Forcing 5 channel stereo?

[Unseul]

So I've got an x370 k7 linking out to a receiver, connected to a 5.1 setup. Updated to the latest realtek drivers. When watching disney+ or youtube for example, it was just giving me stereo+sub woofer with the front pair, no centre no rear. Couldn't find a way to force it to use the centre speaker (speaker fill? couldn't find an option). 5.1 works fine in games (at least with the testing I've done).

For now, I'm using digital output, forced to 5 channel stereo on the receiver, for general use, then changing the input on the receiver (and windows) to direct channel, when I want to game.

I'd much rather just find a way to get direct 5.1 channel working.

 

[Unseul]

3.5mm Jack to rca cable for the direct channel input. Toslink digital for optical.

 

[Unseul]

Have you tried running HDMI to your receiver instead of RCA?

Use a separate cable from your GPU to do this, so you've something like the following:

GPU > TV/Monitor
V
Receiver > Speakers/Sub

If you don't have a second HDMI slot you should be able to use a DP > HDMI adapter or cable. Once you've done that it should just be a case of setting the correct Windows options. Never had a problem when setting things up like that myself.

I could be a little off here, but the logic behind it is thus: When you connect via 5.1 RCA and you're playing games on your PC your onboard/soundcard is handling the processing for you while the games sound data is being automatically sent to the correct channels. Your onboard or sound card might not be able to decode movies/tv shows to surround for you as it's built into the overall data feed. Optical is going to be bandwidth limited to an extent I think and you might be upmixing from stereo. With HDMI you're just passing the data straight through to the receiver and letting it decode via whatever codecs it has, I think most movies and tv series will default to some form of dolby which your receiver should be capable of doing.

Haven't tried using hdmi. I use displayport to my monitor, so have a spare HDMI slot in the graphics card anyway.

However, the source (youtube/amazon/disney+) is only stereo. The setting I need is called Speaker Fill I believe, however that option just doesn't exist for me any more (on checking it was removed from the latest drivers, likely why I lost it, maybe I should just backdate, but it was the old drivers I didn't get 5.1 on). By using digital, it's only a stereo source, but I can use the receiver to force it into 5 channel stereo, so basically it fills the speakers, and whilst I don't have 5.1 surround, the sound does fill the room properly. Then switch to the direct (rca) for when gaming. It's only a few clicks of a button on the remote and swapping source on the PC, so not enough of a hassle to not bother with, just wondered if anyone knew a way around. This might be it, i'll give it a shot next time I can be bothered to rearrange cables again .

 

[Unseul]

Amazon only do stereo through web browsers. 95% sure Disney are the same. I'd need to use a firestick to get 5.1.