Random Tech Questions you want answered.

LMBTFY

Alas, there is no URL and no way I can right click it... it is a video in a private message sent to me. I googled and binged already

Yeah, and it comes with a lovely rca to 3.5mm cable too for my sound card.

Here you go pic

Asked to send it in whatsapp, so problem is solved - but it is strange that it doesn't work.

Remote Play with Steam Link?

Dumb thought - can you not just turn the monitors OFF on the host machine?

Will there be a break or window of time where she could turn around and turn your monitor(s) off?

Can you just minimize the Steam window on the originating machine? That's the concern, right? Probably need to turn the sound off, though.

Edit - Turns out the game has to maintain focus; so, no, can't minimize the game.

Things like Steam Link rely on the host computer to render the game to a screen. There are HDMI/Display Port virtual monitors you can connect you your computer and tell the game to use that instead of the main monitor. But that might be too hacky a solution. Another idea might be to use Windows multiple desktop feature and move the game to another desktop. Steam Link might still be able to capture the game on the other desktop while your monitor is displaying the main desktop. You would have to try this as I am only speculating.

This is what I do.

I stream to my Steam Deck a lot, using both Steam Link and Sunshine.

They both work fine when the monitor is off (but plugged in). I think turning your monitor and speakers off is genuinely the most reliable solution. Although maybe this varies depending on the monitor, I have two Dell Ultrasharps and when the screens are off I can still use Sunshine/Steam Link.

You're right that in theory the audio isn't played on the host (with Sunshine you can send it to a virtual "sink" and Steam has its own remote audio equivalent). But in practice this... does not always work.

Does it usually work? Sure. Would it be super embarrassing if the one time it didn't, your partner was in a work meeting? Might depend on the game and volume.

The virtual desktop approach won't work due to the same conclusion Robear came to with minimizing the game. Both Steam Link and Sunshine are just streaming your desktop. They're not capturing a specific application or window. If you move the game to a different desktop, it's still only going to display whatever desktop is currently in focus. I even double-checked this myself on my own desktop just now to be sure.

I'm not sure about that dummy HDMI adapter though, I don't have one to test. I think even if it does work you're going to run into hassles. When you're using multiple monitors, Steam can be very, very difficult when it comes to forcing it to choose a specific one when you launch a game. Try a search of "Steam Remote Play opens on wrong monitor" or "Force Steam Link to use primary monitor" to get a taste, and that's when you're just using two regular physical monitors.

I finally got tired of having to get up to walk to my desktop when some games launched on the wrong screen. And sometimes the same game will even alternate between which screen it launches on. Which remember, since it's only streaming your desktop, means that sometimes all I saw when a game launched was a blank desktop if it launched on the wrong monitor.

Instead, when I'm not using my desktop I switch the settings in Windows to display only on monitor 1, then turn both screens off.

In theory it seems like if you did have one of those dummy adapters, worst case scenario you could connect via remote desktop, open the Windows display settings, and change it to only display on the dummy HDMI display. But the amount of effort does seem dwarfed by the simplicity of Jonman's original suggestion. Otherwise, consider me another vote for Legion's idea of a Rube Goldberg blanket device.

If your office is shared and you have enough space to just keep a divider present at all times, a permanent spin on that idea would be using a divider. I have one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Q8DWJ4H

Build quality is you get what you pay for, but it's fine. On the bonus side, it could probably double as a projector screen if you get the white one. But then the flashing images on the monitor will shine through a bit and may be distracting if they're in the background of your partner's Zoom call. (I have a white one, so I'm not sure how much better black may be at preventing that.)

If you're willing to pay for a software solution, Parsec's "Virtual monitors" or "Privacy Mode" features seem like they're similar to what you're looking for.

But those features are only available on the paid version.

My hunch is that you're overloading OBS's ability to keep the audio in sync by having multiple mikes in different locations (and thus out of sync time-wise) all requiring processing to remove background noise and figure out what sounds are important. Maybe go to one mic on the audience side, and one for the speaker, since the speaker will be close enough to it that the software has no problem sorting out background noise.

Could be a decent way to test, too...

How dim can you make it?

Zombie, have you tried a separate mixer program? I use VoiceMeeter Banana and feed that into OBS and it works great.

Might want to ping the Streamers with Jobs thread too since there might be more people with OBS experience looking in there.

1. Does the hardware mixer have a monitor jack? When these issues are happening in the stream, is someone sure that the mixer is sounding good. I know that you said zoom sounded great but just to rule out the mixer entirely.

2. Are all the devices being sampled the same (ex: 24bit 44khz). I have had similar issues in the past where one input is at 44khz and another is at 48khz and I would get crackling. Also, make sure OBS is matching what your input is. Is the stream running at the same sample rate as your devices?

3. Are you running any audio suppressors/compressors in OBS? By default OBS does not do anything to the audio except encode it into the video stream. If you added one, then it can be messing with things.

From my experience if it isn't a sample rate issue, it is a buffer issue. When I used to use Voicemeeter Banana, I would get crackling audio all the time on my microphone. I would increase the buffer in Voicemeeter to the maximum and while it still happened, it wouldn't be as bad. It is the reason I stopped using Voicemeeter and got Virtual Audio Cable (VAC). But I wouldn't expect there to be a buffer issue given that you are not using software like Voicemeeter. But it could be a buffer issue in the audio driver. How is the mixer connected to the PC? Line In 3.5mm? USB?

Kazar, the mixer is a Pyle 4-channel PMXU46BT

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...

The laptop connects to the mixer via its USB port. It does have a monitor port on it and I just need to get some good headphones that block out the external sounds since I'm in the same room as everyone as they're speaking.