5.1 surround sound problems via USB S/PDIF on Win 10

[d3fin3d]

This is a bit long winded, hopefully you can bear with me!

Context

I've been successfully using this USB to S/PDIF external sound card on a Windows 7 machine to emit 5.1 audio via VLC.

I haven't needed to manually install any drivers for 5.1 surround sound to work correctly (connected to an old Sony 5.1 surround system via optical).

Recently, I did an upgrade installation From Win 7 to Win 10 and the Soundbox continued to work correctly, emitting 5.1 channel audio (DTS/blue light) to my Sony surround system.

However, due to some issues with the upgrade, I decided to do a completely fresh install of Windows 10 for speed/freshness. This is where the problem starts.

Problem

On a fresh Windows 10 install, I've found that the USB Soundbox, although recognised by the system, has stopped emitting sound completely with no manual drivers installed.

Installing both the Windows 10 and Windows 8 drivers (listed here), seems to allow Windows 10 to emit optical S/PDIF sound, however the output is limited to PCM 2-channel audio.

Strangely, the DTS test within the USB soundbox's digital output properties successfully emits true 5.1 sound (DTS/blue light), however playing any type of 5.1 media from the machine (via VLC) only emits PCM 2-channel audio.

Conclusion

It seems as though the auto-installed Windows 7 5.1 drivers work correctly. When the working drivers are carried over to the Windows 10 upgrade, 5.1 audio continues to emit properly.

Auto-installed Windows 10 5.1 drivers don't appear to work at all while manually installed drivers only emit 2 channel audio.

Having tried every setting under the sun to get this to work, 5.1 audio doesn't work when playing media via VLC.

Potential long-winded fix

A fresh install of Windows 7, double checking that the sound card is emitting 5.1 audio from VLC, then upgrading to Windows 10. (I'd like to avoid this, due to the amount of time this will take!)

Questions

- Are there any other drivers which might solve the problem?
- Should I consider purchasing a new USB to S/PDIF 5.1 audio sound card thats Win 10 compatible?
- Or is a fresh Win 7 install and Win 10 upgrade the only option?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts/help!

(Posting in the Windows 10 section as this seems like a Windows 10 related issue. Apologies if this is in the wrong place!)

 

[d3fin3d]

Update

Problem solved!

After endless driver installations and uninstallations, in various compatibility modes, I decided to go through all the settings in VLC.

I found a few options in the Advanced/Audio settings which weren't set to force Dolby where possible so I changed them all to Dolby/Surround Sound.

Nothing appeared to have changed until I restarted the VLC app and now Dolby is correctly kicking in where possible!

I hadn't thought to check VLC's settings because, with Win 7 and the Win 10 upgrade, I hadn't changed any of the default VLC settings and Dolby was working as intended.

Very strange that with a fresh Windows 10 installation, VLC needs to be explicitly told to play Dolby where possible.

Either way, problem solved!