Hi guys,

Recently jus updated the PC and put in a P5Q motherboard with Digital coaxial audio output instead of the spdif. My motherboard supports up to 8 channels (seperate colored outputs on the back), but i read coaxial does 5.1 also. So i hooked it up to my Marantz amp, but the darn thing only detects the left and right channel. The centre, and surrounding speakers arnt recognised by the onboard audio software which is set to 6 channels. The motherboard doesnt seem to detect the channels when i do the channel test. However when i test the amp and speakers on my xbox etc it works 5.1 fine ...

any ideas?

Hi guys,

Recently jus updated the PC and put in a P5Q motherboard with Digital coaxial audio output instead of the spdif. My motherboard supports up to 8 channels (seperate colored outputs on the back), but i read coaxial does 5.1 also. So i hooked it up to my Marantz amp, but the darn thing only detects the left and right channel. The centre, and surrounding speakers arnt recognised by the onboard audio software which is set to 6 channels. The motherboard doesnt seem to detect the channels when i do the channel test. However when i test the amp and speakers on my xbox etc it works 5.1 fine ...

any ideas?If there is a way in the audio software to configure the audio to be sent as bitstream, not 2-channel PCM, do that. The input you use on your Marantz receiver (it's not just an amp, right?) should be set to auto-detect 5.1 sources and if set as such should automatically detect a 5.1 bitstream signal provided that is what your PC is outputting correctly.

(Digital coax is also S/PDIF, btw.)

hey mate..thanks for the reply :) ..

the amp is always on auto :)

i will try and mess around and set it to bit stream some how. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the prompt reply :)

hey mate..thanks for the reply :) ..

the amp is always on auto :)

i will try and mess around and set it to bit stream some how. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the prompt reply :)You may need some additional software to what your mobo included. But poke around and see if you can find a setting for bitstream versus PCM (or something like that). I assume what you are trying to pass IS DD or DTS 5.1.

I just had a look. There doesnt seem to be anything in control panel, or the software which offers the change of pcm to bitstream...

andd of course its 5.1 material :P ... but the amp only lights the right and left front channels no matter what.

edit..i just noticed my AMP displays PCM in the corner. So the PC is sendign a PCM signal...not too sure how to change it though

I just went through the same thing with my s/pdif (same signal as what comes out of digital coax) optical audio out and 5.1 dts movies. It came down to be able to adjust the correct filter to output 5.1 over the s/pdif. The default is 2ch. For my application it was the ac3 filter. Hopes this gets you pointed in the right direction.