Having trouble getting 5.1 sound out of my SPDIF port on np8170

I got my SPDIF to toslink adapter plugged into the SPDIF port with a toslink cable going to my Logitech Z5500 5.1 speakers which support both dolby digital and dts surround sound.

I can get audio to go to my speakers and all but it only comes through as 2.0 upconverted to pro logic.

I enabled 5.1 in the realtek device settings but still it comes through as 2.0 sound when i play Crysis.

Any help would be nice.

 

This is really annoying, everything is set to output in 5.1, but it just doesn't work.

 

In some of the reviews, they were saying they were having trouble getting the 5.1 audio to work. The sound would only come out of the top two speakers. Might be the audio drivers.

 

A little update, i tried out my dvd of starship troopers and the 5.1 worked perfectly fine, it's Crysis that's the problem. I have the sound quality set to very high and topics about it say crysis automatically detects 5.1 being enabled. So something is going wrong with crysis itself.

 

Tried anything else to see if you get 5.1?

 

There's supposedly a console command i can enter in crysis to pick what audio output you want but i'm trying to figure out where that config file is in the crysis directory.

I'm kinda annoyed it's not switching over automatically like it's supposed to.

But at least i know 5.1 works due to testing the dvd, but now i'm itching to beat crysis on my hdtv and surround sound, i refuse to play it without surround.

 

Just tried FarCry 1 and surround sound worked perfectly, Crysis is just being a jerk.

 

I think I may have found that command you were looking for. You may want to back up to page 8 because I believe there's a command you need to enter to lift the restrictions to use the other commands.

Let me know if this helped

 

I knew about that page but i just realized 5.1 isn't working with farcry either even though 5.1 is selected, i also tried batman arkham asylum and thats also outputting in 2.0.

Only thing that works in 5.1 sound is the starship troopers dvd i played. Something is wrong to not allow it to output to 5.1 in games.

Also, i enabled dev mode in crysis and tried bringing up the console command with ~ but it won't work. I'm convinced that's not the problem though since no games i tried work with 5.1. Gotta be a windows setting im missing because the realtek setting is all set to 5.1 and digital output

I'm gonna call xotix pc's tech support at 7 pm once my nighttime minutes kick in.

 

It looks like i have to disable shared mode in realtek hd audio manager somehow, but i don't see the option anywhere.

 

Wow i just found this post on another forum..

gamerk316 08-11-2010 at 06:43:23 PM
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Correct, and this is normal. Movies/DVD's are already encoded in Dolby Digital or DTS formats, which can be carried over SPDIF. Games however, use uncompressed audio, and an uncompressed 5.1 audio signal can NOT be carried over a SPDIF connection, so you get 2.0 instead.

The only way to solve this problem is to get a soundcard that can handle real-time encoding to either Dolby Digital or DTS. [A cheap option is the ASUS Xonar DX [Dolby Support only] or the HT Omega Striker, both going for about $80 or so]

Remember, SPDIF can ONLY carry:
2.0 Uncompressed PCM audio
5.1 Dolby Digital
5.1 DTS
6.1 Dolby Digital EX (??I'm not sure on this one??)

From this site..

Realtek HD audio, Optical out. Games in 5.1? - Sound-Cards - CPU-Components

If this is true then this utterly sucks because i specifically bought this laptop to play games on my setup in 5.1

 

someone's gonna yell at you for posting after yourself multiple times lol..

sucks that the SPDIF cannot put out the 5.1 you're looking for. although if you're that into the surround sound stuff, maybe investing into a nice sound card wouldn't be a bad idea. i mean it can only make things better right? my logitech speakers have matrix mode where it puts the regular 2.0 audio into 5.1.. dont know much about it, although i know it's not "real" 5.1 surround sound. still sound pretty nice imo though

 

Seems i need some sort of decoder to convert the game's audio to dolby digital stream that can be outputted through the spdif port. Something like dolby digital live. This sucks. Now i have to buy an xfi usb soundcard unless i'm missing something.

 

THis post wont be of any help to you, but out of curiosity i wanted to ask:

does this mean you are not getting 5.1 on the in-built speakers also or is it only related to not getting 5.1 from the SPDIF??

 

I figured out what the problem is, spdif ports only send Dolby Digital and DTS audio streams through it. All pc games use uncompressed pcm tracks for the 5.1 channels, which can't be sent over an spdif port. So pc games always come out of the spdif port as 2.0.

