5.1 will not work

R

Retaliation

n00b
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Feb 27, 2009
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I have vista ultimate 64 installed and was using the HD onboard sound that's on the asus m3n78 pro board. Oddly enough I could set the computer to 5.1 sound, and test the configuration, and everything would make the correct sounds out of the right speakers, but I couldn't get any programs to actually produce sound in 5.1. Everything came out in 2.1. So I put a soundblaster audigy value in there. Same problem. In the configuration test, everything makes sound in the corresponding 5.1 speaker, but no programs use the 5.1. I tried media player, divx player, winamp, etc.

Any ideas about what the deal is?
 
What media are you playing? If it is music and most games, by design you will only get sound out of the two main speakers (stereo).
 
mp3's, avi's, and cod4. All of which should be spitting out in 5.1 just like they did when I had XP running.
 
MP3's are 2 channel. If they where coming out of all 5 speakers, they shouldn't have been. You're AVI's probably have a 2 channel MP3 audio track, so again they should only be coming out of 2 speakers. There is a chance that the AVI's ( if they where created by a competent encoder) include a DD/AC3 track that might be 5.1, and in that case you will need a good player such as MPC-HC to take advantage of that.

Not sure about COD4 and games, that may or may not support 5.1.

What is probably going on here, is you are thinking that unless sound is coming out of all 5 speakers at all times, you aren't getting 5.1 audio.

Unless you're source specifically has 5 audio channels, you just aren't going to get 5.1 audio.... UNLESS, in XP you where using a setting like "5 channel stereo" which will take a 2 channel source and send it out over all 5 speakers. This is NOT true surround sound, so don't get confused.

True discrete 5.1 is not going to be possible unless the source has 5.1 channels.
 
Play a DVD or something with actual surround audio. You can get surround from MP3s and stereo sources via upmixing if you have it turned on in software or on your speakers. Far cry from a true discrete 5.1 channel source however.
 
I understand that it's not true 5.1 but shouldn't it give me the option to have a fake surround sound with music?
 
Retaliation said:
I understand that it's not true 5.1 but shouldn't it give me the option to have a fake surround sound with music?
Click to expand...

If your speakers don't have a hardware upmix button then it's totally dependent on your software. If you don't see an option in your sound settings/drivers then you're out of luck.

Upmixing sucks anyway, better to stay true to the source. I have a 5.1 set but I listen to music in stereo or on headphones, the way it was meant to be heard. 5.1 is better for games and movies. The exception is something like DVD-A, where you actually have 6 channels of sweet, sweet music to play.
 
Ah, I see, thanks for the education. My speakers have the upmix button but it never seemed to sound as good as it did with the setting I used in winxp for all 5 speakers so I never used it. Guess that's what I'll use from now on.
 
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