I hate to throw away things that work, so that means I've been using an early Sony Pro-logic receiver for over 20 years. It finally gave up the ghost, so I bought a Vizio sound bar. It has virtually every audio connection possible, but I'm having issues getting it a 5.1 source to the soundbar.
Here are my issues. Using just the analog speaker outs from the PC works fine, but it's simulated 5.1.
Using the digital coaxial out from my PC's motherboard it is digital, but it is also only 2 channel sound. Even worse, the soundbar doesn't simulate 5.1 from that source for some reason. The digital out hardware is Realtek, btw. Should I look for updated drivers, or is that source always only 2 channel?
Using HDMI to my TV and then optical out to the soundbar, the TV doesn't pass 5.1, so it's simulated 5.1.
So that leaves HDMI, which I haven't tried because I need the HDMI to the TV. My card is an Nvidia GT520. If I use the DVI out on that will it still output audio through the HDMI cable? Would an HDMI splitter work? If so, does that have any HDCP implications, and if not, what is a good splitter? Or would one of those HDMI/extractors be better?
Might want to let on what motherboard you have. Though the Realtek solution should allow DD/DTS output, the fact that you've said you had a 20 year old AVR, I'm wondering how old your motherboard might be LOL. I'm pretty sure Nvidia was fully capable of all HD audio formats already at the GT 5xx series so you should be good there.
I believe Nvidia will output audio with a standard DVI-HDMI cable/adapter as well. Therefore this would be the best idea given your new soundbar should support multi-PCM if not DTS-HD and TrueHD as well. In this case, no need to use the Realtek/on-board audio at all.
Might want to let on what motherboard you have. Though the Realtek solution should allow DD/DTS output, the fact that you've said you had a 20 year old AVR, I'm wondering how old your motherboard might be LOL.
Yeah either a DVI-HDMI cable or a DVI-HDMI adapter plus HDMI cable...or a DVI-DVI cable and DVI-HDMI adapter--you get the picture. This is assuming the Vizio Soundbar has an HDMI input of course. I'm pretty sure it's only ATi/AMD cards that require a proprietary adapter to allow audio output from a DVI port. Both Intel and Nvidia should work with a standard adapter/cable.
You can get one from Monoprice or you can find one on Amazon, etc. as well.
On the coaxial digital, I still have a one more thing to try to get 5.1, but before I try is there a way to make the volume of that output controlled by the PC? If not I probably don't want it.
Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems pretty straight forward to me. You should just be able to run it the way I always have on all my setups that include an AVR (currently 2 in my place). Just use HDMI to the TV for picture, mute the TV's internal sound output, and run a coaxial or optical digital out from the Realtek directly to the receiver. That should give you what you want. It works for me...
NOTE: If the Realtek is an issue, for some reason, get a $25 Asus DG soundcard and that'll work. That's what I do.
There is no optical from the Realtek built into the motherboard--and the coaxial is only 2 channel. Optical from the TV is also 2 channel (although I still have something to try on that).
I'm pretty sure there is no room for a soundcard--the passive heat sink on the video card takes up all the room.
And just to be clear, I can get all three types of inputs to work--just not with 5.1 channel sound.
I don't see how a soundbar does 5.1 but anyhow... SPDIF is digital whether TOSLINK (optical) or RCA (coaxial) in form. IF you'rs is passing only 2-ch audio you are not streaming the digital audio stream. You most likely have it configured to 2-channel stereo which is good... it's that the application you're running must be set to SPDIF output! What sources are you wanting to listen to 5.1 from? DVD, TV Tuner, what? How are the audio configured in those apps? PASSTHRU is what you want! It will passthrough the digital audio via the RCA or optical jack to your AVR (or soundbar) and viola`
BTW, when a device passes digital audio it is always fixed line-level thus you can't use the device to adjust the sound level. IF you want to use the PC as a volume control you must decode the audio into stereo which will leave you with 2 ch stereo thus Dolby ProLogic at best. WHEN you pass digital 2.0 the decoder can't do anything with it which is why you'll only hear 2 speakers, no ProLogic.
UPDATE: One other thing, nVidia boards once required a SPDIF cable to pass the SPDIF from the mobo to the video card for integration into the HDMI output. IF yours has an input jack you'll need to connect it. Secondly, I don't know whether they no longer require one, but either case you'll need the nVidia HDMI Audio driver to establish the audio on the HDMI connector. Even then, your TV may be seen as a 2-channel stereo device by the HDCP and pass only 2-ch stereo. You said the TV will not pass but 2 channel, are you sure? Maybe when you feed it a normal HDMI signal (like from a stand-alone DVD player) it will do just fine?
