3850 only doing 2 channel audio?

[bassballboy]

I recently began using my 3850 on my HT setup, and I checked the audio on the settings after noticing my subwoofer wasn't playing really. It says it supports a max of 2 channels. I just updated to the newest CCC and drivers from AMD, any thoughts? It's via an DVI-HDMI adapter (don't think they even had straight hdmi on their 3K series).

Hope this is an easy fix...

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

All HDMI up to the 4700/4800 on the ATI cards was limited to 2 channel LPCM, this can also pass Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 in an encoded stream.

if you want to get un-encoded 5.1 you need 4700 or up(if your receiver supports 5/6/7 channel LPCM).

 

[bassballboy]

could you explain that a little more please ? I'm going off of the AMD site that says it will do 5.1, how do I get it to pass the DD 5.1?

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

could you explain that a little more please ? I'm going off of the AMD site that says it will do 5.1, how do I get it to pass the DD 5.1?

Well DD 5.1 / DTS 5.1 are encoded(compressed) streams, you'd need to have an encoded stream(DVD/BR MKV /DIVX etc), how to pass it over your HDMI? First you need to have the source actually be DD/DTS 5.1, I don't think you can encode it without a sound card that does DD live / DTS connect/pc, and that's probably only going to work over optical.

It should automatically do it if that is your selected sound output device and your source is DD/dts 5.1

 

[bassballboy]

I just tried a Blu-Ray, still shows up as 2 channels... oh well...

 

[RickyJ]

Even the HD5xxx series won't do any more than 2 channels over HDMI unless it's plugged directly into a receiver that supports certain formats. My tv takes in 5.1 over HDMI and passes the audio optically to my Yamaha receiver (works with blu-ray, DVD, 360), but apparently my 5770 still won't feed more than 2 channels to it. I'll have to get an optical cable to go from my mobo to the spare optical port on my receiver, and then use the controller to switch audio inputs. Everything was so easy to use with the TV controlling video and audio switching!

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

Even the HD5xxx series won't do any more than 2 channels over HDMI unless it's plugged directly into a receiver that supports certain formats. My tv takes in 5.1 over HDMI and passes the audio optically to my Yamaha receiver (works with blu-ray, DVD, 360), but apparently my 5770 still won't feed more than 2 channels to it. I'll have to get an optical cable to go from my mobo to the spare optical port on my receiver, and then use the controller to switch audio inputs. Everything was so easy to use with the TV controlling video and audio switching!

That's not correct, 4600 and up can pass multi-channel LPCM over HDMI, most modern receivers support LPCM over hdmi. I had it setup too, 5 channels over HDMI without it being compressed =)

as for the blue-ray not working, you have to setup your player to NOT decode the stream, but pass it untouched over hdmi / optical

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1029603

 

[RickyJ]

That's not correct, 4600 and up can pass multi-channel LPCM over HDMI, most modern receivers support LPCM over hdmi. I had it setup too, 5 channels over HDMI without it being compressed =)

As I said, they can pass it, yes. The software doesn't allow it to do so unless it's connected to a proper receiver, probably part of the HDCP handshake. I looked into why I only had the option of 2 channels in the configuration of the output device, and that's what I found. My cheap Yamaha receiver doesn't strip audio from the HDMI inputs, so I'll have to use optical.

 

[fattypants]

What about in games? DTS streams and the like are passed just fine to my receiver, but the sound system outputs only 2 channel audio in games, even when the game is set to 5.1. Are there sound cards that will help me get around this?

 

[ClearM4]

As I said, they can pass it, yes. The software doesn't allow it to do so unless it's connected to a proper receiver, probably part of the HDCP handshake. I looked into why I only had the option of 2 channels in the configuration of the output device, and that's what I found. My cheap Yamaha receiver doesn't strip audio from the HDMI inputs, so I'll have to use optical.

That's your receiver's problem, not the video card.

Cheap recievers dont actually decode audio from their HDMI ports and are only setup to pass the signal along. Making HDMI ports useless imo, but it helps sell the units.

 

[bassballboy]

That's your receiver's problem, not the video card.

Cheap recievers dont actually decode audio from their HDMI ports and are only setup to pass the signal along. Making HDMI ports useless imo, but it helps sell the units.

