Windows audio over HDMI/AVR woes

okay. so, i got a pretty swanky sony 7.1 AVR for a fathers day present ( http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/...=STRDN1010 ), and i'm attempting to send 7.1 surround sound via HDMI to it. it works... most of the time. most of my library of dvd rips have ac3/DTS tracks. most of the time, everything works just peachy. sometimes, though, XBMC gives me a 'failed to initialize audio device" problem, and i get no sound. what's the easy way of tracking down what the problem is here, whether it's settings in windows, or in XBMC?

Firstly I would Advise to get the latest Realtec HD Audio drivers for your System.

You also might have the issue I had with my amps settings.

I discovered my AV amp (Sony str-dn1000) had an HDMI setting enabled "TV + AMP", after I changed it to "AMP" windows then displayed all HD audio Settings.

I believe that as it was passing signals to my TV (stereo) + AMP my computer was only allowing a stereo output.

once I set to AMP only, I now had access to all the HD Audio available.

it took me a few weeks to final solve my issues, reading thru all the various help on this forum, I managed to narrow down my problem, and it was where I least expected to find it (my AMP).

Hopefully this is of help, but if not useful for the future.

Kind Regards

Bart...