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[HELP] Very bad audio delay on multiple devices
Hello all! I'm grinding my gears trying to figure out this very specific problem I'm having with the audio, and I hope that you might be able to help. No matter what device I try to stream to (Fire TV, Google 4k Streamer, Apple TV, etc.), the video and control latency is acceptable but there is always a horrible half-second delay on the audio. I've tried every possible setting I can think of: updating my PC audio drivers, turning on uncompressed audio, making sure it's set to stereo audio, lowering or raising the available bandwidth, switching out from optical to HDMI for the sound bar under in my TV, using the TV speakers instead of my sound bar. No matter what steamer box or settings I've tried, the audio is badly delayed while the actual video stream looks great. I've attempted to contact Steam support on what I could try next, but they were sadly unable to help me any further.

Currently, I'm trying to run Steam Link from my Windows 11 PC to my Apple TV several rooms away over a 5ghz wi-fi mesh network, using Eero routers. The in-app benchmarking tool usually says that the signal is great (the default preset is set to '4k'), and the diagnostic graphs don't show any signs of apparent network stress or spikes. I am also using an older Samsung RU7100 TV from 2019, for what it's worth.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions on what arcane ritual I can consult to try and make this setup work. :steamthumbsup: Thank you!
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Showing 1-15 of 34 comments
_I_
Mar 2 @ 1:45pm 
if on lan/wifi make sure steam is using a direct connection instead of internet relays

make sure windows network is set to private not pulbic
disable any vpn
if using wifi, check router settings, disable wifi isolation
steam -> settings -> remote play -> allow direct = all/auto/my not disabled

check the streaming log on the host, post it on pastebin
or just the summary section here
..\steam\logs\streaming_log.txt
#1
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 2 @ 2:45pm 
Originally posted by _I_:
if on lan/wifi make sure steam is using a direct connection instead of internet relays

make sure windows network is set to private not pulbic
disable any vpn
if using wifi, check router settings, disable wifi isolation
steam -> settings -> remote play -> allow direct = all/auto/my not disabled

check the streaming log on the host, post it on pastebin
or just the summary section here
..\steam\logs\streaming_log.txt

Thank you for your reply. I've turned on the direct connection settings via Steam here on the host PC, and my wifi is already set to be private. Sadly it doesn't look like either of these made a difference, and I haven't found anything online to suggest that the Eero routers I'm using have wifi isolation turned on by default.

I made a pastebin of the log that came back from my last Steam Link session: https://pastebin.com/d4aj7xLh . I hope there can be something illuminating in here!
#2
Packetdancer  [developer]
Mar 2 @ 6:05pm 
Out of curiosity, if you try streaming to your phone (using the Android or iOS app there) do you also see the audio delay?
#3
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 2 @ 6:32pm 
Originally posted by Packetdancer:
Out of curiosity, if you try streaming to your phone (using the Android or iOS app there) do you also see the audio delay?

I do, even when I'm sitting with my Samsung phone right next to the host PC. Even more strange, the ONE device I own that doesn't have the awful audio latency I have on every other that I've tried... is an iPad pro I bought way back in 2018. Very odd.

I've attached the pastebin of the log streaming to this iPad here: https://pastebin.com/pKZMWSeJ . Maybe cross examination will reveal more about what is happening? Either way, I appreciate any potential insight.
#4
_I_
Mar 3 @ 5:08pm 
the log looks fine to me

network is 8ms which is ok on wifi but it should be closer to 1-2ms on lan

stream will be 1-2 frames behind the host, and its audio should be in sync with the clients video

i know some android tvs have increasing audio delay on their hdmi inputs when watching them for hours
#5
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 4 @ 4:10pm 
Originally posted by _I_:
the log looks fine to me

network is 8ms which is ok on wifi but it should be closer to 1-2ms on lan

stream will be 1-2 frames behind the host, and its audio should be in sync with the clients video

i know some android tvs have increasing audio delay on their hdmi inputs when watching them for hours
For what it's worth, I attempted to connect the Apple TV I'm trying to stream on to a monitor other than the TV I've been using. The audio lag sadly remained, if maybe SLIGHTLY less. Very annoying that I can't get rid of it. :steamfacepalm:

I noticed in the logs that the stream heading to my iPad, where the audio latency seems more acceptable, switches to a separate audio encoder 3 on line 15 rather than encoder 1 going to my TV. Could anyone know what that might mean?
#6
Packetdancer  [developer]
Mar 4 @ 4:46pm 
Hm... 'codec' 1 is just uncompressed raw audio. That suggests to me that the difference is maybe not the actual *client*, but rather that your network might be getting saturated, and sending the compressed audio is helping keep from having things get backed up.

Hit up the Streaming settings on the client side (Apple TV, Fire TV, etc.) and go to Customize, then see if Uncompressed Audio is enabled? If it is, try disabling it.
#7
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 4 @ 5:07pm 
Originally posted by Packetdancer:
Hm... 'codec' 1 is just uncompressed raw audio. That suggests to me that the difference is maybe not the actual *client*, but rather that your network might be getting saturated, and sending the compressed audio is helping keep from having things get backed up.

