No 5.1 from S/PDIF out of motherboard or DAC/AMP

M

MGV001

n00b
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
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41
So, I am not sure if I am doing something wrong here. I have the Gigabyte z690 Gaming X DDR4 board. I know this is a budget board from last year, so maybe it is just not supported, but I cannot get 5.1 out from either the S/PDIF on the board, or when using the USB DAC/AMP (I have a Soundblaster X G6).

My audio set up is the logitech z906 5.1 system. It decodes Dolby Digital and DTS. This is an older set. I have it connected to the motherboard via optical. When it receives a DD or DTS signal, the little "Decode" light turns on. When I test with Windows 10 Sound Properties, I can play the Dolby Digital and DTS test tones and the little "Decode" light does, in fact, turn on.

I cannot get it to decode anything else. Prior to using this board, I had an older Asus board (ROG Ranger with 6700k processor, so, around late 2015). On this board, I could play Netflix movies through the Netflix Win 10 app, and it would send a compressed 5.1 signal via optical to the z906 system and the "Decode" light would illuminate. I cannot get it to work the same on this Gigabyte z690 board.

So, I tried to hook the z906 system up to the G6. It has an optical out. The G6 is USB to the motherboard, and then optical out to the z906. Nope. I tried various settings in the G6 software, including "S/PDIF Direct" and nothing.

A little Googling later, and I am reading some things about Windows not supporting the licensing for DD or DTS, but I am not sure.

Do you think I am doing something wrong? Missing a setting? I am stumped.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
MGV001 said:
So, I am not sure if I am doing something wrong here. I have the Gigabyte z690 Gaming X DDR4 board. I know this is a budget board from last year, so maybe it is just not supported, but I cannot get 5.1 out from either the S/PDIF on the board, or when using the USB DAC/AMP (I have a Soundblaster X G6).

My audio set up is the logitech z906 5.1 system. It decodes Dolby Digital and DTS. This is an older set. I have it connected to the motherboard via optical. When it receives a DD or DTS signal, the little "Decode" light turns on. When I test with Windows 10 Sound Properties, I can play the Dolby Digital and DTS test tones and the little "Decode" light does, in fact, turn on.

I cannot get it to decode anything else. Prior to using this board, I had an older Asus board (ROG Ranger with 6700k processor, so, around late 2015). On this board, I could play Netflix movies through the Netflix Win 10 app, and it would send a compressed 5.1 signal via optical to the z906 system and the "Decode" light would illuminate. I cannot get it to work the same on this Gigabyte z690 board.

So, I tried to hook the z906 system up to the G6. It has an optical out. The G6 is USB to the motherboard, and then optical out to the z906. Nope. I tried various settings in the G6 software, including "S/PDIF Direct" and nothing.

A little Googling later, and I am reading some things about Windows not supporting the licensing for DD or DTS, but I am not sure.

Do you think I am doing something wrong? Missing a setting? I am stumped.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Have you tried this https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/kw216o/netflix_app_on_pc_overrules_audio_settings/

I'm surprised you ever got the decode signal with Netflix as I believe DD+ is too much for optical.
 
Regarding the optical, I read that the Windows 10 test tunes are just using simple DD or DTS files that have already been encoded. Isn't DD+ and DTS Live (or whatever they are called), real-time encoding of stereo signals that are then "decoded" by whatever receiver you are using? I keep seeing posts on various message boards of people complaining of latency, particularly with gaming.
 
MGV001 said:
Regarding the optical, I read that the Windows 10 test tunes are just using simple DD or DTS files that have already been encoded. Isn't DD+ and DTS Live (or whatever they are called), real-time encoding of stereo signals that are then "decoded" by whatever receiver you are using? I keep seeing posts on various message boards of people complaining of latency, particularly with gaming.
Click to expand...
DD Live and DTS connect can encode audio from a Windows machine into Dolby Digital and DTS respectively, DD+ is the successor to vanilla Dolby Digital and exceeds the bandwidth of optical. And yes, a common issue with DD Live and DTS connect is latency, but that doesn't have anything to do with Dolby Digital Plus.
 
Solhokuten said:
DD Live and DTS connect can encode audio from a Windows machine into Dolby Digital and DTS respectively, DD+ is the successor to vanilla Dolby Digital and exceeds the bandwidth of optical. And yes, a common issue with DD Live and DTS connect is latency, but that doesn't have anything to do with Dolby Digital Plus.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
 
No dice. I can't seem to get this to work at all. I am wondering if the Realtek chip is to blame and there is some sort of licensing issue going on. It is the ALC1220. The Realtek Audio Console allows me to make certain equalization adjustments, so that at least tells me that the signal leaving the S/PDIF port is subject to the chip processing the signal. I could be way off base here, because knowledge of this is not within my wheelhouse. Seems to be a lot of folks online who lost 5.1 functionality at some point, and had to roll back to an older driver (there appears to be modified drivers floating around too).

I purchased a little HDMI audio extractor device. I am going to try and run sound out the HDMI of my video card into this device, which is supposed to extract the audio signal only and then send that signal via optical to my receiver. Worth a shot, I guess.
 
Yeah some realtek drivers don't include dd/dts output support, I don't remember which ones do off hand but if you try a few that do have it one will probably work.
 
PeaKr said:
Have you tried AAF Optimus Audio Drivers? Trying to work through issues with my realtek S1220A chip. I'm not to up on latest pc audio but I'd like to push sound to a receiver either with spdif or nv hdmi.
Click to expand...
yes, its what i switched to after that post you quoted, but i cant find where my post about it went now....
its the first time im had DDL working in games for a couple years.
 
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