaker config and its properly set in windows audio and sound card control panel, it works with no problem

if not, you need to use steam streaming speakers, which sets the speaker count when you connect ot the steam link client
on the steam link client, settings -> streaming -> advanced