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
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Hi Rindi,
Thanks for your response. Here is the downloads page for my Asus motherboard: http://support.asus.com/do
An extra note: a friend commented that true 5.1 surround will only work with Optical, not digital coax. Is this true? If so, then I need to figure out how to get that optical port working (it sits directly next to the coax port, so I'm not sure why it's not working - and the cable is tested working on a different device).
Thanks,
Jonathan
Try to find utilities from soundmax directly, not Asus. Otherwise it is often better to get an add on card where you get more software for it. If you do that make sure to first disable on board sound within the BIOS.
You should be able to get 5.1 sound not only through optical (but that can depend on the hardware connected to the card). Optical the signal will of course be superior.
Again, I don't mean to be rude, but that's not very helpful. I already have two soundcards, both of which have "utilities" and there's nothing that I can find to "force digital output." I buy my gear from newegg.com, so I will certainly need something more concrete.
Also, in fiddling around, I'm wondering if it has more to do with the applications I'm using, and not the sound card at all. I'm using VLC and Windows Media Player... are they others I should be trying?
Thanks
Are you using the latest version of VLC? It had problems with S/PDIF passthrough at one point: https://trac.videolan.org/
Are all your problems restricted to playing blu-ray discs, or are you talking about regular dvds?
HI Callandor - I'm using .96 which is two releases behind the current. I will update that and report back, although I also tried inside of Windows Media Player with the same results.
I was getting issues playing a 5.1 surround test file I found on the internet, and also when I was playing an HD-DVD movie via the software included with the drive (CyberLink PowerDVD) - which is updated to its latest version.
Unfortunately, while working on this Monday night, I changed some settings inside of my SoundMax control panel. Since restarting after making those changes, things on my computer have not been right. I just disabled the soundcard and everything is fine again, so there's clearly something wrong with the software for that sound card. It's disappointing, because I bought this motherboard specifically for the optical audio output.
I'm hesitant to buy another soundcard, one that I can't take back, if the software-related.
OK, I know I did a full delete of a driver before, but it's been a long time and I've had a hard time finding the instructions to do so. Of course I know about uninstalling a driver, but I know that doesn't fully delete all references to the device, as on the next restart, it just reinstalls itself. Unless this is what you're referring to?
And yes, I'd like to get the computer working properly alongside the sound card working properly, before I can continue to troubleshoot the surround.
Try the simpler method first, which doesn't require messing around with registry entries (a potentially dangerous area). Download the correct drivers to a specific location on your hard drive, uninstall the old ones, install the new one by saying don't do it automatically because you have the disk, and point to the location you saved it to.
OK, I'll try that today. As long as the card is enabled in bios, everything hangs a lot, so I'll see if it will let me do the driver update in safe mode. Other than that, I can try System Restore to go back before Monday (as I haven't changed anything else).
Now, if I uninstall the device, then search for devices (or restart), it will likely pull the old drivers from the cache. How do I avoid that? Should I just go in and force an update of the existing drivers without uninstalling? I think that's what I typically do.
Thanks again!
Sorry I haven't updated this in a while, it's been a bit crazy with the holidays.
I was able to get the sound card re-enabled again without uninstalling the driver... not exactly sure what did the trick, but at least I'm back to where I started.
I have still been researching this issue, and I'm afraid I'm left with the same exact questions as I started with (I'm a bit surprised they go unanswered, given my past positive experience here at EE).
1) Do I need a great card when passing audio straight from an application to the receiver via digital connection? The thinking is that if the receiver is doing all of the decoding, then I just need the cheapest card available which has an optical connection.
2) What should I be selecting as an output inside of an application? SPDIF? 5.1 Surround? 5.1 is missing channels, while SPDIF studders, as if something has crashed (the audio is restored once any other selection is made).
3) Why on my SoundMax card can I use the Digital Coax connection, but not the Optical connection right next to it? There are no options when it comes to the digital outputs; all speaker settings (i.e. 5 speakers, 7 speakers, etc.) comes with the "Anolog outputs only" stipulation. There is no option to force digital output. The only output options I can find come from within the applications - such as VLC and CyberDVD.
