Are all 5 speakers supposed to play in a 5.1 one setup with a stereo source?

[Zero Plasma]

I have my PC hooked up to my receiver with an optical cable and if I play a video that's in stereo the sound plays on all 5 of my speakers.

Is that supposed to happen?

Thanks

 

[stu1811]

You need to change ur preference to not decode the sound onboard. Use External Decoder is the setting on my card.

 

[Zero Plasma]

Well i'm using my onboard audio with a SPDIF header for now.

But it's not supposed to play on all 5 five speakers, if it's not i'll call my mobo's tech support Monday and ask where the setting is I guess, unless someone can answer that.

 

[stu1811]

Your mobo should support it. What mobo are you using.

 

[Zero Plasma]

The Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939

Link

 

[stu1811]

Open the sound control panel and go to the SPDIF settings. There should be an option for external decoder.

 

[stu1811]

Hehe i just comprehended what you were asking. If there is sometype of mixing it will play the sound over all the speakers. I have an X-Fi and the CMSS converts stereo to surround. The onboard sound may have something similar

 

[Zero Plasma]

I looked around and couldn't find any of those settings, maybe i'm just missing them.

Thanks for your help, but i'm off to bed.

 

[PurdueRy]

CMSS does not work over digital stu811.

OP, your receiver must be set to a mode that takes stereo sources and plays them through all the speakers, such as PLII(Pro Logic II) or other forms of this. What does your receivers display say when the music is playing?

 

[Zero Plasma]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
CMSS does not work over digital stu811.

OP, your receiver must be set to a mode that takes stereo sources and plays them through all the speakers, such as PLII(Pro Logic II) or other forms of this. What does your receivers display say when the music is playing?

Read your post right after logging out.

Myreceiver is set to PLII, but the only options are PLII Movie, PLII Music, PL, and stereo.

Edit: Is the only option to set it to stereo when I play a stereo source?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
CMSS does not work over digital stu811.

OP, your receiver must be set to a mode that takes stereo sources and plays them through all the speakers, such as PLII(Pro Logic II) or other forms of this. What does your receivers display say when the music is playing?

Read your post right after logging out.

Myreceiver is set to PLII, but the only options are PLII Movie, PLII Music, PL, and stereo.

As long as it says PLII its taking the stereo source and using a matrix decoder to derive 5 channels from it. If you set it to stereo, this will not happen.

PLII Movie = Voices will mainly be heard out the center channel

PLII music = Wider soundstage, more Left and Right speaker than in Movie mode.

Stereo = 2 channels, center and surrounds not used

EDIT: If you do not want your receiver to play a stereo souce out of more than one speakers set it to stereo. When you play a multichannel source such as a DVD, your receiver will recognize this and switch to the 5 channel mode automatically.

Added note: Since you have a 5.1 system, when you play a 5.1 DVD you should not see your receiver say PLII music or movie. If it does, you have it set up wrong. It should show "Dolby digital" or "DTS" or something similar.

 

[Zero Plasma]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
CMSS does not work over digital stu811.

OP, your receiver must be set to a mode that takes stereo sources and plays them through all the speakers, such as PLII(Pro Logic II) or other forms of this. What does your receivers display say when the music is playing?

Read your post right after logging out.

Myreceiver is set to PLII, but the only options are PLII Movie, PLII Music, PL, and stereo.

As long as it says PLII its taking the stereo source and using a matrix decoder to derive 5 channels from it. If you set it to stereo, this will not happen.

PLII Movie = Voices will mainly be heard out the center channel

PLII music = Wider soundstage, more Left and Right speaker than in Movie mode.

Stereo = 2 channels, center and surrounds not used

EDIT: If you do not want your receiver to play a stereo souce out of more than one speakers set it to stereo. When you play a multichannel source such as a DVD, your receiver will recognize this and switch to the 5 channel mode automatically.

Thanks

Are there any advantages for PL, or has it been replaced by PLII?

