How to get 5.1 configured

bobboberts · 26 Apr 2014 at 16:53

I've recently bought a Denon AVR-X2000 amp and 5.1 speaker set-up as my old amp didn't do Pro Logic II (so I couldn't upmix stereo content to 5.1)

I thought everything would then work nicely, but I'm getting very frustrated at the fact that I can't set the speaker set-up to 5.1 via Windows. My current situation is that I am running sound via HDMI from my GPU straight to the amp. Under the Sound panel it only shows as being stereo speakers.

I also have onboard sound (Sound Blaster Recon3Di) which has SPDIF-Out, however if I try and use the optical cable (and assigning the amp to use the optical input) I get no sound whatsoever (though that does let me configure 5.1 speakers).

Any ideas how I can get this to work? A Youtube test video gives me no output from the rear or sub because it only thinks it's stereo. It's most annoying.

Cookeh · 27 Apr 2014 at 17:29

Have you got the RealTek HD driver installed for your mobo? To my understanding, the sound will be processed by your soundcard first and then be carried to and then by the gpu - if you havent got the right drivers you might not have 5.1 capabilities. Failing that, I'm not too sure.

With regards to SPDIF, that is more than likely a connection or set-up error from the sound of it.

zia · 28 Apr 2014 at 17:07

Silly suggestion but once you have optical connected from comp to amp.
Have you gone into speaker.sounds tab and set optical as default sound output?

Zia

Purgatory · 29 Apr 2014 at 14:41

Youtube is only stereo . The videos on there that say they are 5.1 sound is rubbish, youtube can only do stereo. Try a dvd or bluray movie or a ac3 or dts encoded video file and make sure you have it set to hdmi or optical spdif. The player you use will also need to be told how to output the sound, so 5.1 & hdmi or optical spdif.

shankly1985 · 3 May 2014 at 03:41

If you want 5.1 sound you going to need a sound card that has dolby live or DTS connect. This will encore the audio on the fly and pass it over to your audio setup to be decoded.
Failing that you'll need 5.1 speaker with 3.5 jacks to plug into your pc motherboard. To give you pcm 5.1