Windows 7 - Dolby Digital 5.1 volume control

**hdjunkie** · 01-13-2009

Does anyone know how to fix volume control in b7000?

**Dragonfly** · 01-26-2009

Dolby Digital (AC3), DTS, etc is passed directly through Media Center unprocessed to be decoded by your receiver. This is by design, and is not limited to Win 7. You'll need to control the volume on these types of signals via your decoding hardware device.

I set my Harmony remote to control volume from my HTPC with my Onkyo 606 receiver.

**hdjunkie** · 01-26-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by Dragonfly

Dolby Digital (AC3), DTS, etc is passed directly through Media Center unprocessed to be decoded by your receiver. This is by design, and is not limited to Win 7. You'll need to control the volume on these types of signals via your decoding hardware device.

I set my Harmony remote to control volume from my HTPC with my Onkyo 606 receiver.

Sorry, but that's just not true. DTS is passed-through, but dd5.1 has always had volume control.

**Dragonfly** · 01-26-2009

Any digital signal output via S/PDIF or HDMI by Win XP/Vista/Windows 7 cannot be controlled by the volume control in Media Center and must, instead, be controlled by the equipment receiving the digital signal.

See Microsoft kb904408:
You cannot control the volume in Media Center when you output digital audio to an external receiver or to speakers on a Windows Vista-based or Windows XP-based Media Center computer for an explanation.

**igloo** · 01-27-2009

That's weird. I remember mine did change the volume from my s/pdif output.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dragonfly

Any digital signal output via S/PDIF or HDMI by Win XP/Vista/Windows 7 cannot be controlled by the volume control in Media Center and must, instead, be controlled by the equipment receiving the digital signal.

See Microsoft kb904408:
You cannot control the volume in Media Center when you output digital audio to an external receiver or to speakers on a Windows Vista-based or Windows XP-based Media Center computer for an explanation.

**Dragonfly** · 01-27-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by igloo

That's weird. I remember mine did change the volume from my s/pdif output.

Non-digital via S/PDIF CAN be controlled by Media Center:

Quote:

You can use Media Center to control the volume of non-digital (analog) audio, even over S/PDIF. Therefore, your Media Center Edition audio setting will affect the volume on the AV receiver or on the digital speakers for analog audio. All TV broadcasts that are routed through National Television System Committee (NTSC) or Phase Alternating Line (PAL) TV tuner cards will have analog audio.

**hdjunkie** · 01-27-2009

Hmmm. I had volume control on all channels with my cablecards in vista as well as .mkvs with nothing but dd5.1 tracks
I'm also positive someone had a fix for this by replacing a file from build 6801 to 6956. If the search feature on thegreenbutton wasn't such garbage I could find it.

Quote:

On a computer that is running Windows Media Center, you may be using any of the following configurations to output digital audio from your computer to external speakers:

An AV receiver or TV that is connected to the computer by the Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF) input.
An AV receiver or TV that is connected to the computer by the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
A set of digital speakers

In this scenario, you cannot control volume levels to the external devices by using the volume controls in the Media Center user interface (UI). For example, when you press the MUTE button on the remote, the volume does not mute. When you press the volume control buttons that have the plus sign and the minus sign, the volume remains the same. Although the mute UI displays on the screen, the volume does not adjust.

So, this is saying that you can't mute or control anything over s/pdif which is obviously not true. The whole article is pretty inaccurate imo.

I'm positive I had dd5.1 volume control pre-7

And dragonfly, you're saying dolby digital (ac3) doesn't have volume control but it does. 2.0 has volume control, and 5.1 doesn't.

**Dragonfly** · 01-27-2009

Wouldn't be the first time that Microsoft has been wrong about the capabilities of their software, but the KB I referenced mirrors my experience.

Keep digging around. I'm interested in any conflicting info you might find.

**mhealy** · 01-29-2009

I'm not sure if AC3filter works in Windows 7 or not but in Vista I was able to get volume control on my digital signals by allowing ac3filter to change the gain on the speakers before sending out the signal. This was also using MediaPortal instead of Media Center so take with salt.

**igloo** · 01-29-2009

Dragonfly was right. Just tested it with a hdtv signal. MC couldn't change the volume of the DD5.1 output.
Oh, just figured out what the number "50" is. It's the one that shows up on the top right corner everytime you run MC. It's the bloody volume.

Windows 7 - Dolby Digital 5.1 volume control

Dolby Digital 5.1 volume control problems?