5.1 sound on ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z

zcarm

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Feb 24, 2015
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before I dive into the issues I am having, I am just going to give you the specs of all of the equipment I am using.

Computer:
Asus Crosshair V formula Z
Msi GTX 970 4G OC edition
AMD FX 9590
8gb ram

Sound System: Harman Kardon HKTS 20BQ with a Pioneer VSX 524 K receiver

So I have been trying to hook up this home theater setup to my computer for gaming, watching netflix, spotify, and all of that good stuff and for some reason I can't get it to work. Whenever I want to play any kind of sound it only comes out of the front two speakers and, depending on which settings I use, sometimes the subwoofer. Whenever I test my audio in the windows sound management all speakers will test correctly and make sound. However, I cannot get sound to come out of anything but the front two speakers and occasionally the subwoofer when I am doing anything else. I have it hooked up via hdmi to receiver from computer and then hdmi from receiver to computer monitor. I also have an SPDIF cable but I am not really sure how that works. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
The easiest test is with a DVD that has a great sound track - "Days of Thunder" is a good one to test - "Master and Commander" is another one. Both have sound tracks that really show off the surround sound capabilities.

If Netflix has either movie, you can try them also. I don't use Netflix, but there could be a configuration for the audio encoding....
It depends upon the source sound encoding as to the playback mode (2.0, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1). If you watch Netflix, and the show is encoded with 2.0 (standard stereo), you should only get sound out of two speakers (right, left). If you watch a movie with 5.1/7.1, you should hear it from all speakers.

That being said, the computer has to be setup to send out the audio signal properly, and the receive must process it properly. Since the "windows sound management" seems to test properly - I would double check the source of the audio - i.e. Netflix to ensure that you are getting the 5.1/7.1 signal.
 
The easiest test is with a DVD that has a great sound track - "Days of Thunder" is a good one to test - "Master and Commander" is another one. Both have sound tracks that really show off the surround sound capabilities.

If Netflix has either movie, you can try them also. I don't use Netflix, but there could be a configuration for the audio encoding....
 
Solution