Vizio SB3651 showing up as 2.1 in Windows

[realibrad]

My Vizio SB3651 5.1 sounbar is showing up as 2.1 only. I cannot figure out why windows is only showing 2.1.

TV: LG OLED65B7A
Soundbar: Vizio SB3651
PC: UN65U
DP to HDMI: Link

The soundbar has a HDMI pass through, but is limited to 1080. Right now I have the Display Port out converting to HDMI and going into the TV. I then have the optical out going into the soundbar. I have tried using the HDMI out on the PC going into the soundbar for audio but even that only picks up 2.1.

The audio software is the SMART Audio from Asus and that only shows 2.1. When I go into Device manager it says 2.1

I cannot figure out how to get that damn soundbar to 5.1

 

[JeffMD]

It does not seem to mention any restrictions for getting 5.1 to work in the manual. Only thing I noted was a possible configuration setting that could stop 5.1 from working.

"Press the Next/Previous button to enable/disable surround sound. When enabled (On), Direct and Movie mode will produce 5.1 surround sound. Music will produce 3.1 surround sound. When disabled (Off), the satellite speakers will be disabled. Note: If EQ mode is set to Direct and Surround is set to Off, the sound bar will output 2.1 audio without center or satellites"

 

[razel]

There is 5.1 PCM which Windows does support and may require you to right click your Vizio when on the sound control panel to configure the additional speakers and then there's 5.1 Dolby Digital, DTS. That last part often will work with Windows if the player you are using can bitstream it. When it does (like with physical disc movies) your Vizio will switch to 5.1 mode. Otherwise you will need a separate app that often pays for the DD or DTS license to enable 5.1 DD or DTS output.

Your Vizio doesn't state 5.1 PCM, at least off Vizio's website. It's manual isn't available from there either.

 

[realibrad]

There is 5.1 PCM which Windows does support and may require you to right click your Vizio when on the sound control panel to configure the additional speakers and then there's 5.1 Dolby Digital, DTS. That last part often will work with Windows if the player you are using can bitstream it. When it does (like with physical disc movies) your Vizio will switch to 5.1 mode. Otherwise you will need a separate app that often pays for the DD or DTS license to enable 5.1 DD or DTS output.

Your Vizio doesn't state 5.1 PCM, at least off Vizio's website. It's manual isn't available from there either.

Spoke to Vizio yesterday and they are saying everything needs to be HDMI ARC. If that is the case, would the PC be outputting 5.1 to the TV, and then the TV doing a passthrough of 5.1 through optical? If everything in the chain needs to be HDMI Arc then that may be my problem as the PC may not be ARC. If so, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[razel]

It's been suggested.

 

[JeffMD]

Spoke to Vizio yesterday and they are saying everything needs to be HDMI ARC. If that is the case, would the PC be outputting 5.1 to the TV, and then the TV doing a passthrough of 5.1 through optical? If everything in the chain needs to be HDMI Arc then that may be my problem as the PC may not be ARC. If so, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The speaker bar just can't intercept all audio? ARC is only needed if you you want to play back sound on the TV and the passthrough device. All modern receivers support intercepting the audio and passing on video only through the hdmi switch.

Unfortunately you won't get far with 5.1 and optical. Optical requires the audio to be compressed for 5.1 sounds (2 channel can be PCM), this is handled by handing over the original ac3/dts stream that the TV receives either over the air or through the source connection. However if you are handing the tv 5.1 PCM then the tv cannot re-compress it to ac3 so that it can be sent over optical.

If you are playing back from a blueray player then you just need to tell it to bitstream, don't decode the audio to pcm. If you are playing from a PC do the same, go into your audio codecs (Install ffdshow and LAV codecs if you need. I recommend the CCCP package that includes MPC) and tell it to bitstream over hdmi. If you are looking to play GAMES or other material that is in 5.1 sound but not previously compressed you will need a special sound card like https://www.amazon.com/Xonar-DSX-Engine-Playback-Support/dp/B007TMZ1MY (Note, this card is probably EOL but I am not sure what asus released as its replacement). that will compress the audio in realtime to AC3 for optical transmission.

 

[realibrad]

There is 5.1 PCM which Windows does support and may require you to right click your Vizio when on the sound control panel to configure the additional speakers and then there's 5.1 Dolby Digital, DTS. That last part often will work with Windows if the player you are using can bitstream it. When it does (like with physical disc movies) your Vizio will switch to 5.1 mode. Otherwise you will need a separate app that often pays for the DD or DTS license to enable 5.1 DD or DTS output.

Your Vizio doesn't state 5.1 PCM, at least off Vizio's website. It's manual isn't available from there either.

I have tried to configure through windows, but it is picking up the TV as 2.1 and thus not allowing anything above that.

I think I have found the problem. Vizio is saying that you can only get 5.1 going through HDMI on the unit. There is an HDMI in and out on the unit, but it only supports 1080p 60hz, which means that if I go through the soundbar I lose 4k. The TV has 5.1 over the optical out, but, not as a passthrough from the PC trough the TV to the soundbar. From what I understand, if I get an HDMI splitter, its going to pick up the minimum resolution of the soundbar and limit me to 1080.

The PC has Display Port out and HDMI out. I had tried to use the HDMI out going to the Soundbar for audio, but windows is picking it up as a 2nd monitor and still locking itself to 2.1. Is there anyway to send just the audio over the HDMI port and the Video over the Display port?

 

[JeffMD]

The tv nore the sound bar support 5.1 pcm. Sound must be kept ac3 compressed and bit streamed.

 

[realibrad]

The tv nore the sound bar support 5.1 pcm. Sound must be kept ac3 compressed and bit streamed.

I believe the TV does, but I scrapped going optical out and hooked up HDMI. So now it goes PC Displayport to HDMI adapted into the HDMI ARC 1 input of the TV. Then HDMI ARC to the sound bar. I still only get 2.1, but I get sound.

I downloaded CCCP but could not find anything about sending bitstream over HDMI in the settings. I think the issue is that windows is picking up that the TV is 2.1 and not seeing that its being passed through to the soundbar.

 

[JeffMD]

What audio format was the movie? It needs to be Dolby 5.1 AC3 or Sony DTS (if the soundbar supports DTS) to be bitstreamed.