2.0 to 5.1.. Windows or av receiver upscale?

413x · 16 Jun 2013 at 23:55

Came across an interesting thought today

Is it better to let windows or my av receiver convert 2.0 to 5.1?
Feed the av receiver 2.0 and use dolby pro logic II for conversion
Or
Tell windows I have a 5.1 system and leave the av on STRAIGHT through

This is using sources such as 2.0 stereo music or dvb-t/2 broadcast material?

TheVoice · 17 Jun 2013 at 00:06

Try both and see which is best. I suspect the receiver will do a better job though.

TALON1973 · 17 Jun 2013 at 00:33

i'd go no brainer .. windows software or a amp thats built to do it ...hmm

413x · 17 Jun 2013 at 00:41

TALON1973 said:
i'd go no brainer .. windows software or a amp thats built to do it ...hmm

I'd think so

But was just wondering if the pc having more scope for sound analysis would make a difference?

Both sound very different.. I am unsure which is better!

lucid · 17 Jun 2013 at 03:44

If you're converting a specific track and editing the sound to do a one off conversion then by all means use the PC. For general audio playback though I would use the AV amp. ProLogic II is a sophisticated algorithm designed exactly for this purpose. The other advantage is that it will recognise any sources already encoded with Dolby surround. That's unlikely to happen with music CDs, but and streamed videos or ripped DVDs would benefit.

Confused · 17 Jun 2013 at 08:46

Neither.

Tell Windows your output is 5.1, set the receiver to STRAIGHT, and let stereo content go through the receiver as stereo, and let 5.1 content play back in 5.1

413x · 17 Jun 2013 at 12:47

Confused said:
Neither.

Tell Windows your output is 5.1, set the receiver to STRAIGHT, and let stereo content go through the receiver as stereo, and let 5.1 content play back in 5.1

I prefer 5.1 processing for tv footage. On my system setting 5.1 in windows forces everything to 5.1. Setting to 2.0 plays the content untouched. If I want to game in 5.1 I have to change this. Here I came across this idea as after I had finished playing I did not set 5.1 back to 2.0

james.miller · 18 Jun 2013 at 13:44

let the amp do it - prologicII is about as good as it gets.

Talon1973 said:
i'd go no brainer .. windows software or a amp thats built to do it ...hmm

In this case, perhaps, but that's not always true. For example, i get better results feeding my amp 1080p and letting ffdshow do the upscaling for non-1080p content than i do by feeding my amp the native resolution of the content. Yes my amp has a scaler (onkyo 805) but it's not a brilliant one. Incidentally, same apply to pc with ffdshow and my TV. my TV's scaler is poor.

413x · 18 Jun 2013 at 14:09

This is a good point.

Is there a way to upscale wmc sd tv broadcast?
As my htpc is outputting 1080p content I presume the amp does not think anything needs up scaling even though the footage is SD

asim18 · 18 Jun 2013 at 20:42

al4x said:
I prefer 5.1 processing for tv footage. On my system setting 5.1 in windows forces everything to 5.1. Setting to 2.0 plays the content untouched. If I want to game in 5.1 I have to change this. Here I came across this idea as after I had finished playing I did not set 5.1 back to 2.0

Its probably because you have "Speaker Fill" enabled. If you disable it, your games and 5.1 movies will be output in 5.1 and any stereo music or TV will be output as is without you having to change it every time.

You can get here by right clicking the speaker tray icon and selecting "Playback Devices". Then right click the output from the list and select properties.