4) (new question) Is there any way to get true 5.1 surround out of PC games via Optical or Digial Coax connection? Some have suggested that this is only possible via Analog connections... :-\
In summary, I am willing to buy a new sound card in order to make this work properly, but I need more than somebody saying "yeah, I think that should work..." If I buy a card, it will be from Newegg, and I'm not crazy about having to return a product that ends up having the same issues as my two current sound cards.
I'm considering buying this card for $17 shipped just to see what happens: http://www.newegg.com/Prod
And
>1) Do I need a great card when passing audio straight from an application to the receiver via digital connection? The thinking is that if the receiver is doing all of the decoding, then I just need the cheapest card available which has an optical connection.
No, even motherboard soundcards will do a good job if they are set for "S/PDIF passthrough" - in other words, no decoding is done by the soundcard and all is left to the receiver.
>2) What should I be selecting as an output inside of an application? SPDIF? 5.1 Surround? 5.1 is missing channels, while SPDIF studders, as if something has crashed (the audio is restored once any other selection is made).
If you play a regular dvd (not HD) and choosing S/PDIF results in stutters, there's something not set up correctly or the hardware is faulty. Stuttering is usually an indication that the incoming stream is not in the right format. See this thread about VLC and stuttering with S/PDIF and try the settings: http://74.125.47.132/searc
>3) Why on my SoundMax card can I use the Digital Coax connection, but not the Optical connection right next to it? There are no options when it comes to the digital outputs; all speaker settings (i.e. 5 speakers, 7 speakers, etc.) comes with the "Anolog outputs only" stipulation. There is no option to force digital output. The only output options I can find come from within the applications - such as VLC and CyberDVD.
There should be no difference between using the coax or optical port. When you use the digital ports, you are not doing any decoding, so you don't have any controls for it. It expects the receiver to handle any settings.
>4) (new question) Is there any way to get true 5.1 surround out of PC games via Optical or Digial Coax connection? Some have suggested that this is only possible via Analog connections... :-\
Only if the game itself outputs through the digital port. DVD player software, as you already have noticed, gives you this control.
Hi Callandor,
Thanks for the response - I have a few questions in return.
> No, even motherboard soundcards will do a good job if they are set for "S/PDIF passthrough" - in other words, no decoding is done by the soundcard and all is left to the receiver.
So in theory, my on-board SoundMax card should do just fine? I have installed updated drivers straight from Asus' website, so I don't know what else to do. Also I question the integrity of the card when the optical port seemingly does nothing, but the coax port works fine.
> If you play a regular dvd (not HD) and choosing S/PDIF results in stutters, there's something not set up correctly or the hardware is faulty. Stuttering is usually an indication that the incoming stream is not in the right format.
So what do I choose when I'm playing an HD-DVD within Cyberlink PowerDVD? Or, for instance, if I'm playing a .avi video file via VLC - should that play via SPDIF?
> Only if the game itself outputs through the digital port. DVD player software, as you already have noticed, gives you this control.
Is there any way to check this?
Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the spaces in my previous post... not sure where they came from.
I also wanted to add to the solution for anyone else that comes across this. For those other than Callandor that were trying to help, I thank you, but the correct solution here is that I must you S/PDIF output from each application. The settings are not found within the sound card options because it is an application-specific setting. Furthermore, I'm using my cheap on-board sound card (which sounds absolutely horrible via analog connection), so my theory held true (thanks Callandor!): if using a digital connection, simply find the cheapest card which allows digital output and select "S/PDIF" as the output (NOT 5.1 surround, 5/7 speakers, etc.).
Thanks guys! Cheers!
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by: rindiPosted on 2008-12-08 at 08:00:06ID: 23121370
You usually not only have to install the drivers for the sound card, but also the utilities provided by the card's manufacturer. Within those utilities you should then have the ability to select all the output options you need, or change an analog output to a digital output. Often you can also select which plug is used for what type of device.