[salnajjar]

I just rebuilt my XBMC MediaPC with Windows 7 so that I could get the DXVA hardware acceleration (down to a peak of 20% CPU utilisation on 1080P intensive scenes, awesome!).

Anyway, I had some real struggles on the way and thought this post might stop some other people from having to stay awake until the small hours with the same problems.

Surround/DTS/AC3 Audio over HDMI with AMD/ATi Chipset

• Install the AMD Catalyst Graphics driver suite first
  
• Install the RealTek Audio Drivers (not the basic HDMI Audio Driver but the full suite)
  
• Right click the Audio/Speaker icon on the task bar and choose "Playback Devices"
  
• In the list of devices choose "Realtek HDMI Output" and click the "Properties" button
  
• Click the "Custom" tab and tick the box that says "Allow AC3/DTS/WMA Output"
  
• Reboot your Windows 7 XBMC PC
  
• You should now have multi channel sound in XBMC over HDMI
  

Stuttering/Jerky/No Sound After Resuming From Pause

• In XBMC go to "Settings"
  
• Go to "System (Cache & Hardware)"
  
• Go to "Audio Output"
  
• In "Audio Output Device" choose the DirectSound Driver and not Wasapi (for ATi/AMD this is "DirectSound: RealTek HDMI Output (ATi HDMI Audio)")
  

Improve Playback & Interface Performance

• Click "Start" and then "Control Panel"
  
• Click "System and Security"
  
• Click "System"
  
• Click "Advanced system settings" in the left hand menu
  
• Click the "Settings" button in the "Performance" section
  
• Choose "Adjust for best performance" and click "OK" and then "OK" again
  

[Scratch2k]

I couldn't figure out how to get AC3/DTS over HDMI and eventually gave up and just ran a SPDIF optical to the AVR but I'll thought I should google it one last time and stumbled upon this post.

So thanks for posting this, it may help me remove a useless cable from my set up

[tomv9302]

I just rebuilt my XBMC MediaPC with Windows 7 so that I could get the DXVA hardware acceleration (down to a peak of 20% CPU utilisation on 1080P intensive scenes, awesome!).

Anyway, I had some real struggles on the way and thought this post might stop some other people from having to stay awake until the small hours with the same problems.

Surround/DTS/AC3 Audio over HDMI with AMD/ATi Chipset

• Install the AMD Catalyst Graphics driver suite first
  
• Install the RealTek Audio Drivers (not the basic HDMI Audio Driver but the full suite)
  
• Right click the Audio/Speaker icon on the task bar and choose "Playback Devices"
  
• In the list of devices choose "Realtek HDMI Output" and click the "Properties" button
  
• Click the "Custom" tab and tick the box that says "Allow AC3/DTS/WMA Output"
  
• Reboot your Windows 7 XBMC PC
  
• You should now have multi channel sound in XBMC over HDMI
  

[/LIST]

Are you running through a receiver?

How do you have your HDMI device configured in windows (control panel or device manager) - stereo, 5.1, 7.1 etc? Hope that question is clear, I'm not in front of my computer to give you the exact options and my work pc doesn't have it either.

I've had the same issues on a new install of windows and I've read differing things googling this issue.

[DDDamian]

Welcome to the forums. The OP's write-up is excellent.

Just configure your HDMI settings to match your speaker system, and so it matches the selection in XBMC. If you're using DirectSound instead of Wasapi you only have to worry about the Control Panel settings matching your actual speakers.

[Nimo]

im using xbmc 11b2 + nvidia hdmi out -> yamaha avr -> sony lcd tv

in setings i use wasapi and two throupass clicks and it works fine, no stuttering no lags.

but your avr must have hdmi 1.3 for clean output i think.

some avr can just put through the video signal, not decode the audio signal in same way.

[tomv9302]

Thanks for the help.

Got it working exactly as you described.

My only remaining issue is my HDMI audio out (Radeon 5450) occasionally decides it's going to display as "Not Plugged In" despite it clearly being plugged in and video working. Usually when coming out of sleep or standby. It;s a poltergeist. Though that isn't an xbmc issue.

But when it's plugged in it works like a champ. Baby steps...

[DDDamian]

Thanks for the help.

Got it working exactly as you described.

My only remaining issue is my HDMI audio out (Radeon 5450) occasionally decides it's going to display as "Not Plugged In" despite it clearly being plugged in and video working. Usually when coming out of sleep or standby. It;s a poltergeist. Though that isn't an xbmc issue.

But when it's plugged in it works like a champ. Baby steps...

Lol - sleeps always a bitch - check for new drivers or just pay the electric man and keep it chugging