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5.1 not outputting from my motherboard?

tinpanalley

tinpanalley

Golden Member
I've got a Gigabyte Z68A-D3-B3 which is supposed to have 5.1 audio via optical. I've got an optical cable hooked up to my receiver and I still can't get a 5.1 signal out of my computer. I've got HDMI from my GPU sending video to my TV. Can anyone help me out with this?
 
Your audio is probably being routed through the HDMI. Have you disabled the HDMI Audio output and switched it to the TOSLINK Optical SPDIF output under Audio Playback Devices in Windows?
 
Optical is limited to 2.0 PCM. 5.1 through optical is only available via Dolby Digital or DTS. So even after you get to where nenforcer suggests... you can only test that it works by bitstreaming DD or DTS.

Perhaps instead of PC -> HDMI -> TV. You'll need to do PC -> HDMI -> RECEIVER -> HDMI -> TV. If you want 5.1 or 7.1 PCM. You will also need to ensure that your receiver is setup to be the audio device in it's settings. It often is by default.
 
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razel said:
Perhaps instead of PC -> HDMI -> TV. You'll need to do PC -> HDMI -> RECEIVER -> HDMI -> TV.
Click to expand...
Can't do that. My receiver doesn't have HDMI input so I send video via HDMI to a switcher then into the TVs HDMI in, and the audio I send to an audio switcher that sends all my optical to my receiver.
 
Oh well... then you are just left with 2.0 PCM or 5.1 through DD or DTS. Sounds like an old receiver. I wouldn't take that badly. The older ones are better built and more powerful. I'm currently shopping for a new one and am settling on one from 2010!
 
nenforcer said:
Your audio is probably being routed through the HDMI. Have you disabled the HDMI Audio output and switched it to the TOSLINK Optical SPDIF output under Audio Playback Devices in Windows?
Click to expand...
By the way, yes I've done that, but only disabling the main PC speakers. The HDMI doesn't show up at all probably because it's on a DVI to HDMI adapter. Regardless, still can't get a 5.1 signal in games or confirmed 5.1 movies.
 
Firstly as has been mentioned Optical connections can only handle uncompressed 2.0 signals, but there are ways around this.

Is there an option in your drivers to encode DTS or Dolby Digital on the fly and send this to your receiver? sometimes you have to configure the driver to 5.1 and then select speakers instead of optical in windows playback devices in order for this to work. You also might need additional drivers or components/modules of a driver for this to work. I had to pay $3 to creative for the DTS module for my X-FI to do this, although I rarely use it unless I need to use the soundcard's features like Smartvolume now that HDMI is working properly.

This link should have more info for your particular chip:

This will work for games but it won't be optimal for movies as you will effectively be compressing the already compressed movie soundtrack, basically making it go through DTS compression twice.

The best way to watch movies is by bitstreaming the original DTS/DD audio to the receiver for it to decode instead of the computer.

You can configure MPC to bitstream like this: (I'd also recommend MadVR for visuals.)

Note you won't have enough bandwidth for any of the uncompressed HD codecs, you'll need HDMI for that.

You can also use a winamp wasapi plugin like this to bypass all the windows re-sampling and get cleaner music to your receiver.

Make sure you tick all the boxes in the exclusive tab of the plugin options EXCEPT for the 2 resample options.
 
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i7Baby said:
Switch to surround sound on your receiver.
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2.0 surround, or "simulated theater" or 5-ch stereo is not 5.1. When something has been mixed for 5 channels it's a meticulous process that splits parts of the signal to different speakers. It's not just the same thing coming out of 5 speakers.
 
Deders said:
Firstly as has been mentioned Optical connections can only handle uncompressed 2.0 signals, but there are ways around this.
Click to expand...
Do you mean, from this motherboard and from a PC, because obviously optical CAN carry 5.1.
Deders said:
Is there an option in your drivers to encode DTS or Dolby Digital on the fly and send this to your receiver?
Click to expand...
I just double checked and in the 'Supported Formats' tab of the spdif properties, I have selected and tested successfully signal being sent to all 5 of my speakers and subwoofer on DTS and Dolby Digital from 32-96 kHz and also disabled HDMI as an audio output.
Deders said:
The best way to watch movies is by bitstreaming the original DTS/DD audio to the receiver for it to decode instead of the computer.
Click to expand...
These files I'm trying to watch are ON my computer though.

Thanks for all this help! Very useful. Still trying unsuccessfully. :\
 
tinpanalley said:
Do you mean, from this motherboard and from a PC, because obviously optical CAN carry 5.1.
I just double checked and in the 'Supported Formats' tab of the spdif properties, I have selected and tested successfully signal being sent to all 5 of my speakers and subwoofer on DTS and Dolby Digital from 32-96 kHz and also disabled HDMI as an audio output.
These files I'm trying to watch are ON my computer though.

Thanks for all this help! Very useful. Still trying unsuccessfully. :\
Click to expand...

It can carry compressed 5.1 like DTS or dolby digital, but not uncompressed PCM in anything more than stereo.

As for Bitstreaming, you play the files on your computer and instead of the computer translating the DTS or DD sound and sending the result to your receiver, it bitstreams the raw data to the receiver for it to decode and play
in sync with your video.
 
