HDMI 5.1 surround sound not working

[treblig83]

I am aware that there are a number of threads on this topic here and elsewhere, yet I have spent hours searching, reading, and attempting fixes to no avail.

I have a computer with a NVIDIA GeForce GT240 graphics card that is passing audio and video via HDMI through a Denon AVR-591 receiver, and on to a 5.1 speaker set up. As many other people have experienced, I get left and right stereo audio but not surround sound. My graphics drivers are fully updated, and set to 5.1 audio in the controls for sound. In fact, in that configure window, I can click each of my five speakers and my sub individually to test, and they all work! As soon as I try to play anything through any media player, however, I go back to stereo sound.

My understanding is that if the source (my music and junk) is stereo audio, that is all it will play. Is there any third party app that will mix the audio to surround? Is there some other clever way I can set this stuff up? Any other bright ideas? Thanks much for any help in advance.

 

[stormy13]

treblig83, welcome to the forums.

Do 5.1 sources play in 5.1? If so that rules out it being a 5.1 problem, and makes it that you need some kind of surround sound upmix to be done. I have no idea if there is anything like that for the audio on the Nvidia cards that have a sound card built into them. What you need to look for is some kind of speaker fill option (called Speaker Fill on Realtek, CMSS3d on Creative), or something like Dolby Digital Live (needs to be supported by the card and/or drivers, and can't be just installed as far as I know).

 

[treblig83]

Thanks for the fast reply. 5.1 sources do indeed play in 5.1. I downloaded a sample 5.1 wav file from microsoft and it hits all six channels. So I do believe, as you said, that I need some sort of sound upmix to be done on my stereo sources. I assume my NVIDIA graphics card has a sound card built into it, given that it shows up as such in device manager. Unfortunately, the NVIDIA control panel only has one option for audio, which is just a link to the default built-in windows controls. There is no Speaker Fill option or anything of the sort there. Is there something my receiver can do? Any other options?

 

[stormy13]

Have a look in the Windows playback properties and see if it is possibly there. With the Nvidia HDMI set as default click on it and the click on Properties, if there is an Enhancements tab click on that and if present that is where you will find it.

 

[treblig83]

Yea I checked there all I have is Room Correction and Loudness Equalization

 

[stormy13]

Instead of trying to upmix from the computer, have you tried enabling the Dolby Pro Logic IIx (or the dts Neo:6) on the receiver for those stereo sources you want in 5.1?

 

[treblig83]

That worked, thanks for the suggestion. This is the first receiver I've ever owned so I'm a bit clueless with it and it came with zero documentation, but after pressing every button on the remote I eventually got it set to dolby digital. It is working with 3.1 however for stereo sources, not 5.1. At this point, that is good enough, the bass is what I wanted more than anything else. And blu-rays and other sources with 5.1 audio still play with the full 5.1. Thanks very much for the help and suggestions.