I have just gotten a blu-ray player for my computer and a new 7.1 surround system from Onkyo, and I'm having a hard time getting surround audio to be passed properly to the receiver via digital connection. I've never worked with surround sound on a computer, but I'm a very advanced user. Any ideas or suggestions would be very helpful. I'll put as much information as I can think of below.
Soundcard 1: Creative Audigy 2 ZS (couldn't get the digital connection to work at all)
Soundcard 2: "SoundMax Integrated Digital HD Audio" - onboard with my Mobo
Mobo: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus
OS: Windows XP SP3
Receiver: Onkyo HT-S5100
I am connecting the SoundMax soundcard to the receiver via coax digital audio cable (I tried an optical cable but could not get that to work). Everything as far as quality sounds great, but I know the channels are not right. I was watching a 5.1 movie and much of the dialog was simply not being played. I also downloaded a short test file which plays through each channel one by one, and again, they were incorrect.
I cannot find any settings to tell the SoundMax soundcard to only output digital audio (there is an option to disable digital audio). I have the card configured for 7.1 speakers, however that seems to be related to the analog ports (as each speaker displays "not connected" next to it), which of course I am not using at all. Also, in my travels on a few forums, I saw a few mentions to "S/PDIF Passthrough." I'm not sure what this is, but my guess is that it tells the soundcard not to decode the audio but to simply send it straight to the receiver - which would make a lot of sense if I could only find that option!
I have updated the SoundMax card's drivers to the latest via Asus' website. I did not update the Creative card's drivers as I've seen a lot of people having a lot of problems with digital audio from that card in particular (it's considered an "old" card these days).
Any ideas or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
- Jonathan
