protonscr

Background Game Recording has a significant audio delay

steamopen Streaming
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#11892 · opened 2025-04-08 by november781 · updated 2026-06-15 · 14 comments · github
Nnovember781 2025-04-08 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): 1743554648
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Fedora 41
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: yes
  • Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
  • GPU: AMD primary with a secondary Nvidia GPU.

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

When using Steam Background Recording Audio is delayed by about a second and a half / two seconds. This is replicable across multiple games, with and without other software like OBS running. The delay is present after clip export, not just in the clip viewer. The delay also occurs regardless of the proton version being used to run the game. Delay is also present both in gamescope and outside gamescope.

an example can be found here https://youtu.be/sSayPvibDp4

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Enable Background recording
  2. Launch any game, only really tested with proton games
  3. check the recording after for the delay
Ff35f0ef9d0e827dae86552d3899f78fc 2025-04-18 github

My issue is not exactly the same, so maybe irrelevant. What happens is only my microphone audio is delayed, but all other audio is not.

CCarragos 2025-05-04 github

I have exactly the same issue on Windows 11.

NNaturalBornCamper 2025-05-20 github

It's been so long since Steam recording has been released, I can't believe this is still a problem. It's so annoying to have to edit all videos manually to resync the audio. It gets worse the longer the recording is. I thought Steam Recording was such a Godsend but the hell with this, I'm going to start using OBS

CCarragos 2025-05-23 github

@NaturalBornCamper You could try out Medal.tv, interestingly enough I do not have any issues with their recording software.
However, Medal.tv is quite locked down and cloud based, so not sure if that is your cup of tea.

I am wondering if the delay has anything to do with the type of encoding one chooses, e.g. H265, H264 or AV1

NNaturalBornCamper 2025-05-23 github

Checked out medal.tv, would definitely have tried it if it wasn't only for clips. I need to record longer sessions. Thanks though.
And you got a point, maybe the delay is with H264 (Didn't try HEVC), or could be when using hardware encoding.. Whatever the reason, I moved on because of the delays + the darker image than in-game + Somehow the video container making aviDemux crash.

EExpandingShapes 2025-10-08 github

Same problem. Btw Medal.tv is Windows only

CCarragos 2025-10-08 github

Same problem. Btw Medal.tv is Windows only

Thanks for adding that! I didn't know that.

Update btw.: In some games even Medal is lagging behind?!
I'm a bit confused.

My bet is still on the GPU and the encoding.
Are we all running NVIDIA GPUs?

Currently I have a RTX 4080 SUPER.

EExpandingShapes 2025-11-17 github

My bet is still on the GPU and the encoding. Are we all running NVIDIA GPUs?

No, I'm using an AMD GPU. Anyway I moved to GPU sreen recorder, it has so many features and works just fine

Hhugoboissiere 2026-02-08 github

I also have the same problem, using wayland on KDE plasma and with an AMD GPU. That coupled with the fact i often get an error when trying to watch my background recording makes the feature really annoying to use, which is a shame considering how useful it is in theory

Ff35f0ef9d0e827dae86552d3899f78fc 2026-02-21 github

My issue is not exactly the same, so maybe irrelevant. What happens is only my microphone audio is delayed, but all other audio is not.

I do not have any audio problems with the background game recording anymore. It is working great! I do not think I changed anything. In the Steam settings, I have mono off and gain control off.

Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.9-arch1-2 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.0 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

NNaturalBornCamper 2026-02-21 github

I do not have any audio problems with the background game recording anymore. It is working great! I do not think I changed anything. In the Steam settings, I have mono off and gain control off.

Didn't see anything about a bugfix? Hopefully it's not because your computer's settings or hardware changed and they really fixed it. I'll try to test on Windows in the following days but I'm not super attracted to the idea of recording a 2-3 hours video to then realize it's unsuable if the problem still exists XD

NNaturalBornCamper 2026-02-24 github

I tested with 2 games (Deep Rock Galactic and Helldivers 2), both times the recording's sound fit perfectly with the image after 2.5 hours of recording.
So either the problem is fixed (in Windows) and Steam didn't say anything about it, or my setup somehow changed and I was the problem all along

CCaptainSiscold 2026-05-31 github

Old thread, but I'm noticing the same issue on my system. Seems like it only happens off and on, and I can't seem to consistently recreate it.

Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.26.0
Qt Version: 6.11.1
Kernel Version: 7.0.10-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-Core Processor
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: B650 AORUS ELITE AX

Ffailsafe42 2026-06-15 github

Same issue here. The audio seems to get more and more out of sync the longer it has been recording.

Nothing extracted yet.