No 5.1 Surround Sound when streaming to Steam Link (stereo only)

steamclosed

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12243 · opened 2025-08-03 by Holzhaus · updated 2026-05-07 · 1 comments · github

HHolzhaus 2025-08-03 github

When streaming to Steam Link app on my Android TV, the AV receiver shows "Stereo" on the display and the sound also is not actual 5.1 audio, even though 5.1 audio is enabled in the Steam Remote Play settings.

After some googling I found this FAQ page which shows that it's actually not supported:

Steam Remote Play Audio Support

Steam supports streaming stereo (2 channel) audio from all streaming host operating systems to all streaming clients (including the Steam Link). Steam Clients running on Windows can also stream quadraphonic (4 channel) and 5.1 surround sound (6 channel) audio to all streaming clients.

[...]

What 5.1 audio can Steam record?

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

Is support planned at some point?

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2025-08-03 github

Hello @Holzhaus, there's enough recent discussion on #6150 to conclude that more than 2 audio channels is not summary blocked on Linux host side of Steam Remote Play.

Issues on the Steam Link for Android app side of Remote Play are not being tracked in this issue tracker. Feel free to post this question on the community forums at https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/4/.

Nothing extracted yet.