PC to receiver via HDMI. 5.1 in games?

[darth_adversor]

Hey everyone,

I've searched the web, but can't seem to find any answers specific to my situation. I see a lot of people talking about the best way to hook up their PC to a receiver, and how to get 5.1/7.1 audio for Blu-Ray movies, but what about games?

I have a 6950 video card, and an HDMI cable going from it to my Yamaha RX-V565 receiver. Sound properties in Control Panel confirm 8 channel capability with all the TrueHD and DTS-HD goodness. Using PowerDVD 11 and setting it up for bitstreaming, I've achieved TrueHD and DTS-HD audio from my Blu-Rays. So all of that works flawlessly.

Problem is, I only get 2 channel audio in games. I can set my receiver to Pro Logic II and it fakes it pretty well, but I want the real thing. A lot of people keep talking about Dolby Digital Live. My soundcard has it, but since I'm using the HDMI passthrough on my video card, I'm bypassing the sound card now...right? I'm a little confused...does DDL only work with S/PDIF?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[bloc97]

From what I know, it is not the problem of your Graphic card, since I have a 6670 and it performs well for 5.1 and 2.1 setups.
The only thing I am suspicious about is that are you enabling surround sound in the game itself?
If you did, I really don't know why does Blu-Rays function but the games doesn't.

One of the exceptions is if the game that you are playing only supports EAX, then you won't have any other solutions then buying a newer Creative Labs Dedicated Sound-Card that supports EAX 4.0 and up.

What game are you talking about here? Can you list a few of them?

I know that the Battlefield Series does only support EAX and Fast Positioning 2D Audio.

Hope it helps!

P.S. You should put better titles in the future since with this title, people would think that you are crazy and you were talking about HDMI v5.1... :/

 

[darth_adversor]

Just Cause 2 was the first one I tested. There's no in-game option for surround sound.

And since I'm running an HDMI cable from my video card, no sound card on the planet will help me right now. Unless I scrapped the HDMI cable and ran a S/PDIF from my sound card...which I don't want to do, because then I'll lose HD audio from my Blu-Rays.

 

[bloc97]

Ok Just Cause 2 does have Dolby Digital 5.1 support, so you should be fine, but I am sure that most games have an surround sound option (in the audio options).

I have tested Portal 2, BFBC2 and Spore, and they all work with 5.1 setups, they have all surround audio options in their menus.

Maby Just Cause 2 doesn't detect HDMI audio of your Graphic Card and simply detects your motherboard and assumes that you don't have 5.1 surround? Try some other games and see if they do the same thing.