Unlikely. My setup is where my TV sends the audio to my receiver via optical cable. It will do 5.1 off of other things.

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

What about in games? DTS streams and the like are passed just fine to my receiver, but the sound system outputs only 2 channel audio in games, even when the game is set to 5.1. Are there sound cards that will help me get around this?

Because games don't encode audio in DD or DTS, so you won't be able to pass more than 2 channels, unless both your videocard(4600 and up) and receiver support bit streaming.

Unlikely. My setup is where my TV sends the audio to my receiver via optical cable. It will do 5.1 off of other things.

well then, unless you have a dolby digital or DTS encoded stream, you're out of luck. your TV might even only pass stereo, not sure if it leaves the audio untouched, too many variables, best setup would be

Computer -> receiver -> TV, if you can't afford a receiver / vcard upgrade or don't want to spend the $, then pick up a cheap sound card that does DTS connect, DD Live via optical, and connect it straight to the receiver.

 

[bassballboy]

Because games don't encode audio in DD or DTS, so you won't be able to pass more than 2 channels, unless both your videocard(4600 and up) and receiver support bit streaming.



well then, unless you have a dolby digital or DTS encoded stream, you're out of luck. your TV might even only pass stereo, not sure if it leaves the audio untouched, too many variables, best setup would be

Computer -> receiver -> TV, if you can't afford a receiver / vcard upgrade or don't want to spend the $, then pick up a cheap sound card that does DTS connect, DD Live via optical, and connect it straight to the receiver.

It's a Samsung PN50B530... Pretty sure it will pass audio in high def, but I could be wrong.

It goes, computer (over hdmi) to the TV, the TV (over optical audio cable) to the receiver.

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

It's a Samsung PN50B530... Pretty sure it will pass audio in high def, but I could be wrong.

It goes, computer (over hdmi) to the TV, the TV (over optical audio cable) to the receiver.

No such thing as high def audio over optical

but anyway, I figured you had that setup, which is why I suggested a sound card, what's more important is what type of receiver is it. I assume it has no HDMI repeating functionality.

some "hdmi" receivers only do pass through, so the hdmi on them is 100% useless for anything other then source control(3 hdmi into the receiver, 1 to the TV) but they can't take the audio from the signal, they just pass it through untouched.

 

[PGHammer]

could you explain that a little more please ? I'm going off of the AMD site that says it will do 5.1, how do I get it to pass the DD 5.1?

What he is saying is that most HD4xxx cards can't (in fact, pretty much only HD4770 and above; however, that does include all of the HD5xxx series from top-end to bottom-end) pass greater than 2.1 audio via HDMI. Throw in DVI-HDMI and the audio is lucky to get through at all. (Some DVI-HDMI dongles don't pass through audio.)

That is why my HD5450 is such a pleasant surprise; it supports (directly) HDMI audio pass-through up to 7.1 (not just in Windows, but in Linux distributions as well). Throw in that it's single-slot (the passive cooler for this card, unlike most other no-fan solutions for HD54xx, doesn't chew up that second slot) and I am fully ready for the BD Boogaloo (add BD-ROM drive and go).

 

[PGHammer]

Even the HD5xxx series won't do any more than 2 channels over HDMI unless it's plugged directly into a receiver that supports certain formats. My tv takes in 5.1 over HDMI and passes the audio optically to my Yamaha receiver (works with blu-ray, DVD, 360), but apparently my 5770 still won't feed more than 2 channels to it. I'll have to get an optical cable to go from my mobo to the spare optical port on my receiver, and then use the controller to switch audio inputs. Everything was so easy to use with the TV controlling video and audio switching!

In other words, the direct target *must* also support 5.1/7.1 over HDMI. That means the limitation isn't the card (as even the HD5450 has the capability) but the receiver (which is going to be the case for most receivers) or the TV (most TVs, even high-end models, don't support HDMI switching). Blame HDCP (High-Definition Copy Protection) as this sort of redirection is pretty much deliberately blocked by design (the worry of the content providers was clean copies made digitally by HDMI-based hardware middleware); hardware that allows for doing what you want is pricey (again, largely by design).