Really sucks and i blame the pc game industry for not adopting Dolby Digital or DTS tracks in their games. Only way to get a DD or DTS stream out of this laptop with gaming is to buy an external X-fi sound card which decodes the pcm stream into DD or DTS. Kinda sucks cause i thought this laptop could play pc games in 5.1 out of the box, now i have to spend $65 more on an x-fi card.

I'm kinda miffed though the xotic pc seller i talked to didn't inform me of this when i directly asked them if i could do 5.1 sound for gaming on this laptop through the spdif port.

 

If you have a receiver with HDMI inputs that can accept the 5.1 PCM signal HDMI will carry the 5.1 PCM signal stream from any game that can output it. You just have to set it up in the Audio driver when you set HDMI as your default Audio output.

I am wondering though if the problem is a cause of the method of transfer or the receiver that is accepting and decoding the signal. It shouldn't be too difficult to send 1's and 0's out in a 5.1 PCM format through a digital signal like SPDIF. It would make sense if the PC's sound card had 5.1 outputs that pre-decoded the signal and that didnt have a 5.1 PCM decoder. However this is just a single undecoded signal that is being sent to a receiver that should decode the signal.

Which receiver are you connecting to when you are trying to send the 5.1 PCM signal? Also where did you find your research for this? I would like to look into it a bit more so I can understand why PCM 5.1 would not be allowed to pass-through an SPDIF signal, but would be able to pass-through HDMI.

Admittedly I have not researched this subject enough to completely speak intelligently on the matter, but i would like to be able to.

 

Don't have the links right now but i just searched terms like "spdif 5.1 pc gaming" and stuff like that and read things at various forums.

Theres a way to run software that decodes the pcm signal into dolby or dts but i could only find software that works with some desktop sound card that i don't have, i assume it would also have an impact on performance if done in software.

There's really no software solution for this that i could find for realtek hd, the external usb sound card is my best bet it seems.

The problem is mainly that all pc games use pcm rather than DD or dts.

My 5.1 system is the logitech z-5500, which only supports dolby digital and DTS, but yea supposedly spdif is not capable of carrying 5.1 pcm sound due to bandwidth restrictions, thats why you need dolby digital live type sound card to decode the pcm into a stream your 5.1 setup can recognize.

Also yea, i assume you can get 5.1 from the hdmi connection, but i've heard that a lot of pc games don't support that either and it still comes through the hdmi as 2.0 pcm.

I'll prolly just get the X-fi usb sound card down the road if a software solution doesn't pop up. I guess i'm stuck playing crysis and crysis 2 in pro logic only :/ Kinda makes me wish i got crysis 2 on xbox 360, at least the surround sound would be working in that version out of the box.

 

I found the link to that thread concerning this issue...

Realtek HD audio, Optical out. Games in 5.1? - Sound-Cards - CPU-Components

Really sucks i have to buy an external usb card just because realtek won't support Dolby Digital Live on this card which is a SOFTWARE feature. This internal card should work for games considering this is marketed as a GAMING laptop.

I feel really ripped off now...crappy screen, can't output 5.1 audio for games without a $65 attachment....sucks.

 

well, you're still within your return period aren't you? no reason to be stuck being unhappy about things

you still have the chat log where your sales rep told you it'd work for your 5.1? maybe your reseller can toss an external sound card your way since it sounds like they told you it would work, but it actually doesn't..?

 

I doubt they would do that, since it's my fault for not researching pc game audio. I never knew pc game audio needed to be decoded first but now that i look at the boxes for all my pc games they are all missing the dolby digital or dts logos like console games have. This proves how much realtek sucks though, as they consider this an HD 5.1 INTERNAL sound card that can't even decode the most popular audio formats for pc gaming.

I'm just gonna order the usb x-fi card off amazon for 65$, its worth it to get 5.1 sound from my games, so i can play on my hdtv and logitech z5500 speakers...that way i'm not stuck with gaming on this crappy default screen.

 

Idk if there are other laptops that would have the sound feature you're looking for, but you (and other users) aren't haply with the screen. Another reason to return it.

Thanks for the info though. I never realized I couldnt do actual 5.1 either (but I never asked and it's not all that important to me..). Guess I'll just be sticking to matrix mode for now

 

I went ahead and ordered the x-fi usb sound card, hopefully i can finally play my games in TRUE 5.1 surround, and say bye bye to this default screen as i play of my black level rich sony bravia.

 

Let us know how you get on/what you think of the x-fi as I am most interested.

