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**dshorrosh** · 2014-07-25, 21:59

Apologies if I missed a post somewhere, but I did several searches and didn't find a clear match.

How can I get surround sound output? I've set and checked and re-checked my Win and XBMC settings and still nojoy -- but I could be missing something (or made a DOH! error). I'm runing 13.1 under Win7.1, on an ASUS F2A85-M PRO MB and AMD A6-5400K APU, and the connections are HTPC to TV (Sony 52XBR6) via HDMI, TV to A/V Reciever (Sony STR-DH810) via Toslink.

FWIW I get dolby digital surround out of the Motorola cable box I'm aiming to get rid of, and it had the same HDMI/toslink connections.

I welcome any guidance on this.

Thanks!

Jogee · 2014-07-25, 23:44

Your TV likely doesn't pass through the surround (5.1 etc) to the receiver. Some TV's have only recently started doing this.

If you can, connect your PC to the AVR via HDMI, then AVR to the TV via HDMI. Alternately, you could go PC -> toslink -> AVR and PC -> HDMI -> TV.

The wiki can tell you how to setup your audio correctly. There is also a trouble shooting sticky at the top of this forum.

Good luck.

thesuffering · 2014-07-26, 07:07

Make sure you enable expert settings and turn on Dolby digital/dts passthrough. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why these weren't working htpc>avr>tv. The settings for passthrough are hidden on the standard settings mode. All is good for me now.

**dshorrosh** · 2014-07-28, 15:12

Thanks for the responses -- I've gone into 'expert mode' but despite the selections the audio stays two-channel, does it make any difference between the default device and the 'truesound' option? FWIW when I go into Win7.1 control panel > sound, the selected device is my Sony TV and it shows only as two-channel -- I presume this is because the HTPC is connected to the TV via HDMI, and the audio from the TV to the AVR is via Toslink.

Again, audio from the Motorola cable box (to TV via HDMI, TV to AVR via Toslink) properly decoded Dolby Digital.

I'll reset the audio options to default and start over.

**jjd-uk** · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-28, 15:30 by jjd-uk.)

1. Select "Audio output device" as "WASAPI - HDMI"
2. Set "Number of channels" to "2.0" - Note: that most TV HDMI inputs and SPDIF are only 2 channel, this is the bandwidth expressed as number of PCM channels, hence the lossy compressed formats such as Dolby Digital can pass over a PCM 2.0 connection as it has much less bandwidth despite being 5.1
3. Turn on "Enable Passthrough"
4. Ensure "Dolby Digital capable receiver" is enabled
5. Turn on "Enable Dolby Digital Transcoding"
6. Turn off all other "capable receiver" options.

**dshorrosh** · 2014-07-28, 20:14

I'll give this a go this evening and report back with results.

**jjd-uk** · 2014-07-28, 21:30

Forgot to mention, set "Passthrough output device" to "WASAPI - HDMI" as well

**dshorrosh** · 2014-07-28, 21:57

I'll make sure to follow that step as well -- and let me know if I need to make any settings in Win7.

Stand by.

**dshorrosh** · 2014-07-29, 02:18

Oustanding advice JJD-UK!

Thanks for the guidance -- we've got 5.1 output.