I don't see how a soundbar does 5.1 but anyhow... SPDIF is digital whether TOSLINK (optical) or RCA (coaxial) in form. IF you'rs is passing only 2-ch audio you are not streaming the digital audio stream. You most likely have it configured to 2-channel stereo which is good... it's that the application you're running must be set to SPDIF output! What sources are you wanting to listen to 5.1 from? DVD, TV Tuner, what? How are the audio configured in those apps? PASSTHRU is what you want! It will passthrough the digital audio via the RCA or optical jack to your AVR (or soundbar) and viola`
BTW, when a device passes digital audio it is always fixed line-level thus you can't use the device to adjust the sound level. IF you want to use the PC as a volume control you must decode the audio into stereo which will leave you with 2 ch stereo thus Dolby ProLogic at best. WHEN you pass digital 2.0 the decoder can't do anything with it which is why you'll only hear 2 speakers, no ProLogic.
First, this is a soundbar with a sub and surrounds. And the card is a GT520, which from reading the manual doesn't have any additional inputs.
Using my HDMI output, and an extractor from HDMI to optical SPDIF set at 5.1 (because my TV optical converts to 2 channel), my computer will recognize that it has a 5.1 device connected, but in setup (Control panel sound) when I go to test the center, surround or sub it won't make any noise. And setup that way, the DWTS video I left recorded sounds okay (sound coming from surrounds), but when I play the Terry Bradshaw shingles commercial I don't hear the center channel (him talking). If I set it up on the computer as just stereo, it's fine, but I think the soundbar is just doing its simulated surround thing.
It shouldn't. All you should really have to do is configure windows for Stereo (since that's all your devices support for uncompressed audio) and then setup your players (WMC, XBMC, etc) to bitstream for DD and DTS audio. Then all DD/DTS should be sent out as is, and anything that's not will be output as stereo PCM (downconverted if necessary) and your extractor will just route it to your soundbar. There shouldn't be any changing of settings for each source required.
As Stranger89 said, there should be no need to physically change connectors nor even change audio settings. Windows applications will send 2.0 uncompressed audio, but when an application starts bitstreaming DD/DTS compressed audio that will automatically override the Windows audio out - that is the windows 2.0 stream is shut off so the the DD/DTS signal can be sent through the same connection.
That Creative sound card should do what you want, yes. It supports Dolby Digital Live and has an optical output, which will allow you to output 5.1 from all computer sources to the sound bar via the optical out once you get all the hardware and software set up properly (including getting the Dolby Digital Live part of the driver pack installed and turned on for the sound card).
I will note that you may see very little gain from what you could otherwise see if you can get DD/DTS bitstreaming working properly with your current configuration. What DDLive really gives you is the ability to playback 5.1 from sources that can't be bitstreamed - mostly games, but also possibly ripped or downloaded videos with 5.1 sound.
If you want 5.1 in games or want to play multi channel flac, then you choose 5.1 in Windows. And if your system isn't capable of multi-channel PCM (Hdmi) then you would use a Dobly Digital Live card.
If you want to pass DD/DTS and want simulated surround for stereo sources, then you set up Windows to stereo. Even myself with a $2000 HDMI pre/pro have Windows set to stereo 2.0
The biggest question is, does your HDMI extractor pass DD/DTS to SPDIF?
Thanks Stanger, Eric and Andy. We're getting somewhere.
Using the HDMI to Optical extractor I was able to setup and play a DVD in 5.1 through PowerDVD, and my WMC test clip from DWTS is playing properly, including the vocals on the Terry Bradshaw commercial.
However, I'm a still a bit confused on how to setup WMC. I've tried to set it up with a digital optical and in the test setting all 5.1 channels work, and it seems to play the DWTS clip fine, but just effectively 2.1 (no virtual surround). Changing it to optical 2 speaker doesn't seem to change that, nor did trying to set it up as RCA stereo seem to work. Am I still doing something wrong there, or to get virtual surround will I need to switch to my analog outputs?
And in that regard, how much broadcast or cable channel TV is in 5.1? When should I expect it to be 5.1 and when should it just be stereo where I need virtual surround?
