How to setup PC to TV 5.1 surround sound (HDMI)

1

I have a 5.1 system with a receiver, speakers and sub, in my living room, and i have connected my pc to my projector.

Current setup: PC > HDMI > hdmi switch & audio extractor

hdmi switch & audio extractor > HDMI (out) > Projector

&

hdmi switch & audio extractor > Optical > Resever

I can get audio to the spekers from the PC. But i can't get real 5.1 surround sound to work. I can't change the default format to 5.1 and in "configure speaker" only FR and FL work.

Do i need to buy a sound card and run optical all the way to the resever from my PC? And if i would need to buy a sound card would it have to have to be a surround sound sound card or is it just necessary that it has a optical port?

arvid werlin

Posted 2019-12-05T16:17:50.293

Reputation: 13

1Does the operating system (Windows?) sound settings show 5.1 is enabled? – Austin T French – 2019-12-05T16:24:13.580

what OS are you using? – Keltari – 2019-12-05T17:02:40.260

windows 10. i can't change the default format to 5.1 and "Configure speaker" dosen't work – arvid werlin – 2019-12-05T21:04:29.840

Answers

0

Optical (TOSLINK) audio connections do not have enough bandwidth for uncompressed audio with more than two DVD-quality PCM channels. More channels are only possible with compressed audio formats like Dolby Digital or DTS (those are present on DVD and Blu-ray).

You could, maybe (and that’s a big maybe) get it to work using the Dolby Access app for Windows 10.

What you actually need is of course an HDMI-capable AV receiver. HDMI supports 2-8 channels of uncompressed audio in almost any quality.

HDMI audio sinks report supported audio configurations to the audio source. That’s why Windows is only showing stereo.

Daniel B

Posted 2019-12-05T16:17:50.293

Reputation: 40 502

It is a 5.1 suroundssound A/V receiver with hdmi. But it doesn't support hdmi as an audio source, only optical and coaxial that's why i got the hdmi switch & audio extractor. My theory now is that hdmi is not capable of sending 5.1 audio and thats why i wonderd if, setting up optical between the pc and resever directly instead of after the hdmi switch & audio extractor, was nessessary. – arvid werlin – 2019-12-06T15:01:24.267

HDMI supports at least 8 channels of uncompressed audio. – Daniel B – 2019-12-06T15:07:51.197

So if my receiver would support HDMI audio everything would work perfectly? please don't say yes. I literally got it as a home theater package, i feel a little scammed :( – arvid werlin – 2019-12-06T15:16:17.687

The trick usually is to go through one to the other, HDMI all the way, not try to split the signal early. I'm guessing it's your splitter box that's messing things up. – Tetsujin – 2019-12-06T15:21:25.463

I got everything second-hand from a pretty nice fellow, hopefully he will agree to take just the receiver back. Anyways thanks for all the help +rep :) – arvid werlin – 2019-12-06T15:27:09.050

If the receiver supports full switching, just run to that first, then from its switched outs to the TV. On my own system I can partly do that through the TV's media box, but my setup is one that Rube Goldberg would have to go ask Heath Robinson & Rowland Emmet how it works ;-)

– Tetsujin – 2019-12-06T15:29:50.173

1Yeah the hdmi ports are video only, but thanks for cheering me up though :), i think the previous owner is understanding and willing to take it back. – arvid werlin – 2019-12-06T15:53:18.883

Asked: 2019-12-05T16:17:50.293

Viewed: 532 times

Active: 2019-12-06T15:10:43.577