Surround sound (PCM) problem

[jtr1888]

Watcha peeps, this ones really got me stumped

System Win 7 x64

When watching movies etc.. I use MPC-HC with Shark007 codecs 64bit (all up to date) & output sound from HDMI socket of HD6950 GPU to Onkyo receiver - all is great, no problems at all surround works with all formats AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, PCM 5.1, PCM 7.1 etc..

However, when running a game, my amp says PCM 5.1 or 7.1 when applicable but I dont get any sounds in rear speakers whatsoever

Mainly tested with BF3 & Metro 2033

Any ideas please, its been driving me crazy for a week (with Metro)

Oh, yesterday I uninstalled & reinstalled shark codecs & all worked, I shut pc down, came back today, no surround again & settings not changed.

I have a P8P67 Deluxe mobo & have set the SPDIF to HDMI in the bios also, I thought that was what fixed it but evidently not

Appreciate any helps

Thanks

 

[gamerk316]

Odd, the 6000 series is fully capable of streaming 5.1/7.1, and you indicated it is working for non-games...I know BF3 may require some additional audio setup though...

I also find it odd the receiver is reading 5.1/7.1, but you aren't getting the output...

 

[jtr1888]

ok, this is odd. To clarify further, when no rears were working in BF3 despite amp showing PCM 5.1 that is when I went into bios & set SPDIF to HDMI & then sound was present in rears.

After posting as above, I opened up the AMD HD Audio settings & did a speaker test, it does FL, FR, C, S, RL & RR, but this time, when the icons on the pc flashed indicating the rears RL & RR were being tested, my fronts FL & FR made the sound instead !! how odd, I quickly tested an audio file with DTS audio, amp said DTS 5.1 & rears working just fine, I rebooted & accessed the bios once again, this time changing SPDIF back from HDMI to SPDIF, rebooted & did the speaker test, this time RL & RR ding donged correctly so I loaded Metro 2033, yes, amp still says PCM 5.1 nothing from rears, so I loaded BF3, this time amp still said PCM 5.1 but sound shook my room from all speakers independently ?!?!?!

Im really stumped now, any ideas peeps ?

Cheers

 

[gamerk316]

Maybe its a Metro problem then, since it sounds like BF3 is working right?

The BIOS setting for SPDIF/HDMI should ONLY be affecting the onboard audio chipset, but its possible that the setting is confusing the Realtek/GPU combination in some way. I'd leave it set to SPDIF, since that seems to work best.

 

[jtr1888]

ok thanks, Im not actually using realtek as that only seems to work with coax/optic rather than HDMI & am therefore using AMD HD audio drivers for HDMI - could that be a problem or is that right ? cheers

 

[gamerk316]

^^ Probably not. I believe the AMD HD Audio driver is for a Realtek device anyway, but its possible something got screwed up somewhere. Still, if its only one or two games at fault, and everything else works fine, I'd be more tempted to blame the game, and not the drivers.

 

[Isias]

Sry for reviving this thread, but it just perfectly fits my problems. So i revived it instead of recreating the same one again. I have an almost identical setup with an Onkyo TX-NR808 connected to my AMD 6970 via HDMI (1.4), i also got the ASUS P8P67 Deluxe MB. When i try to set the sound to a 5.1 configuration via a click on "Configure Speakers", all Speakers do work correctly in Windows, execpt for FL and FR. They stay silent and their status is set to gray (this should mean they can't be "activated" and no sound is emmited during the test). The reciver changes to PCM (Multichannel) properly. The speakers do work in movies when played via S/PDIF in VLC flawlessly. As soon as i try to play a game, Subwoofer, Center and RL and RR do work. All sounds normally emitted via FL and FR (for example, gun firing sounds, ingame speech transmissions, depends on the game) doesn't get emitted. If anybody got a solution, PLEASE respond :- )

I already updated the firmware of my mb, reciver, using latest drivers for the card etc. I just can't get it working. Which is sad, because i'm actually a fan of NVIDIA and only bought an AMD because of the surround sound support (which NVIDIA now also got, i know). This is a crucial feature to me. I would be very glad if anybody could help me.

 

[jtr1888]

I contacted the admin of Shark007 http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html & after installing a new set of codecs, mine works a treat altough the amp must be set as multich

hope this helps

 

[Isias]

Thx for your respond. The amp switches correctly to Multichannel. I know about the codec pack and i know it is good, i just do not want to use it,since it mught interfere with my htpc codec setup. I bought a Nvidia 670 now and will retry to get the surround working. Wish ne luck :n-b)