I use my HTPC for watching OTA TV via MediaPortal, Cable TV using a CableCard & HDHomeRun Prime via WMC, DVDs, .mkv and .m4v compressed movie files (with DD and DTS audio streams) via MediaPortal, and surfing the web on occasion. Bitstreaming the DD/DTS over the HDMI does great. I used to bitstream over SPDIF (optical or coaxial DOES NOT MATTER) with my old AVR. When I watch UTube videos or surf the web I have PCM 2-ch audio. When I do other "HTPC" stuff the bitstreaming gives me DD/DTS per the selected audio track. In fact, I have DVDs wih various audio tracks I simply switch between them using my remote and MediaPortal. Most all TV in the USA is using 5.1 audio, DD mostly and it streams just fine! I've stated before, we in the USA have gone from NTSC (analog) 330 lines and stereo sound to ATSC (digital) 1080i lines and 5.1 DD audio... WOW! We now can view higher definition FREE OTA broadcast TV with 5.1 audio -- a far cry BETTER than DVDs were (at 720x480 lines).
You should be able to do the same with your system. I'm running Win 7 OS w/WMC, FREE MediaPortal and a WMC remote control. I have an HDHomeRun OTA dual tuner, a HDHomeRun Prime for my cablecard, a AVerMedia Duet dual ATSC tuner, and several HDDs (various 2TB and 4TB models) to store all the recorded TV shows.
You say the MOBO has Coaxial SPDIF -- use it directly to the soundbar. In the drivers, select SPDIF as your default audio device. You may choose to DISABLE the HDMI Audio device so as to not confuse things (and to assure you want the SPDIF using the coaxial and NOT the HDMI connector). When you TEST teh audio in the Windows PLAYBACK device settings you will ONLY hear left and right -- this is normal! When you use PowerDVD or more importantly WMC or MediaPortal to play a DVD, have them configured as passthru or SPDIF audio... this should work! Now, your TV will never get any audio and the sound bar will via coaxial! Viola`
You say the MOBO has Coaxial SPDIF -- use it directly to the soundbar. In the drivers, select SPDIF as your default audio device. You may choose to DISABLE the HDMI Audio device so as to not confuse things (and to assure you want the SPDIF using the coaxial and NOT the HDMI connector). When you TEST teh audio in the Windows PLAYBACK device settings you will ONLY hear left and right -- this is normal! When you use PowerDVD or more importantly WMC or MediaPortal to play a DVD, have them configured as passthru or SPDIF audio... this should work! Now, your TV will never get any audio and the sound bar will via coaxial! Viola`
Apparently DWTS is stereo (something someone mentioned above), but I thought that the commercial would be 5.1 since it played differently when I had it setup wrong. But watching another program it does play back in 5.1 w/ WMC the way I have it setup now. Thanks everyone!
I had tried coaxial originally, but perhaps I either had WMC setup wrong or was only using that DWTS clip. And I know I had PowerDVD setup wrong.
Well now that you have the audio working, pick up a Windows MCE remote control and you'll really begin to enjoy the HTPC experience! It works w/Windows WMC as well as MediaPortal if you're going to be watching recorded stuff... BTW, where are you getting your recorded TV shows? What container are they, e.g. what's the extension? If you're going to add a tuner and record things yourself then it'll be native to the app. MediaPortal is a FREE download and provides some really easy video playback, not to mention LiveTV and recording abilities too!
Haven't been back on AVS in a while...sounds like you got the audio working now though?
Yeah Netflix...that's one big problem with Netflix. I mean there are others too but having terrible PC functionality for the most part is pretty sad, especially these days. Whereas most everything is done "better on a PC", streaming services have quirks like this. Netflix you not only miss out on 5.1 but the video streams are worse as well. For this reason I typically use Netflix either directly on my TV or on my PS3; pretty pointless on PC outside of Windows 8. And I won't use Windows 8 'cause the damn fonts issue!
It just occurred to me that I should try the Netflix in WMC, but I assume that is no better.
Is there a way to control the volume through the computer? I'd have to count to make sure, but my soundbar might have as few as 12 volume levels, and that is simply not enough. One setting might be slightly too quiet and one slightly too loud. I'm used to having 100 different levels of adjustment.
Are you using the Shark007 codecs? They have to be properly configured for your audio source (sound bar) if so. Simply setting Windows after a change like you've done will not be enough.
The Netflix app in WMC works. It's not optimal, but for watching on a bedroom system and listening through a sound bar, it's fine. Moving to Windows 8 opens up so many issues, it's not worth changing just for a better Netflix experience. Going to a cheap device like an Amazon Fire Stick would be a better solution, if it an option for you.
Another option, you could stream from an HTPC in another room using a cheap used XBOX 360.
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