Hi there, I've jsut bought myself a Speedlink 7.1 sound card http://www.speed-link.com/?p=2&cat=17&pid=21069&paus=1 Hooked it up to my Onkyo TX-SR 507 Amp over optical, set up as SPDIF out, and the best I can get out of it is the front left, front right and center being on separate channels. I've tried with Arcsoft Total Home Theatre, playing a bluray (DTS audio) but to no avail, however, when I select the SPDIF output from this software nothing is output... Can you suggest anything? I'm a total noob as this is my first 5.1 amp and unfortunately doesn't allow full analog 5.1 sound as it doesn't have the inputs, Only Coaxial or optical spdif and stereo audio. Well, HDMI too, but my Graphics card doesn't support it.
I've found with my sound card, that for some daft reason it'll only run in 2 channel unless I have the sound effects enabled...front room, toilet etc...So as it stands, I can now listen to my music in 5.1 in a manhole...i doubt if this helps you much but it's something to try
serves me right for buying a £20 sound card... should've gone for an asus xonar, at least they have decoding on card...
That's most likely because its stereo music. So with the effects enabled, its able to put sound out through the other speakers, but even then its just a copy sent to the rears. My onboard sound is the same. My Creative Audigy 2 ZS that I've just put back in my PC however, natively playsback through all speakers.
Have you double checked all the settings etc on your amp? they can be a pita when you have to setup for the 1st time. Check on the front panel, if the PC's outputting the DTS signal you should see the DTS logo (when the DVD's playing), if it's there its def your amps settings not the PC. i'm using the bog standard motherboard chipset to output over optical so the speedlink should be fine. Could be a few things if it's the amp: -One of the listening mode settings on the 576 does exactly what you describe, I assume it will be there on the 507 as well. It will say on the lcd across the top line what it's set as. Just use the white listening modes to cycle through, they're grouped so the movie set is slightly different to the music set etc. -Check the setting for your surround speakers, auto setup is spot on for getting the distances but not always great for getting the volume right, I had to bump them quite significantly - check in the settings in case they are just turned down.
Methink's i'll take a look... dolby pro logic II symbol popped up the other day in one configuration I had it in. Anyways, just to clarify, the rear speakers do work... just only when I set it to 'All ch set' which is all speakers, but only 2.1!
You know what, thats so simple but the thought never even entered my head gota be worth some rep...lol
you need to make sure you've got ac3/dts spidf passthrough enabled on whatever software you're using this way it will send the raw ac3 (dolby digital) or DTS audio down the cable for your receiver to deal with if you dont then its going to decode in software and send LPCM (ie uncompressed) audio down the cable that still might work if your receiver/soundcard can output 7-8 channel LPCM mine cant, it can only do 2 channel LPCM which means anything not ac3/dts comes out in stereo
I had the exact same problem when I built my current rig. I was using onboard sound as opposed to my creative card. And I was only getting stereo. I hadn't realised it was my sound card that was up scaling it.
Could be to do with sample rate and bit depth, I remember reading an article (can't think wher but probably AV forums or What hifi) that at a high bit depth an optical connection will revert to 2.1 as it can't send enough data down the line.
Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll let you know when I've tried them out this evening, not had time for it doing 3 12 hour shifts this weekend...
Im in the same boat. Ive rigged my nvidia680i Mobo sound to my yamaha 5.1 amp through optical spdif. My Amp Displays the PCM Audio symbol when im listening to mp3s etc. When i crank on a movie that has 5.1 it will display dolby or DTS and switch the speakers to 5.1. Im not sure if theres a way to keep 5.1 on permanatly if your using optical. As far as i can work out the software in windows detects the source and switches it automatically. Well now im off to nvidia to try get some nice audio drivers. Let us know if you find anything interesting.
If you want to force Windows to output stereo audio to all the speakers, then try enabling the 'Speaker Fill' option. It's success varies depending on the driver though.
