5.1 surround sound with digital optical cable?

[Yoshinat0r]

I just bought a new surround sound setup for my computer, and on my sound card and on my receiver there is an optical port. I bought an optical cable, but I can't seem to get 5.1 surround sound to work. When I run the windows 5.1 speaker test, only the front left and front right speakers produce sound. This is the sound card I have:

http/www.rocketfishproducts.com/products/computers/RF-71SDCD.html

In the specs, it says that it has Optical Out, which supports stereo S/PDIF out and pass-through of multichannel DVD sound. Does that mean that this sound card can't produce surround sound with an optical cable? I'm really confused, I have tried many many things, like configuring options on the receiver as well as in windows. Any help would be much appreciated 😀

 

[pmacarthur]

am having the exact same issue with the exception of the sound card. i am using the 6 chnl audio on my motherboard. and when i try to get the 5.1 to work in windows the test only works with the front right and left speakers. i am starting to think it has something to do with windows or maybe the control pod that is supposed to decode Dolby digital for my system. my next move was to buy either a spdif or an optical cable since my mobo has both

 

[pmacarthur]

am having the exact same issue with the exception of the sound card. i am using the 6 chnl audio on my motherboard. and when i try to get the 5.1 to work in windows the test only works with the front right and left speakers. i am starting to think it has something to do with windows or maybe the control pod that is supposed to decode Dolby digital for my system. my next move was to buy either a spdif or an optical cable since my mobo has both

 

[pmacarthur]

am having the exact same issue with the exception of the sound card. i am using the 6 chnl audio on my motherboard. and when i try to get the 5.1 to work in windows the test only works with the front right and left speakers. i am starting to think it has something to do with windows or maybe the control pod that is supposed to decode Dolby digital for my system. my next move was to buy either a spdif or an optical cable since my mobo has both

 

[whoiskevinrich]

I just bought a new surround sound setup for my computer, and on my sound card and on my receiver there is an optical port. I bought an optical cable, but I can't seem to get 5.1 surround sound to work. When I run the windows 5.1 speaker test, only the front left and front right speakers produce sound. This is the sound card I have:

http/www.rocketfishproducts.com/products/computers/RF-71SDCD.html

In the specs, it says that it has Optical Out, which supports stereo S/PDIF out and pass-through of multichannel DVD sound. Does that mean that this sound card can't produce surround sound with an optical cable? I'm really confused, I have tried many many things, like configuring options on the receiver as well as in windows. Any help would be much appreciated 😀

THE BAD NEWS: Your card is lazy. It might support the optical output which can surely pipe out surround sound, but it won't. Drivers, Windows, I don't know, but It ain't gonna work.

THE GOOD NEWS: VLC Media Player will decode the Surround output for the card and pipe it through the S/PDIF port for you. I've done this with my built-in AC97 audio card on my Motherboard out to my Onkyo receiver. In VLC, you'll need to go to the options, select "All" in "Show Settings" on the bottom left, then Click on "Audio". Set the following:

"High quality audio resampling" checked
"Use S/PDIF when available" checked
"Force Detection of Dolby Surround" to "Auto"

This has worked for me. You'll need to close and restart VLC with the Surround receiver already on and you should get surround sound. I've tried it with a surround encoded digital movie, but not yet with a DVD because I already have a DVD player 😛

Hope this works for you.

 

[cooled]

what is the brand of your reciever?

I would connect the computer to the receiver with an optical cable
there are "modes" that you can select on your audio reciever its probably stuck in a mode that only outputs to a stereo configuration
Go through your usersmanual and find a setting or mode that allows 5.1
like dobly digital, DTS, PllX movie, Neo cinema