HDMI surround sound in win7

harbingerofdoom

harbingerofdoom

Gawd
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Apr 17, 2007
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perhaps someone can either tell me what exactly im doing wrong or tell me why exactly im not seeing what i should be seeing?

i have a gigabyte ga-h55m going HDMI to my LG 55LD, then out via toslink to my surround sound system.

the audio on the media center shows only 2ch audio is available, no options for surround. the onboard audio is a realtek, but when i have it hooked up this way its using an intel audio driver instead (im guessing thats because of the HDMI connnection).

The really weird part is that even though it shows only 2ch audio, depending on the source i do actually get surround sound just nothing out of the sub.

i can usually sort these things out for myself but this one has me thrown for a loop here... can anyone lend a hand please?
 
It sounds like you are having some hardware issues somewhere. Do you have another system, or a friend with a system you can take it to their house and hook it up. Maybe if you have a laptop w/ HDMI, trying hooking it up to your current surround system and see what it does. I'd start there and see what you find out but it sounds like something is on the fritz.
 
i've had a similar problem before, but i was using hdmi straight to my receiver.

it was an issue with the audio driver i was using, it had the wrong source as default. check in the sound settings in control panel to make sure the proper output is being used.
 
i dont think its hardware as im getting sound. unfortunately i dont have any other machines or setups that i can check it out with.

on the driver side, i cant seem to find any other drivers for the intel audio which is what its currently using under this setup. what i cant seem to be able to figure out is why its using that driver for the audio rather than the realtek drivers... that may be normal.. but i have not been able to find anything to suggest that it is..or that i need to do something else. the bios is set to use the onboard audio and there are no other audio devices on the system.
 
Go into the Windows Control Panel and check out the speaker setup. It might be set for 2.0 instead of 5.1.

Also, double check that our TV will pass the audio correctly.

Also, assuming your PC has the proper audio output separate from the HDMI port, you could use that and skip passing audio through the TV. Personally thats what I would do, less fucking about with the audio IMO.

Finally, do you have any other audio codecs installed? Like AC3Filter or FFDShow?
 
harbingerofdoom said:
i have a gigabyte ga-h55m going HDMI to my LG 55LD, then out via toslink to my surround sound system.
Click to expand...

All you will get is 2 channel audio. To get 5.1 from the TV you need to be using the cable tuner in the TV. The optical is just for Dolby Digital TV audio.

You need to go from the PC to the surround system for the audio.
 
HDMI is a two way interface in that it sends data to the TV AND receives data back. One of the things it receives back is the audio capabilities of the device (i.e. stereo, 5.1, 7.1, bit rates ect). Your TV is sending back stereo because it only has two speakers and therefore only the 2 channel option is available in Windows.

I know what you’re thinking, I have optical out that supports 5.1. Well, yes and no. TOSLINK is SPDIF over a fiber optic cable. Two really important things to understand about SPDIF: 1. It’s a one way interface so there is no way for the receiver to report back its capabilities. 2. It’s only two channels, Right and Left (Attention all readers - please keep reading before you're tempted to say I don't know what I'm talking about). Using Dolby a 5.1 sound track can be encoded into the two channels but it's still only two channels and will be reported as such by Windows. (Others my age will remember the HiFi VCR. You connected the Right and Left audio jacks to your receiver and got 5.1. SPDIF was built on the same technology and hasn’t changed.) The only way for Windows to report more than two channels is to use a sound card with 5.1/7.1 analog outputs or HDMI to a device that reports back 5.1/7.1.

To make it more complicated, most onboard audio on motherboards don't support Dolby as the manufacturer has to pay a royalty to include it. If they do include it, you have to install the full software for the audio device, not just the driver and figure out how to enable it.

So where does this leave you? Assuming your receiver doesn't have HDMI you can buy an inexpensive sound card that supports Dolby and connect it directly to your receiver (Windows will still only show stereo output but you'll get 5.1 sound from your receiver). Conversely you can get a receiver that has HDMI. The latter is far superior as it'll support a protected audio path (PAP) allowing you to use DolbyHD (think BluRay) which you have to hear to believe.
 
bigdavemt said:
HDMI is a two way interface in that it sends data to the TV AND receives data back. One of the things it receives back is the audio capabilities of the device (i.e. stereo, 5.1, 7.1, bit rates ect). Your TV is sending back stereo because it only has two speakers and therefore only the 2 channel option is available in Windows.

I know what you’re thinking, I have optical out that supports 5.1. Well, yes and no. TOSLINK is SPDIF over a fiber optic cable. Two really important things to understand about SPDIF: 1. It’s a one way interface so there is no way for the receiver to report back its capabilities. 2. It’s only two channels, Right and Left (Attention all readers - please keep reading before you're tempted to say I don't know what I'm talking about). Using Dolby a 5.1 sound track can be encoded into the two channels but it's still only two channels and will be reported as such by Windows. (Others my age will remember the HiFi VCR. You connected the Right and Left audio jacks to your receiver and got 5.1. SPDIF was built on the same technology and hasn’t changed.) The only way for Windows to report more than two channels is to use a sound card with 5.1/7.1 analog outputs or HDMI to a device that reports back 5.1/7.1.

To make it more complicated, most onboard audio on motherboards don't support Dolby as the manufacturer has to pay a royalty to include it. If they do include it, you have to install the full software for the audio device, not just the driver and figure out how to enable it.

So where does this leave you? Assuming your receiver doesn't have HDMI you can buy an inexpensive sound card that supports Dolby and connect it directly to your receiver (Windows will still only show stereo output but you'll get 5.1 sound from your receiver). Conversely you can get a receiver that has HDMI. The latter is far superior as it'll support a protected audio path (PAP) allowing you to use DolbyHD (think BluRay) which you have to hear to believe.
Click to expand...

this all makes sense and explains all the problems...
doesnt quite explain why i sometimes get surround sound and sometimes dont, but im going to guess that has something to do with my reciever using dolby pro logic? not sure on that one.
unfortunately replacing the reciever side of things while i agree 100% is the best option, is not a viable option at this point :(

thanks for the replies all!
 
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