Moved my old 5.1 home cinema setup with AVR to my PC, no sound via optical out. Help pls.

[TonyTurbo78]

Hi guys.

I've just upgraded the home cinema in the lounge, moved my old setup into my games room and on to my racing rig. I've connected to the optical port on motherboard (Asus Rampage Extreme V) which has DTSCONNECT and a few other bits of niceness. When I click to test speakers I get no audio. When I launch Reatek HD Manager I can see its automatically set DTS INTERACTIVE 5.1 in the default format and the optical port is lit up.

Now further testing, opening the "Windows Sound Control Panel" and selecting properties of the "Realtek Digital Output", then going to "Supported Formats" when I highlight DTS Audio and hit test I get no sound, but when I highlight Dolby Digital I now hear sound but only from 2 channels. If I then test 96.0khz and 192khz I get no sound but I do with 44.1khz and 48khz.

So can you explain to me why on my 5.1 home cinema with a Dolby Digital AVR running via optical, the only way I can get sound is to select 2 channel 24bits 48000hz studio quality then have the AVR set to multi channel DD run it through all speakers?

I guess I'm right in thinking the AVR doesnt support DTS Audio? And why do I not get options in Realtek HD Manager to see the individual speakers so I can adjust DB levels and distances like if I've connected speakers to the jack's?

 

[TonyTurbo78]

My Logitech Z-5500 had the same issue itonly spport 2 channel over optical, i think someone explained that optical doesn't have the bandwidth.

I thought optical was the superior way to connect audio?

 

[TonyTurbo78]

optical supports 2 channel PCM or 5/6 channel discrete formats (Dolby Digital or DTS).

if you want to hear 5.1 from a PC from content that doesnt have a discrete audio track (DVDs do, for example) then you need a soundcard that support Dolby Digital live or DTS:Interactive. These are real time encoder methods to take multi channel audio and compress it in to a standard Dolby Digitasl or DTS stream.

Does the amp have an HDMI input? you are missing out on superior more-modern discrete formats (Dolby Digital:True HD DTS:Master Audio) as well as multi channel PCM if you arent using the hdmi output of a modern GPU. Multi channel PCM is the best format to use if you arent listening to something with a discrete audio track because no encoder is needed, meaning none of the issues encoders bring (latency being the biggest one!) the GPU just outputs straight PCM to the amp. It's very simple, only one cable is needed for sound and audio.

Oh ok, thanks for that. Yes the AVR does have HDMI port, the issue is, this is hooked up to my sim racing rig. I've got a 1080ti and triple screen connected by DP, the HDMI port on the GPU is populated by a 10inch display which acts as my dashboard so I'm all out of HDMI ports from the GPU sadly.