Thanks again

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
CMSS does not work over digital stu811.

OP, your receiver must be set to a mode that takes stereo sources and plays them through all the speakers, such as PLII(Pro Logic II) or other forms of this. What does your receivers display say when the music is playing?

Read your post right after logging out.

Myreceiver is set to PLII, but the only options are PLII Movie, PLII Music, PL, and stereo.

As long as it says PLII its taking the stereo source and using a matrix decoder to derive 5 channels from it. If you set it to stereo, this will not happen.

PLII Movie = Voices will mainly be heard out the center channel

PLII music = Wider soundstage, more Left and Right speaker than in Movie mode.

Stereo = 2 channels, center and surrounds not used

EDIT: If you do not want your receiver to play a stereo souce out of more than one speakers set it to stereo. When you play a multichannel source such as a DVD, your receiver will recognize this and switch to the 5 channel mode automatically.

Ok, so I guess the only thing I can do is change it to stereo when playing a stereo source, only a little annoying.

But are there any advantages for PL, or has it been replaced by PLII?

Thanks.

Read my added notes to my previous post, if you want it to stay as a stereo source, leave your receiver always on stereo. This will work find and you will get multichannel sound when an Dolby digital or DTS encoded signal is being sent to your receiver, you won't need to change your receivers settings everytime

PL is the predecessor to PLII. It has been replaced, but many receivers still have the option to use PL.

 

[Zero Plasma]

Thanks

Edit: Although my receiver isn't switching to multichannel when I play something with 5.1 and the receiver is set to stereo.

Could that mean my receiver isn't getting 5.1 from my PC for some reason?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma
Thanks

Edit: Although my receiver isn't switching to multichannel when I play something with 5.1 and the receiver is set to stereo.

Could that mean my receiver isn't getting 5.1 from my PC for some reason?

What 5.1 source are you playing and with what program?

EDIT: Looks like you went to bed finally. Make sure that whatever player you are using you have gone into the settings and set the audio out to SPDIF. You may also go into the audio settings on your sound card and set it to not use its built in decoder for DD and DTS sources.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma
Thanks

Edit: Although my receiver isn't switching to multichannel when I play something with 5.1 and the receiver is set to stereo.

Could that mean my receiver isn't getting 5.1 from my PC for some reason?

While it probably varies, I believe at least one of my recievers are made so that if you set it to stereo, that it will output it in stereo unless you change it to surround even when it is getting a surround signal (DD5.1, DTS), and so you have to change the reciever to surround. Once you do that, it will typically automatically decode however you have the media set to (so if you choose DD5.1 it'll do that, or say DTS if you pick that in the movie's audio menu). I'm guessing that its doing some internal switching and the surround and normal audio processing is done on separate cards within the reciever or something of the like, and so it needs to be told to send the signal to the surround processor/decoder.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma
Thanks

Edit: Although my receiver isn't switching to multichannel when I play something with 5.1 and the receiver is set to stereo.

Could that mean my receiver isn't getting 5.1 from my PC for some reason?

While it probably varies, I believe at least one of my recievers are made so that if you set it to stereo, that it will output it in stereo unless you change it to surround even when it is getting a surround signal (DD5.1, DTS), and so you have to change the reciever to surround. Once you do that, it will typically automatically decode however you have the media set to (so if you choose DD5.1 it'll do that, or say DTS if you pick that in the movie's audio menu). I'm guessing that its doing some internal switching and the surround and normal audio processing is done on separate cards within the reciever or something of the like, and so it needs to be told to send the signal to the surround processor/decoder.

That is very uncommon for a home theater receiver. His problem is that he doesn't have his hardware and software setup to bypass the internal decoders.

 

[Zero Plasma]

I'm mostly using VLC and I set it to "use SPDIF when available" and now the audio is messed up and consists mostly of pulses.

I'd like to try and disable the internal decoder for my onboard sound but can't find it.

