[shrimpster]

Wanted to know the proper and best way for setting up my HTPC audio through my Onkyo receiver with DTS and THX set-up with 5.1. This is my setup. HTPC or XBOX 360 (via HDMI) ----> Onkyo Receiver (via HDMI) -------> Samsung LCD TV


1. Should I use the HDMI or S/PDIF audio connection

2. Should I configure my speakers in Windows 7 as stereo or 5.1? Do I do simply stereo and my receiver then decodes to 5.1?

3. Are there any other settings that I should turn on or off? (note that I use sharky007 codecs and simply checked off sharkys best settings)


One thing I noticed. When I set the speaker configuration to 5.1 in windows, then the receiver simply allows Direct sound or Stereo mode. I cannot use the receivers other audio modes (DTS, Neo, THX, etc). The other audio modes only show on my receiver when the speaker configuration in Windows 7 is set to stereo. My fear is that setting to stereo in wwindows only limits 2 channels to the receiver. Ideally I would like to send the audio in its true nature to the receiver and let the receiver do all the decoding. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Windows 7 Ultimate

1 Win-TV HVR-2250 Tuner

1 ATI Radeon HD5770 Graphics Card

2 TB Hard-Drive (RAID 1)

Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 MB

Intel i5 Core 650 3.2 Ghz (overclocked to 3.8gHz)

4 GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM

Silverstone GD05 Case

Logitech DiNovo Mini Keyboard

 

[Servicetech571]

Using SPDIF will allow "pass through" of 5.1 sound with a 5.1 source, reguarless of what Windows speaker settings are. I'm not sure if the shark codecs "breaks" this function.

 

[jrwalte]

Only movies and TV shows you play that have been encoded in DTS or DD will give you 5.1 audio. Any game or music or windows sound will only give you stereo. If leaving your speaker config to 2 channel doesn't prevent passthrough of DTS or DD from a movie or TV show, then you can leave it.

 

[Shark007]

Using Shark007's interface for proper Audio setup...


Digital output users: 1st, go to 'Control Panel | Sound' and under your digital device settings set stereo speakers. Do the following instruction in the Settings Application using 'Run as administrator', and then once again through the user account not using Run as administrator. Go the Audio TAB of the settings interface, choose to use FFDshow pass-through which will automatically set 'Same As input' on the leftside. Allow this. If your system has multiple user accounts, each user should open the Audio TAB and set FFDshow pass-through.


Anolog output users: 1st, go to 'Control Panel | Sound' click on Speakers, and then in the lower right, click on Configuration and set the correct speaker configuration. After checking that the Sound applet is setup correctly open the settings application twice; once as an Administrator, and again as a user without Administrative privileges. If your system has multiple user accounts, each user should simply open and close the settings application to invoke the audio system detection and setup under their account.


The leftside of the Audio TAB in the Settings Application uses system detection,

and at no time should a user need to click the leftside as long as 'Control Panel | Sound' is setup correctly.

 

[shrimpster]

Thanks everyone. I have set-up as per Shark007. Just one more follow-up question.


FFAudio & FF Video were installed on my computer or at least it now displays when playing a movie or video. Seems to have appeared after i installed either PowerDVD or Orb. Anyway, the volume/audio output was really low and after checking FFaudio I noticed the volume setting was changed so each speaker was at 50%. I cranked each speaker to 100% with master volume at 100% (it can go to 300%).


What should I set the volume to? Or do I simply check off volume option in FFaudio to pass the audio directly to receiver?


Thanks