How do I get digital audio to properly work?

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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I have a gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboard and it has built in surround sound, was well as two digital sound inputs - coaxial and optical.

My problem is that no matter which one I choose (coax/opt) I can only get the front 2 speakers on my system to work. I have a 7.1 Home theatre system and my TV, Xbox360 and DVD player are hooked up to the reciever for via optical cable, and on those devices the surround sound works perfectly, every speaker is active, but when I hook up my PC to my reviever only the front right and left speaker work.

If it helps this is my sound system:

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4917661

So does anyone have any idea what I have to do to actually get surround sound of this thing?

And yes I have tried this with Soundcards and I still get the same results, I only get audio from my 2 front speakers.
 

sonoma1993

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
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check windows audio settings for the speakers settings and see if it set to 2 speakers. change it to 5.1 or 7.1 or somethen. Also check and see if you install the software for your motherboard audio card.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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Try playing a DVD on your PC.

Almsot all PC soundcards and onboard audio can NOT do real-time encoding of surround sound to a digitial output, so they just send 2-channel stereo over the digital out.

DVDs work because the soundcard just passes through the pre-encoded audio already on the DVD.

Soundcards that don't have "Dolby Digital Live" support can only send surround sound through the analog outs. You can make an analog connection to your receiver if it has a 6-plug analog 5.1 input.
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
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what content are you trying to play from your computer? if it is music it will only be in stereo. try using the "music" setting or whatever setting will take the stereo and mirror it on the rear speakers. also check the settings in your sound card specific software.
 

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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Im using the 3D surround test that comes with the drivers (Realtek HD Audio) it pretty much plays a bee going around you, I got all the speakers to play now but its still not working properly, I think the software isbuggy because when I do simple things like make the bee simply go right and left, the sound comes out whacky, left sound like front, right sounds like left. But in games, when someones coming at me from the right or left or straight at me I can deffinetely tell which way its coming from just from hearing the footsteps, but when they get behind me (I had a friend running around me in circles to test this) it sounds exactly like they were coming from infront except it's less loud.

So I dont know if the game is just playing with stereo settings mimicking surround sound or if it's actually playing in surround.

Do you guys know of any other software I can use to test each of the speakers?
 

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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Does anyone have any ideas :(

My last resort is to try to find ANOTHER audio card that might support this, I had a creative labs one don't remember the model but it was around $110 and I had the same problem, anyone know a audio card that will work for sure?
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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I already did explain why everything except DVDs won't be in 5.1 with most soundcards over a digital connection.

Have you tried an analog connection to the receiver? Surroundlarity will ensue.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: midnilux
Does anyone have any ideas :(

My last resort is to try to find ANOTHER audio card that might support this, I had a creative labs one don't remember the model but it was around $110 and I had the same problem, anyone know a audio card that will work for sure?

You could get a card that encodes DD / DTS in real time.

Does your receiver have a 6 channel analog input? If so, that should take care of your issues.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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2. Disadvantages to Digital . . .

^ thanks, I never visit Peripherals and hadn't seen this, or I'd have just linked to your thread :)
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
2. Disadvantages to Digital . . .

^ thanks, I never visit Peripherals and hadn't seen this, or I'd have just linked to your thread :)

I was getting a bit tired of trying to explain it once a day :p

EDIT: midnilux, I hope that didn't come off as meaning you should have known this or anything... this is rather counterintuitive as a digital connection is usually the way to go if you want to get surround sound with your receiver.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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I just checked the manual to make sure, and yes, your receiver has 5.1 analog input.

Unless you want to get a new soundcard that can encode a DD / DTS stream, you'll want to get some adapters to run analog into your receiver.

What soundcards do you have now?

Three of these
https://www.cablesforless.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=106

And three of these
https://www.cablesforless.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=521

will get you going. Feel free to get some better constructed cables if you want to, these are very basic ones.

Depending on your soundcard you might be able to get 7.1 going as well.

If you have a 7.1 creative card, this would be a good option
http://www.creative.com/products/produc...tegory=13&subcategory=55&product=14309

If you have a 7.1 card that uses 4 output jacks, then just get 4 sets instead of 3 of the first options I gave you.
 

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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I dont know how I would hook something up analogly with the reciever... it only has toslink (optical) and coaxial as far as I can tell.
 

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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Well my sound card is layed out like this

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g99/imagesaregood/audio1.jpg

I guess thats 4 analog inputs, a microphone, and I dont know what the blue one is.

So I should get 4 of each of those cables and I'll be fine?

EDIT: I'm guessing the blue is the subwoofer? Would I need a special cable for that ? And where would I plug it in, there seems to only be 4 pairs of slots there, and if I have 4 analog nputs on my sound card where does the surround cable go?

And I am a total noob at this, I didnt even know it was possible to have surround sound without a digital connection.
 

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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I'm guessing line in is like if I had a portable cd player or something and wanted it to play through my soundcard?

And finally what about the subwoofer, do I need any cables for that or anything? Or is just those 4 pairs of cables?
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: midnilux
I'm guessing line in is like if I had a portable cd player or something and wanted it to play through my soundcard?

And finally what about the subwoofer, do I need any cables for that or anything? Or is just those 4 pairs of cables?

Right. You can plug a CD player or a Game system or whatever into that. You could also record off it.

One of the 8 cables is going to be carrying the signal for the subwoofer. Your receiver will just pass that along to the subwoofer, no need for a special cable other than the ones you have.

If your integrated sound has a bass redirect or crossover control, that would let you have a bit more options about what happens as far as the subwoofer signal goes, but it should work better than your current hookup.

You might want to keep the digital connection too for when you're watching movies if you have that all set up correctly and working fine.
 

midnilux

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2006
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Well I bought 4 cables similiar to those, and it seems to be working now, should surround sound automatically be enabled for games or do I have to set something else up?
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,204
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Originally posted by: midnilux
Well I bought 4 cables similiar to those, and it seems to be working now, should surround sound automatically be enabled for games or do I have to set something else up?

You'll probably have to go into the audio settings and change them in the games.