Deders said:
It can carry compressed 5.1 like DTS or dolby digital, but not uncompressed PCM in anything more than stereo.
Click to expand...
Ok, cool. Like I said, I can get those test to work sending signals to all 5 speakers but none of my video content or games does it.

Deders said:
As for Bitstreaming...
Click to expand...
I go optical audio out to audio splitter/selector with other optical inputs, then out from there to the only optical in on my receiver.
 
For movies (with Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 soundtrack) maybe it is a matter of the media player used.

For games you need to have a sound card capable of DTS Connect/DTS Interactive (to encode on the fly the 5.1 audio stream to DTS 5.1) and/or Dolby Digital Live (to encode on the fly the 5.1 audio stream to Dolby Digital 5.1).

For Realtek audio, if you do not have DTS Connect/DTS Interactive or Dolby Digital Live with the original drivers, you may get those functions using some modified drivers such as these.

Does your TV have an Optical Out? You might try to output the sound via HDMI to the TV (like you did initially) and from there to the receiver via optical cable. I think that for movies it may work for 5.1 sound.
 
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tinpanalley said:
Ok, cool. Like I said, I can get those test to work sending signals to all 5 speakers but none of my video content or games does it.

I go optical audio out to audio splitter/selector with other optical inputs, then out from there to the only optical in on my receiver.
Click to expand...

So when you say all 5 speakers, does it test each speaker individually or does the sound come from more than one speaker at once.

Having DTS and DD ticked in the sound properties means that it is capable of sending already encoded DTS and DD signals to your receiver, not necessarily encoding them on the fly which is what you will want for games.
 
Deders said:
So when you say all 5 speakers, does it test each speaker individually or does the sound come from more than one speaker at once.
Click to expand...
Each speaker individually. Calling them all by name, "left", "rear left", etc.
Deders said:
Having DTS and DD ticked in the sound properties means that it is capable of sending already encoded DTS and DD signals to your receiver, not necessarily encoding them on the fly which is what you will want for games.
Click to expand...
So I'm still not understanding why 5.1 isn't coming via my 5.1 capable motherboard into my 5.1 capable receiver?
 
just asking if you have 5.1 analog inputs on that receiver? it's a long shot but if you do it would be the best sound.
maybe state the model# and make
 
You are not going to get multichannel sound from games. As mentioned, you can only get multichannel sound through an optical cable via DD or DTS. Games (except maybe some pre-rendered cut scenes) are not in DD or DTS. Therefore, the only way to get multichannel game sounds through an optical cable would be with a motherboard or sound card that can do real time DD or DTS encoding. (Called DD Live & DTS Connect.)

For movies, if they have a DD or DTS soundtrack, you should be getting multichannel sound, as long as you are choosing the correct soundtrack. Most media players default to the stereo soundtrack. If the movies is using some other multichannel format, then you are SOL.

Finally, if you are using Windows 10, be aware that DD Live/ DTS Connect are currently broken. This should be fixed in the November update.
 
tinpanalley said:
No. Just digital. It's a Yamaha HTR-6030.
Click to expand...

Look again. From the pictures of the back panel that I was able to find, there is multi channel analog audio input. So you can hook up your analog outputs on your motherboard to those analog inputs. That will give you multichannel sound in games. Movies might be an issue, since now your media player needs to decode the DD or DTS soundtrack and send the multichannel sound over the analog output. VLC should be able to do this, among others.

The other issue with going this route is that you are then using the DACs on your motherboard, bypassing the most-likely superior ones in the receiver. Of course, whether you would notice the difference in sound quality will mostly depend on the quality of your speakers.
 
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Most media players will decode DTS and DD signals automatically unless you tell them not to or there is a DTS/DD handshake with the receiver so they won't be a problem
 
OlyAR15 said:
Therefore, the only way to get multichannel game sounds through an optical cable would be with a motherboard or sound card that can do real time DD or DTS encoding. (Called DD Live & DTS Connect.)
Click to expand...
Ok, cool. This is my motherboard. Obviously I'll need a dedicated audio card. I have a media player for movies so this was just for games that are encoded in 5.1. Thanks for the help.
 
Ok, just to clarify, most movies and some TV programs are usually already encoded in Dolby or DTS. This can be bitstreamed straight to the receiver if the right software is told to do so.

Games don't automatically encode sound to a bitstream. You have to get the soundcard to do this on the fly, it takes the surround information (you still have to tell windows how many speakers it has to cater for) and encodes it in a format your receiver can then decode and send to your speakers.

This thread might help

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...igital-live-and-dts-interactive.193148/page-3
 
If your using the onboard sound on your motherboard well that is your problem i have several friends using those boards and there a major pain. Solve your problem,buy a good soundcard or better then ditch the Gigabyte board get a top end Asus motherboard and a Asus soundcard and from there sweet sailing.
 
Can anyone recommend good sound cards that will simply give me the following?

- I'd like to be able to encode 24-bit from input devices. I capture audio from analog sources.
- I'd like to get 5.1 audio via optical. For videos and the occasional game that offers it.

That's really it. Thanks!
 
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