How to output dolby digital sound with AMD 780G chipset?

[Rob00GT]

I just built a new Home Theater PC using the following components.

Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard (AMD 780G chipset)
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
XBOX360 external HD-DVD player
Windows XP Pro SP3 (with all patches and updates)

Playback software:
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 7.3
Nero Showtime 3.10.1.0 (part of Nero 7 Ultra Edition)

So I've got it all put together and it works great. I'm using the HDMI connector for both picture and sound. The HDMI cable is connected first to my Sony STR-DG910 home theater receiver which pulls out the audio portion then passes the video to my Samsung DLP HDTV. I get a great picture in 1920x1080 but the sound through my receiver only comes out in stereo. I've tried adjusting every setting I can find but can only get stereo sound. The same for both Cyberlink and Nero playback software.

How do I get dolby digital output? I've got everything setup for 5.1 goodness but no joy.
FYI my Playstation 3 is hooked up the same way and it puts out amazing 5.1 sound.
:frown:

 

[Fallen Kell]

The PS3 is HDMI v1.3, and supports surround sound over the HDMI link. I would double check the Asus M3A78-EMH to see what version of HDMI output it supports. I highly suspect that it is an earlier version of HDMI, as that is the symptom that I would expect from a v1.2 or a v1.1 link.

Next things to check are that you have the audio pass-thru options checked in your DVD player in the computer (why are you using the computer anyway for DVD when the best Blu-Ray player on the market as well as a very capabile DVD player is in that PS3?).

The final thing is are you expecting surround sound from games from this setup? Because for that to work you would need your sound card to support DD-Live or DTS-Live connect and have an internal spdif connection pushed to that HDMI's audio link.

My HTPC's audio is being sent by optical SPDIF to my threater's pre-processor. The audio card I use supports DD-Live, and DTS-Live encoding so that I can get surround sound from games to work as well. As I said, without that feature, you will only get stereo output even from a spdif connection from the computer.

 

[Rob00GT]

All good info, let me clarify.

The motherboard has a built int HDMI output, but no SPDIF so my only digital sound option is to use the HDMI. I'm not using any additional sound or video card. The info on both the ASUS (motherboard) website and the AMD (chipset) site does not specify what version of HDMI is used, but even version 1 should allow 5.1 sound as that was one of the basic parameters of the technology.

The reason I need the computer for playback is for HD-DVD's (Playstation is Blu-Ray only, but it works GREAT for that) and movies that I've ripped to the hard drive. I have lots of them.

I've tried to set everything I can find, but to be honest there are no options labeled "pass thru" in any of the playback software I use, including Windows Media Player 11 (for regular DVD's).

Any additional help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Sorry, I was a little wrong about the HDMI specs, but for HD-DVD audio (TrueHD, and DTS-HD) your player needs to be able to decode the audio streams (none do at the moment because none have been certified for DRM reasons, and likely none will be certified because of how easy it is to capture audio streams on a computer), or it your receiver/surround sound pre-processor needs to be able to process the stream, and you need v1.3 HDMI link for it to work. Otherwise you must select to use a different audio stream in software (DD, or DTS).

I am not familiar enough with the Cyberlink software to tell you where to look. However, I can tell you a good place to start looking for more help:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26/

 

[solog]

he just wants 5.1, not TrueHD or DTS-HD

Rob00GT, why don't you try looking or posting over at avsforum.com?