griffindodd

Lol, hi all - I'm about ready to Rip my soundcard out of my machine and cermoniously burn it in the back yard.

I'm trying to get SPDIF passthrough to work properly with my receiver, but every time I get sound through I never hear anything from my rear speakers. I've tried with FFDShow filters, AC3 filter and the sound plugins with Media Player Classic but I either get no sound at all or no rear channels.

The SPDIF is running via a mono plug to coax to RCA into my Onkyo Receiver's digital-in socket. I have the receiver's listening mode set to 'Direct Connection' so it's not using any fancy post processing effects.

All I want is my AC3/DD/DTS 6 channel goodness - hopefully someone can help.

Running latest KX drivers on my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS

G

guyinco6nito

Hello,

Have you tried using your receivers test-tone to make sure your rear speakers are working properly?

I've got an Onkyo receiver myself, and when it's decoding a digital signal it will report what it is, i.e. PCM (2 channel) or DD (Dolby Digital, 6 channel) or DTS. If your receiver constantly says it's decoding a PCM stream, then you know the dolby digital signal isn't making it over.

-guyinco6nito

griffindodd

I think I may have worked it out.

On the Onkyo if you have it set just to direct it doesn't seem to process the signal fully. But if I press the surround button on the remote it goes to DDigital and displays the litle red DD label on the receivers screen and all the speakers seem to be working fine.

I haven't noticed if it changes when I push a DTS signal through, I'll have to check. My older Sony amp used to have a nice big blue light that would come on when it detected DTS which was easy enough to notice. The Onkyo is a great amp but it doesn't seem very well documented in the manual.

G

griffindodd

Whenever it is set to direct it always says PCM I have noticed that.

My concern with the 'Surround' setting is that it is doing simulated channels rather than true 6 channel, I'll have to play with it some more. I seem to remember doing a channel check from the computer when the receiver was in DDigital and the test voice tones all came from the correct speakers so that's at least a step in the right direction.

i just wonder if the amp is labeling all streams that are coming from the PC as DDigital even if they are DTS?

dj_stick

ok PCM is standard stereo sound

make sure you set AC3 Passthrough on the correct output on the first kX Mixer window, and that AC3 decode is disabled

also try enabling Spdif Bypass to see if that helps

EDIT: i'm surprised the channel check worked for you, as only pre-encoded AC3 content will passthrough kX…

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guyinco6nito

The Channel Check griffindodd used might well have been an AC3 sound file that says "front left channel" and the like for each channel.

If you can play AC3 audio and hear all the channels you should be good griffindodd. I used to have a Sony receiver myself, and that big blue light that turned on when it was decoding multiple-channel digital streams was oddly satisfying :-)

The Onkyo's don't seem to let you know when they're decoding AC3 or DTS as clearly, but If you heard all 5.1 channels identify themselves over a single digital coaxial cable, you're sending the stream to the receiver.

-guyinco6nito