GTX 580 nvsurround with receiver problems

Tsumi

Tsumi

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I got two 580s from my cousin in exchange for my 6990, and now there are a couple quirks that annoy me.

I'm running an NV Surround setup with 3 1080p displays. Latest official drivers installed. Receiver is the one used in the Onkyo HT-S9100THX.

First issue: Turning off my receiver causes my computer to freeze for ~30 seconds, then reboot. Any fixes for this? With my eyefinity setup, it just automatically reverted to two separate monitors (receiver does not have HDMI passthrough on standby).

Second issue: I have Windows set to output 5.1 multichannel. For some reason, it does not always maintain this connection, so the first 1-2 seconds are always lost as the receiver switches from stereo to 5.1. This means that I usually miss notification sounds, which is really annoying. I suppose I can keep Windows in stereo, and then switch to 5.1 in game, but I would rather not have to constantly switch. Is there any way to do this automatically? Or keep constant 5.1?

Thanks!
 
I don't know about the first issue.

The second issue can probably be fixed by sending something 2 channel to your receiver. Then put your receiver in one of the simulated surround modes. Then when it receives a 5.1 it will play it normally. But when it receives a stereo signal it'll switch over to Dolby pro-logic or whatever you have selected and will not have to switch to stereo.

Some Onkyo receivers like to send a pop to your speakers each time it switches from a surround mode and stereo mode. This fixes that to. If you listen to music you can just switch back to stereo.


I hope this helps.
 
Well, I know I can do the simulated surround. But what about in games, which don't send a Dolby or DTS signal? Or is there a way to get games to send Dolby/DTS signals?
 
I'm sorry I thought you already had 5.1 in games and just wanted to get rid of the pause that happens sometimes when receivers switch between 2 channel and surround modes.

I thought games just sent a MPCM signal in 5.1 over HDMI.

Sorry I could'nt help you more. I'm really into Home Theatre but as far as games go I just use my 5.1 analog off my sound card to a set of 5.1 surround speakers.
 
As long as you have your speaker settings in Windows set correctly, games should automatically output normal PCM multi-channel (5.1, 7.1, etc.) on their own.
I've run HTPC's on both Onkyo and Sony receivers, and I found the Onkyo was always doing the "pop" whenever it would swap over from 2 channel to multi-channel. I'd miss the first second or two of everything and it was annoying. Sony's are silent when they swap over, but there's still a little delay.
Silent streaming the 5.1 signal is usually the key to avoiding that change-over. Windows sees a permanent 5.1 signal that way, so there's no change. I think the 580's can silent stream, but I might be wrong. My 570 certainly couldn't and it was a total hassle.
 
In order to get your games to send out a Dolby Digital signal, you can use a sound card that implements Dolby Digital Live (DDL). It performs real time encoding of the 5.1 signal from the game into DD. A few high end cards from Creative and Asus are capable of this feature.
 
My 6990 and 6950s never had the switchover problem. They kept a constant multichannel output. I don't really care about the pop as much as I care about the lost notification sounds.

I found that if I don't manually set 5.1 in Windows, the games won't output 5.1 MPCM no matter what settings I chose in game.

The DDL is not an option, since I'm using my GPU to output sound. Unless there's a third party program that allows this.
 
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