pc to sony 5.1 receiver.(5.1 sound not passed but only stereo)

[ans.keerthan]

Hi Guys, I am not able to pass 5.1 surround sound from PC to receiver. My receiver isn't even shown on the playback devices on windows 10. Though audio is passed to receiver but is just stereo. Realtek digital output is shown in playback devices which is configurable only for stereo.

my setup currently is

PC with Gigabyte ga ax370 gaming 3 motherboard (Optical out) -> Sony HT-IV300 (Optical in).

 

[jsmithepa]

These things are often as simple because you are not playing a surround source. What are you playing exactly? MP3?

If your source is stereo and u want the receiver to play on all speakers then you have to tell it to use one of the "fake" surround modes, or there should be a mode that says, send stereo to all speakers and go by different names depending on vendor. This MODE will be on the receiver.

 

[kerberos_20]

If u use optical then only stereo is supported in pcm format, if u use dts/dolby encoded sound then u can send multiple channels
on spdif u can sen multichannel even in pcm

 

[americanaudiophile]

Optical is SPDIF and carries lossy digital surround sound codecs just fine. Won't carry lossless codecs like Dolby TrueHD which requires HDMI.
If your audio control panel is set to stereo then that is all you can get. If you use HDMI for audio it may not allow you to set the optical out to 5.1. Check for that. A driver update might help.
Check that the content is in surround sound as suggested above.
The receiver will usually indicate on the front panel what audio the source is sending
Check that the receiver is set to Auto so it can detect the output of the PC and switch to the correct format. Each input will have it's own surround setting on most receivers.

 

[ans.keerthan]

Thank you guys for your help.

@jsmithepa : I am getting sound on all 5.1(speakers) when i play any 5.1 encoded movie via media player classic via lav audio decoder. If i play the same movie with any other media player which does not process on its own and depends upon realtek i only get stereo. Even the realtek does not have configuration of upto 5.1 but only stereo to test.

 

[ans.keerthan]

Optical is SPDIF and carries lossy digital surround sound codecs just fine. Won't carry lossless codecs like Dolby TrueHD which requires HDMI.
If your audio control panel is set to stereo then that is all you can get. If you use HDMI for audio it may not allow you to set the optical out to 5.1. Check for that. A driver update might help.
Check that the content is in surround sound as suggested above.
The receiver will usually indicate on the front panel what audio the source is sending
Check that the receiver is set to Auto so it can detect the output of the PC and switch to the correct format. Each input will have it's own surround setting on most receivers.

Thanks americanaudiophile for your suggestion. It displays dolby digital when i play any 5.1 encoded movie via media player classic (it has audio processing of its own i presume and the realtek settings do not effect the sound for eg equaliser changes). If i play the same movie in any other media player which happens to use the realtek capabilities i get pcm displayed on my receiver and only stereo. Receiver is set to auto and no additional tweaks have been made to it.
My audio control panel on PC is set to stereo like you said but i am unable to find options to change it 5.1. I have opened realtek software, sounds on taskbar and i only see stereo as an option. Just to confirm the motherboard i am using supports 5.1 and has alc1220 codec with realtek audio driver version 6.0.1.8302.

 

[kerberos_20]

https/i.stack.imgur.com/LM0g8.png
thats the only setting u can do with realtek drivers (few have dts/dolby decoders, but your mobo has to implement it first)
so if u have dolby/dts enabled than thats all u can get.
also u can try some other drivers if your mobo doesnt provide dts/dolby decode support
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGioPmSZY2w

btw VLC supports s/pdif with passthrough, can be skinned if u dont like classic gui