Y500 / Y510p 5.1 Surround Sound

Hello everyone.

I have a Y500 and I plan to get a Y510p too (i'll sell this Y500 soon). I also have Sony HDTV and a Samsung Home Theater. I use my TV as receiver and send audio to my Home Theater via Optical Cable (since the Home Theater have HDMI output but no input) Anyways via this setup I can plug my Xbox 360 to my TV and get perfect 5.1 sound on my Home Theater. Also a friend of mine bring a cheaper laptop, plugged it via HDMI to my TV and bang, 5.1 sound on the Home Theater. But I cant do that with my Y500 (I don't know why) Lenovo Agent told me that this system don't support 5.1 sound (he didn't sound so confident tho...) when I plug a HDMI cable from my laptop to my TV I only get stereo sound (rear speakers never emit a sound this way) which really sux.

So my question is, are the Y500 and Y510p capable on any way to emit 5.1 sound to a Home Theater? If not then what can I do to have 5.1 sound? Some external adapter or something? Like this one:

Amazon.com : Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro Entertainment System (70SB109500000) : Computer Internal Sound Cards : Computers & Accessories (I have no real idea if this is what I would need)

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

TL.DR version:

How can I get 5.1 surround sound from a Y500 / Y510p? (conecting it to a 5.1 Home Theater)

I would really apreciate your help, thanks!

 

Through HDMI. It should work. There's probably some settings you haven't configured correctly. Did you installl the Nvidia HD audio driver?

 

Hello, i'll attach some pictures so maybe you can figure out whats going on. I haven't configured anything, laptop have stock configuration.

 

I suspect the problem is not on the laptop's end but somewhere else in the home theater setup. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

Thank you octiceps. The curious thing is that a friend brought his Dell laptop and plugged it via HDMI to this same setup and we got instantly 5.1 sound from a movie he played :/

So I would still think that its my laptop the one with the problem :/

Thank you.

 

Can any Y500/Y510p user please confirm whether can achieve or have achieved before 5.1 sound?

Thanks, I would really appreciate it.

 

I have no problems getting 5.1 sound when I connect it to my receiver through HDMI

 

Oh? Great that gives me hope then

Could you very very please show me pics of your configs at Audio / Realtek settings? Kinda like the pictures I posted before.

I would be VERY grateful.

 

Sorry, im not at home atm and won't be for another week, but I never changed any of the settings, all I did was plug laptop to the receiver and in vlc set audio to S/PDIF, didn't even need to turn Dolby home theater on.

Now that I think about it, I tried connecting the laptop to the tv (which is also connected to the receiver through HDMI) but 5.1 sound wouldnt work. But plugging the laptop directly to the receiver through HDMI works.

Also, do you happen to have the y500 with the single gt650m? if so that may be the problem since optimums would be using the intel HD 4000 graphics instead of the nvidia gpu.

 

Hello

Yes I have Y500 with a single GT-650M but I heard Optimus is disabled for this models and HD 4000 is never used (except if you configure it).

My receiver dont have HDMI input, just output =/ so, shame maybe Y500 dosn't works that way then. (laptop > tv > receiver, my friend's laptop worked like that)

Thanks for your help DJSweetBazz

 

Optimus is disabled for the SLI version of the Y500 as far as I know, don't really know for the single version, but then it would make sense since the HD 4000 doesn't support 5.1 sound through HDMI and I guess your friend's laptop had at least a dedicated graphics card. Is there any way you can check if optimus is enabled or not?

 

Hmmm... that sounds interesting. Maybe I could have Optimus on without me knowing it...I'll check that.

This picture shows NVIDIA audio tho..

View attachment 100218

Thank you again for your cooperation

 

Just leting you know, I kinda found the solution.

Looks like 5.1 sound doesn't works at all with streaming video since its always 2 channels audio (Youtube, Netflix, etc). To get 5.1 sound you need to open a propper 5.1 audio format file (5, 6 or 7 channels) and then play it and you will get the surround sound.

About surround game on games its still a mistery to me how to get it.

 

Yeah YouTube is just stereo. I think Netflix can do surround sound, but I haven't checked.

Here is your answer for surround sound in games if you have a pair of stereo headphones: Razer Surround - 7.1 Gaming Surround Sound - Razer United States

 

I just wanted to post my experience with the Dolby surround sound, using my Y470.

I don't have a wired connection (HDMI) from my laptop, to my Panasonic. I use WiDi to beam the connection to a Belkin F7D4501 Screencast system. The Belkin box is then connected via a HDMI cable. I also have my Panasonic connected to a Sony STR-D350Z A/V Home Theater System. In this setup, I definitely get Dolby Surround Sound, with YouTube, and Netflix through the Sony.

See this video, but pay attention to this comment below the video (as quoted here).

"TO CLEAR UP ANY CONFUSION, youtube does not support 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, it only supports stereo, however the reason why some of you can hear surround sound was because on your sound card or receiver you have a setting that decodes Dolby Digital Surround. Dolby Digital is a stereo signal that can be broken into different channels using an algorithm. If you do not hear surround sound, then your setup is not set to decode Dolby Digital."


<iframe width='420' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Rnlp7Vw3f0I?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 Speakers Test - YouTube

I hear separate, distinct audio, coming from my Center, Front, and Rear speakers, when I choose TV/DBS on my Sony A/V decoder.

It sounds "fabulous" :laugh:

 

Yep I use that video to test too and I can hear surround with my stereo headphones when I'm using the Razer software.

 

Thanks octiceps, I am just installing the Razer Surround to try with my stereo headsets. But I meant how to get surround with my home theater.

Dragnoak, Widi is disabled for Y500/Y510p because the Intel card is disabled, dunno why.

 

Just change it to 5.1 or 7.1 or whatever your home theater setup is from within the game. Make sure it's set that way in Windows too.

Apparently the Intel GPU is enabled on the Y510p since Optimus works, so there's no reason WiDI shouldn't work as well if you have the new model.

 

Well, yeah within the game I select 5.1 sound (like my home theater setup) but still only get sound from front speakers. It works correctly with 5.1 video files. I'm kinda giving up since I cant find a way to hear my games on 5.1 sound.

It's funny because only for this I am considering getting an Xbox One because I love surround sound on games and my Xbox 360 does it perfectly but I know it would be a total waste because PC is better and I know there should be a way...

 

Hello Blaze
I have the exact same configuration that you ( with SLI card)
y500 - sony w40 - ht350
and Im throught the same sad history.
But, right now, i havent tested it with a 5.1 file, hope to do it soon and get good results.
Do you discovered something new?
What is optimus, by the way?

 

One thing thats is driving me crazy is that in sound options I have 3 devices

sony tv-c
speakers
REaltek Digital Output <- this one i Cant hear any sound when i test it
Do you know what this one means and how to use it?

 

I also asked the same question when I got my laptop.
The realtek digital output is for a S/PDIF cable. One of these: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...?ie=UTF8&qid=1407892314&sr=8-3&keywords=spdif
Basically there's a little red LED in the headphone jack that allows it to send audio through some fiber optic cable to some home theater speakers. (I'm not exactly sure how it works )

 

HAHA
Anyway, do you I cant get my HT to work with 5.1 with the connection i mentioned before

Y500 HMDI - HDMI SONY W40 SONY W40 OPTICAL CABLE - OPTICAL CABLE SAMSUNG HT 350

I just get 2.1 , have tested with a 5.1 file

Someone ?!

Tks