5.1 sound on games by VGA HDMI

[ricardo.vix]

Hello guys!

I have a HD6970 that I connect in my HT Sony SS370 through HDMI.

MY setup is: HD 6970 -> HDMI to Receiver -> HDMI to TV

I would like to know if it's possible to configure my sistem to have 5.1 sound in games. If yes, what should I do?? My windows is already configured to 5.1 (and I have 5.1 sound in movies without problem).

All that I need to do is setup 5.1 on control panel/sound and choose 5.1 sound in the game or there's anything else that I must do??

Thank you!

 

[cl-scott]

The game itself would need to have 6 channels worth of audio for "true" 5.1 audio. Otherwise, odds are your receiver will have a couple of options for upmixing stereo audio into 5.1 which would be your best bet. Also, at least in my experience, it's better to have Windows configured for stereo audio instead of 5.1, and then just use SPDIF passthrough for the surround sound audio in DVDs.

 

[mfenn]

You should be good to go as long as your game can actually produce 5.1 sound (like cl-scott said) and your receiver supports 6 channel LPCM encoding over HDMI. According to Sony's website, your receiver supports the following:

• 96k/24bit PCM : Yes
• Audio Modes : 11 (2 Movie, 3 Music, 5 A.F.D., 1 2ch)
• Digital Amplifier : Yes (S-Master® Digital Amplifier)
• Dolby® Digital Decoding : Yes
• Dolby® Digital EX Decoding : no
• Dolby® Pro Logic® Decoding : yes
• Dolby® Pro Logic® II Decoding : Yes
• LPCM : 2CH/5.1CH thru HDMI™
• dts® Decoding : Yes
• dts®-ES Decoding : no

You should be good to go.

 

[ricardo.vix]

But how do I configure this passthrough for games??

 

[mfenn]

Just set the HDMI audio device to be your default playback device in Windows, and set the speaker type to 5.1. Some games have their own audio settings too.

 

[ricardo.vix]

Just set the HDMI audio device to be your default playback device in Windows, and set the speaker type to 5.1. Some games have their own audio settings too.

Thank you very much!

 

[cl-scott]

But how do I configure this passthrough for games??

Not sure I've ever run across a single PC game with 5.1 audio in it. There may well be some out there, but I suspect they're pretty rare. Even PS3 and 360 games tend to just use upmixing done by the console hardware. Which is why I just leave mine on stereo for Windows and let the receiver do the upmixing. I then have XBMC which can do passthrough for DD5.1 and THX audio when it encounters it. Most DVD playback programs can be configured similarly. If a game has DD5.1 audio, then it should also have a means of selecting a passthrough option for people with receivers.

 

[mfenn]

Not sure I've ever run across a single PC game with 5.1 audio in it. There may well be some out there, but I suspect they're pretty rare. Even PS3 and 360 games tend to just use upmixing done by the console hardware. Which is why I just leave mine on stereo for Windows and let the receiver do the upmixing. I then have XBMC which can do passthrough for DD5.1 and THX audio when it encounters it. Most DVD playback programs can be configured similarly. If a game has DD5.1 audio, then it should also have a means of selecting a passthrough option for people with receivers.

Um, what? Most every 3D shooter ever made supports positional audio. Most games don't support compressed audio like Dolby Digital or DTS, but they will send discrete channels to the sound card just fine.