Surround Sound from PC - ASRock P76 Extreme4

[cwineman]

Hello,

I recently set up surround sound in my living room. Right now, I only have my cable box connected to my receiver. That's working nicely. Now I'd like to see if I can do the same thing with my PC.

I have an ASRock P76 Extreme4 and 2 HD 6870 graphics cards. My receiver is a Yamaha HTR-6150 (manual here). My TV is a Samsung LN46A550. Currently, I am using the HDMI out from one of the 6870s into my TV, and the RCA jacks from the TV into my receiver, so I'm not getting a digital output to the receiver.

So far, the only way I've been able to get "true" surround to the receiver was by going from the PC to the receiver via HDMI. Then I can outout the video to the TV from the receiver via an HDMI out. When I did that and I played a DVD movie (There Will Be Blood) I got true surround sound. I also tried some games and music, but none of them resulted in true surround sound. But at least I know that surround sound is possible for some PC audio.

Using the above HDMI from PC->Receiver worked somewhat for audio, but the problem is when I do that, my video settings stink. For whatever reason, the HDMI video output from the receiver wants to be 1280x720 and everything looks like crap at this resolution. I normally use 1360x768 when I go directly HDMI PC->TV. From the receiver I can also do full 1080i, but when I do that, everything on my TV is too small to see. I'm not sure if the limited resolution options when I send my PC video via HDMI through the receiver first are because of a limitation of the receiver, my TV, or the PC. In any case, I can't get it to work.

So, I was thinking for video I can go directly from the PC to TV via HDMI like I do now. Then I could use the optical out on the motherboard to the receiver to achieve surround sound nirvana. That's what I'm doing with my cable box, and it's working fine. The problem is that I can't get the optical audio from PC to work. I'm pretty sure that it isn't being output from the PC for whatever reason. But it could be that I'm doing something wrong on the receiver. Either way, I'm not sure of the best way to troubleshoot.

I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. Does anyone have any general advice on getting surround sound working from a PC? If not, does anyone have any specific advice on how to get optical audio working?

Thanks,

-cwineman

[wazza300]

Re: Surround Sound from PC - ASRock P76 Extreme4

Can't you set the res you want in ATI ccc? You can also create/set custom resolutions,simply use the optical out from mb to optical in on receiver? And run hdmi from gpu to tv/receiver ect

[cwineman]

Re: Surround Sound from PC - ASRock P76 Extreme4

Can't you set the res you want in ATI ccc? You can also create/set custom resolutions,simply use the optical out from mb to optical in on receiver? And run hdmi from gpu to tv/receiver ect

wazza300,


I apprectiate the response. Also, Sloth Love Chunk.

That said, I'm not sure what you mean in your post. I'm a fairly tech savvy guy, but apparently not enough. I recognise the meaning of all the words and acronyms in your post, but as a whole, I have no idea what you're telling me to do. I'm sorry.


** As I read that, it comes across as pure sarcasm. It's not. I don't understand wazza300 post.

[wazza300]

Re: Surround Sound from PC - ASRock P76 Extreme4

no worries ill try to post some pics to show you what i mean,you know in ati catalyst control centre (ccc) it lets you create the resolution you want if its not listed,so you wanted to use 1360x768 res right? then go to my digital flat panels/hdtv support then click on add and enter 1360x768 into the boxes/ticking keep aspect ratio and the Hz you want to use 60hz/75Hz ect and then save it and it will set to that screen res

as for sound all you need to do is connect optical cable from pc to reciever

[cwineman]

Re: Surround Sound from PC - ASRock P76 Extreme4

no worries ill try to post some pics to show you what i mean,you know in ati catalyst control centre (ccc) it lets you create the resolution you want if its not listed,so you wanted to use 1360x768 res right? then go to my digital flat panels/hdtv support then click on add and enter 1360x768 into the boxes/ticking keep aspect ratio and the Hz you want to use 60hz/75Hz ect and then save it and it will set to that screen res

as for sound all you need to do is connect optical cable from pc to reciever.

Thanks wazza300,

I decided not to go use HDMI through the receiver. Switching between all the different inputs was too clumsy and sluggish that way.

I did figure out why optical audio wasn't working thanks to your screenshot of the "sounds" tool. I needed to disable HDMI. HDMI was set as the default so when both HDMI and optical were plugged in, nothing was getting sent to the optical out.

-cwineman