Cheers

 

the realtek card should be capable of DTS Connect:

Realtek

its whether or not the software drivers allow it or not

 

If you are connecting your laptop to a TV, I have to ask, why did you not opt for a gaming m-ATX or m-ITX box instead?

 

That says its only for movies. My spdif port already gets 5.1 with movies, it's pc games that are the problem.

 

I wanted a laptop i could take room to room for browsing, but powerful enough to hook up to a tv for gaming. If i got any sort of desktop pc i'd have to have a monitor in every room to achieve this.

Not to mention i want the laptop for trips.

 

It says it can handle DTS COnnect licenses. Basically the sound card can handle 'live' conversion (e.g DTS Connect, no mention of Dolby Digital Live), but it has to be software enabled.

DTS Connect, if enabled, will convert the uncompressed sound from games into DTS so it can be carried to a surround system via SPDIF. Its software enabled so it will require the right drivers to enable it. But i have no idea if such drivers exist, and it appears that it is motherboard manufacturer dependent (ie Clevo). So its not Realtek you should be complaining about its Clevo, as Realtek's hardware is fully capable. Its up to the motherboard manufacturer whether they enable it or not.


WARNING DISCLAIMER: Install at your own peril!!! This is probably not compatible with your onboard sound, but it gets across what i mean:

Realtek High Definition Audio Driver Software Informer: Latest version download, news and info about this REALTEK Semiconductor Corp. program. Today number one High Defininition Audio Driver for Windows Vista and Mobile PCs.

Read the advantages at the bottom:

So in conclusion, i believe the latest Realtek onboard sound (which i believe the P150HM and P170HM have in the form of the ALC892) have the hardware capability to handle DTS Connect. It just needs software activation from the drivers.


In your Realtek control panel do you see any mention of DTS Connect? Maybe under digital output etc.


EDIT: And, have you made sure the external sound card you bought supports DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live? I've only found that this can "Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 PRO Sound Card". The other external products don't. You may have to use an analog connection instead of SPDIF for surround.

 

Yep that's the one i ordered!

Amazon.com: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB Audio System with THX SB1095: Electronics

I'll try out that driver though...if it works ill return the x-fi before opening it.

 

Good man.

THe reason i show so much interest in this topic is because im receiving my p150hm tomorrow. Like you i have a pretty decent home theatre system id like to hook the laptop up to.

Considering that same Xi-Fi card myself. An additional plus is that it might provide better sound quality than the onboard sound anyway, which is especially good if you have a good set of headphones to drive as well. It will be interesting if you hear any large differences in sound quality when you receive yours.

 

I can't seem to find where to download those realtek drivers...either way that x-fi card like you said, should provide superior sound and free up ny cpu resources, so i think it's a good idea anyways.

 

Here you have it:

Realtek

(Choose 2nd option, of course).

Hail to the forum. I'll receive my Clevo p170hm (or Mountain Portátil Studio3D 17 here, in Spain) really soon.


I hope this realtek drivers worked well... although reading about the crappy screen... buff, I'm reading it at least.

Decayedmatter, thanks for the warn about this issue.

 

I tried the driver and it didn't help at all for gaming, still output stereo 2.0 sound through the spdif port. In fact it made my device manager have 4 different realtek drivers listed, i think it was the wrong driver so i rolled back to the original.

I think the X-fi card is the only way to get 5.1 game audio from this laptop :/

 

Well, i finally got the X-fi pro, took a little messing around to get dolby digital live outputting through the toslink port but now all my pc games have great 5.1 sound! It's unfortunate that all the existing SPDIF port on the sager has holding it back is software support from DD live.

Oh well i'm playing my games on my sony bravia and logitech z5500 speakers now and it looks and sounds great!

The cool thing too is even though my bravia is only 720p, if i set my games to 1080p it still renders them in that resolution then downcoverts it to 720p, eliminating jaggies comapred to just selecting 720p.

Though the nice thing about selecting 720p is most games run at 60 fps.

I'll be doing a video review of my laptop and x-fi pro card in the next week and will post it here.

 

How's the sound working after a few months. I just got my system yesterday, and I've been researching the same topic, however with the goal to get virtual surround processing for headphone. Dolby Headphone technology, or Creative CMSS-3D Headphone mode.

I'm strongly considering the Asus Xonar U1 unless someone has found a way to get Dobly Digital Live (DDL) working over the optical S/PDIF in which case I could buy an Astro MixAMP 5.8.