Asus notebook optical SPDIF

Ok there seems to be a lot of confusion and little straight-forward information about the spdif connections on many asus notebooks... In this thread, could people post info about the jacks? What I know so far is that they are minitoslink jacks (optical). You can buy cables online that have the 3.5mm minitoslink to toslink that will hook you up directly to a receiver with optical in. It seems that for many people things work at this point.

For others, however, there are issues (I'm one of them and could use some help). My year and a half old m50sv-a1 has an spdif jack, but for some reason it won't work. Something seems to be up with the realtek program always thinking headphones are plugged into the top jack, but when i installed a new version, it just made things worse and now the speakers won't work... sigh.

Today I got a g60vx which also has the asus spdif jack. I connected the minitoslink and I can get stereo sound to my logitech z5500 (5.1 speakers) normally. Realtek manager only has stereo playback and dolby digital live options for some reason, all of which play stereo sound. I went into the sound manager for win7 and in the supported formats I have tested DTS Audio and Dolby Digital, both of which when tested output sound to each satellite (not just the front left and right). However, in the advanced settings there's only stereo and DDLive options, which all play stereo sound! Infuriating! So most apps are running in basic stereo through my speakers.
Some programs can force surround sound though (and each of the speakers is getting it's own proper channel). VLC is the only one i've tried and had work. But for that each time I need to select 5.1 as the audio device because it doesn't recognize the output as 5.1. MPC-HC wil only do stereo. I really can't find a way to fix this... I've updated the drivers and nothing has changed :/

So if anybody knows a solution to these problems... please post em! Or if you have any other helpful info others could use about the spdif optical outputs, toss it here so people can search it out. I've done some extensive googling and forum scouring but haven't been able to find a proper solution. Seems quite ridiculous that these things never work right without research. Gonna call support tomorrow and try to see if they know a solution, I'll update afterwards.

 

I've used AC3Filter to output 5.1 channel audio

 

I don't think it's an optical connection. It's digital audio but I forgot what mini connector you need. Optical involves a red-colored light.

 

My Z71V uses optical for SPDIF. I have a TOSlink to optical minijack cable for the purpose, and there is definitely a red light.

 

ya i have no idea how to get the spdif to work.

i plug un the optical cable and see a red light... but no sound ispplayed on my theater system... sound keeps comming out of my computer speaers... i go to sound properties and only speaks the asus see's are my omputer speakers.. no other options to click...

 

Just did a search here and would have to agree on the lack of info/ direction...

I'll be trying a mini toslink to toslink I've had floating around for years from my first Minidisc...

I remember my last Asus was a connection nightmare too (for a while)

 

Questions I'd like answered too. I was considering a surround headset that would connect from the spdif on my notebook.

When I first got this notebook last year. I did actually see a red light in the headphone/spdif jack. I don't think I have ever seen it since even after playing with playback devices. Could it be that it has turned off for some reason. Maybe something in the BIOS, Registry or perhaps Device Manager? My laptop will automatically disable my DVD to "save resources". Could it have turned off the spdif as well ...