Hit and miss with DD5.1 with AC97

[reductant]

I really don't know much more than the control panel options for configuring audio on my PC, so forgive me. I am using Vista Ultimate x64, and my motherboard is using AC97. The only time I can get Dolby Digital 5.1 output is when I'm using Media Center and watching HDTV. However, whenever I play music files (in any program) or watch Blu-Rays in PowerDVD, I cannot get Dolby Digital output. Everything is stuck at the standard 2 speaker output. I have updated to the latest Realtek AC97 drivers for my motherboard and tried using AC3 Filter audio codec, but I can't make too much sense of it. Should I just give up and get a sound card? I'm concerned because I'm not sure why I can't get 5.1 DD with the current config.

 

[Trombe]

You need to configure PowerDVD, and possibly Windows control panel somewhere (sorry, I don't have Vista to tell you whether it's necessary) to SPDIF passthrough to get DD/DTS 5.1 out using optical. You're pretty much out of luck for music though, since it seems your onboard audio doesn't do any signal processing whatsoever and just outputs whatever the source has, and with music it's typically stereo.