How to play all 5.1 channels from PC to home theatre?

[Ojee]

My devices are as follows:

Dell Inspirion 3647 (with Intel HD Graphics 4400 and Intel Display Audio)
Philips Home Theatre HTB5510D
Sharp LED TV LC-40LX260H

Dell <= HDMI => Philips <= HDMI => Sharp TV

Under this setting, only some sources from my computer (e.g. DVD, iTunes, some .m2ts files) can use all the 5.1 speakers of my Philips Home Theatre. When playing other sources (e.g. YouTube, .wav and .vob files), only the front two speaks emit sound.

I tried to configure my 'Playback Devices' in my computer, it only allows me to choose 'Stereo' (i.e. two speakers) without anything other options.

How may I set up my computer / Philips so as to make use of the 5.1 speakers for all 5.1 video from my computer?

 

[Simon Ayres]

If you are talking about games not running in 5.1 that would be because PC games are generally not encoded with DD or DTS so only stereo is transfer through optical or HDMI i don't know if they can transfer 5.1 through PCM but I highly doubt that your all in one system supports more then 2 channel PCM. I know some older auzentech sound cards used to support real time DD encoding but could not tell you which one.

 

[Ojee]

If you are talking about games not running in 5.1 that would be because PC games are generally not encoded with DD or DTS so only stereo is transfer through optical or HDMI i don't know if they can transfer 5.1 through PCM but I highly doubt that your all in one system supports more then 2 channel PCM. I know some older auzentech sound cards used to support real time DD encoding but could not tell you which one.

Thanks Simon for your reply. I have not tried it with games as I am not a fan of games. I am particularly concerned with YouTube and playing video files (e.g. .vob and .mpeg) and audio files (e.g. .wav). (I checked these files. 'Properties' says '6 Channels'.)

If nothing goes 5.1 then it can be hardware limitation. However, now DVD, iTunes movies and .m2ts files go 5.1 while other things go 2 channels, then I guess something can be done for the setting.

 

[Simon Ayres]

It could be the player you are using, try XBMC i have never had any issues getting 5.1 content to run on it.
Just an FYI XBMC has a learning curve.