Hit up the Streaming settings on the client side (Apple TV, Fire TV, etc.) and go to Customize, then see if Uncompressed Audio is enabled? If it is, try disabling it.
I've disabled uncompressed audio in the Steam Link app on the Apple TV and I'm sad to report that it didn't make a difference in audio latency. The new logs even show that it did make the switch to audio encoder 3. https://pastebin.com/Yi8EsE5E

I appreciate your suggestion though. I'm sorry this issue is proving to be so stubborn! :steamsad:
#8
Packetdancer  [developer]
Mar 5 @ 4:45pm 
I'd be curious what happens if you tried on the Samsung phone again, this time with the uncompressed audio disabled. (Or connected the Apple TV to the monitor again.)

The fact that you're seeing no audio latency on the iPad makes me feel like maybe there were two things at play: the uncompressed audio saturating the local net (causing the delay to still be there on the phone, or the Apple TV when connected to a monitor), combined with an audio delay on the TV itself.

The other thing I'd try would be going into the streaming customization for whatever you have plugged into the TV, and changing the audio buffer to 10ms instead of 20ms while also having the uncompressed audio disabled...
#9
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 7 @ 4:42pm 
Originally posted by Packetdancer:
I'd be curious what happens if you tried on the Samsung phone again, this time with the uncompressed audio disabled. (Or connected the Apple TV to the monitor again.)

The fact that you're seeing no audio latency on the iPad makes me feel like maybe there were two things at play: the uncompressed audio saturating the local net (causing the delay to still be there on the phone, or the Apple TV when connected to a monitor), combined with an audio delay on the TV itself.

The other thing I'd try would be going into the streaming customization for whatever you have plugged into the TV, and changing the audio buffer to 10ms instead of 20ms while also having the uncompressed audio disabled...
Disabling uncompressed audio on my Samsung phone has no impact on audio latency, but I did see the audio buffer setting and having that on 10ms has a BIG impact on improving things. It's still not perfect, but the audio latency is less and it definitely feels a lot better!

Sadly, the Apple TV version of the Steam Link app doesn't have the audio buffer setting where it is on the phone. I'm not able to change that on there, as a result.

What do we think this says about what might be going on for my setup, networking wise?
#10
Packetdancer  [developer]
Mar 9 @ 10:08am 
An improvement with a 10ms buffer on Samsung phones doesn't surprise me; I've seen similar results on my own Samsung phone. Samsung is happiest with tiny little nibbles of audio data.

The audio buffer setting on Android is mostly because the Android audio APIs sometimes (by which I mean, quite frequently) don't actually report what buffer size the hardware in use wants and thus Steam Link has to guess. But some devices want a smaller buffer size (because they will slow down slightly and fall behind with larger ones) while other ones (projectors in particular) want to work on really big blocks at once, or else they hiccup/stutter/crackle. So exposing the value to let folks experiment and tune was the best approach.

I would be curious if you see a similar improvement on one of the Android TV devices you would hook up to the TV, if you tweaked the audio buffer values there. (And if so, whether it might be worth exposing the same sort of audio buffer setting on tvOS...)
#11
Packetdancer  [developer]
Mar 10 @ 9:42am 
The audio buffer setting should now be available on iOS/tvOS as well, if you wanted to try it with the Apple TV.
#12
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 14 @ 1:03pm 
Originally posted by Packetdancer:
The audio buffer setting should now be available on iOS/tvOS as well, if you wanted to try it with the Apple TV.
I am sad to report that the new audio buffer settings don't make a difference on the Apple TV, no matter what ms number setting I put it at. I've made a new pastebin log here: https://pastebin.com/9ahuJiMK

Does anyone else have any suggestions for what I might try here? I'm basically at the end of my rope on this, I fear. :steamsad:
#13
DavidsonVROOM
Mar 14 @ 2:20pm 
For what it's worth, I also just attempted to use Moonlight and the Apollo host app and I experienced the exact same audio delay as I do on Steam Link. Whatever is having an impact on my setup doesn't seem to be app related?
#14
Packetdancer  [developer]
Mar 16 @ 10:47am 
Originally posted by DavidsonVROOM:
For what it's worth, I also just attempted to use Moonlight and the Apollo host app and I experienced the exact same audio delay as I do on Steam Link. Whatever is having an impact on my setup doesn't seem to be app related?

Juuuust to double-check -- the monitor you tested plugging the Apple TV into had speakers, yes? I ask because I did run into a scenario where the audio was going to a Bluetooth sound bar regardless of whether it's plugged into the TV or the monitor, and the person did not mention it explicitly.

I only check because if you're seeing the exact same delay with Moonlight/Apollo, that suggests either hardware (which seems wrong if you tried the Apple TV on multiple devices), or something on the *encoding* side over on the host. I guess you could also try streaming from some different host (a laptop, a Steam Deck, whatever) just to see if you see the same delay *there*, but... I'm otherwise kind of running out of ideas, I confess.
#15
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Date Posted: Mar 2 @ 12:06pm
Posts: 34
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