Something interesting is my PC has a sound effects manager from Gigabyte in my control panel and it has a test audio function and I set it to 5.1 and it plays a sound on each speaker individually but I only hear it on my front left and right speakers, no center, or rear left-right.

Thanks

 

[Zero Plasma]

With "use SPDIF when available" on VLC has the audio device as A/52 over S/PDIF, and it pulses.
If I change it to "5.1" it plays fine but with no voices. Edit: Some play with voices but are cracky.

This is only on 5.1 sources, stereo plays fine without pulses.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma
With "use SPDIF when available" on VLC has the audio device as A/52 over S/PDIF, and it pulses.
If I change it to "5.1" it plays fine but with no voices. Edit: Some play with voices but are cracky.

This is only on 5.1 sources, stereo plays fine without pulses.

I have had the same troubles with VLC and digital out before, try just using windows media player. With the DVD playing you will have to go into the options for DVD and click advanced to enable S/PDIF

Or you can try media player classic.

 

[Zero Plasma]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma
With "use SPDIF when available" on VLC has the audio device as A/52 over S/PDIF, and it pulses.
If I change it to "5.1" it plays fine but with no voices. Edit: Some play with voices but are cracky.

This is only on 5.1 sources, stereo plays fine without pulses.

I have had the same troubles with VLC and digital out before, try just using windows media player. With the DVD playing you will have to go into the options for DVD and click advanced to enable S/PDIF

Or you can try media player classic.

I changed WMP to use SPDIF and tried it, and tried MPC but didn't change its settings and it still doesn't switch if the receiver is on stereo.

But am I right in thinking that if I run the test I talked about before and it plays a sound on one speaker after another and my receiver is set to PLII and the only speakers that play are the front left and front right that my computer is only sending stereo?

Also something to note is that when I first turn my receiver on and before I play any thing the options are Dolby Digital and Stereo, after playing something it switchs to: PLII Movie, PLII Music, PL, and Stereo.

 

[PurdueRy]

What receiver are you using?

The test should only play out of the right and left as that is all that can be transmitted non encoded over digital.

You were using a DVD to do this test?

Also why we are at it. Get the latest realtek drivers ftp://202.65.194.18/pc/ac97/alc650/WDM_A388.exe

copy and paste that link to get the 3.88 drivers

There should be some sort of control panel. It's possible you never installed it or the other drivers were just too old. See if this driver install gives you a control panel.

 

[Zero Plasma]

1. I'm using this receiver, it's aq low end one from a few years ago but I thought i'd use it for the PC.

http://www.rca.com/product/viewdetail/0,2588,PI700255-CI700022,00.html

2.The test was from software called "Sound Effect Manager" from Gigabyte, it must have been with my motherboards driver CD. It's in my control panel.

3. I had 3.78 installed, I have installed 3.88 but can't find a control panel for it. Where would it be?

Thanks for your help.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Zero Plasma
1. I'm using this receiver, it's aq low end one from a few years ago but I thought i'd use it for the PC.

http://www.rca.com/product/viewdetail/0,2588,PI700255-CI700022,00.html

2.The test was from software called "Sound Effect Manager" from Gigabyte, it must have been with my motherboards driver CD. It's in my control panel.

3. I had 3.78 installed, I have installed 3.88 but can't find a control panel for it. Where would it be?

Thanks for your help.

Honestly, I can't tell you where it would be because I don't use Realtek's audio. If someone else here uses it they could tell you. I would figure the start menu or you could look in program files for "Realtek" or something like that.

Right now, though, unless it says "Dolby Digital" or "DTS" you are not getting true surround sound.

Like I said, the test is fine that that is not playing the surround speakers, that should happen. But on a DVD you should definitely see Dolby digital on your display


EDIT: Realtek's program is called "Soundman" Look for than in your start menu or go to program files and search that like I said

http://www.2partsfusion.com/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=6&topic=131

Heres a thread that will walk you through it for your board.