Laptop audio only using the front two speakers through HDMI

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post #1 of 2

1/30/13 at 9:27am

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1 Post. Joined 1/2013
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Hi there, I'm brand new to this site with my first a/v question.

I have a brand new laptop that I'm wanting to game on with my home audio system. Right now it is hooked up to a Yamaha HTR 4065 via HDMI which then outputs video to an HDTV and audio to a 5.1 surround system. When I go through the laptop's built in audio setup utility I am able to hear each speaker being controlled individually, but any applications (web browsers for internet radio, games) fail to utilize anything other than the front speakers and the sub-woofer. I would expect that there's something application-side that I need to do, but I haven't found anything in any popular games that I play or any internet browsers to have output spread to any surround speakers. I also believe that there could possibly be a setting on the tuner to split that stereo audio to all of the speakers uniformly (or maybe keep the stereo audio but spread it to the back), but I haven't had any groundbreaking moments with any of my usual button-pushing.

Any ideas? I'd like to get this all straightened out sometime soon.

post #2 of 2

1/30/13 at 1:58pm

4,378 Posts. Joined 1/2001
Location: upstate NY
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Have you tried turning on Dolby ProLogic decoding in your receiver?

Make sure that the graphics driver for your laptop is up to date. Drivers change often enough that even new computers are shipped with older (more buggy) versions. If possible, download them from the manufacturer of your graphics chipset. Don't depend on Microsoft's update service.

Even with updated drivers, too often the source material is provided with just the front two channels active while the audio soundtrack itself contains incorrect flags which claim that it contains 5.1 channels or more. In that case, Dolby ProLogic can't process the stereo audio to produce multichannel surround sound. So far as the receiver is concerned, it's already providing full surround sound.

One way to get around this is to change the settings in Windows (which I assume you're using) to output only stereo over HDMI. Then ProLogic in the receiver can do its thing.

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