steelman1991 Wrote:Pat - curious why you would configure windows to pass stereo,, when looking for either a 5.1 or 7.1 set-up.
If I do that then that's what I get - stereo to get 5.1 I have to configure for that combination.
It' seems counter intuitive I know, however it's the way is should be... Here's why...
If you are playing any DTS OR DD source via HDMI and it's set to "pass through", then it doesn't matter how many speakers you tell windows you have... you can tell windows you have 1 million speakers, however as it won't "see" "passed through" audio (as its sent directly to the AVR and bypasses windoes completely) all it will do is ignore how many speakers you say you have as it's passing through 5.1/7.1 directly to your AVR which in turn, decodes it and sends it to how many speakers it knows you have connect to it.... Pass through is exactly that... It will pass the source untouched 5.1 or 7.1 (or whatever the source is) directly to the amp and gives the big "EFF YOU" to whatever you've set up in the windows audio properties.
If the only way for you to get 5.1 audio (from your AVR) when you play a 5.1 DTS source (via hdmi) in xbmc then you have a serious problem
are you sure you are passing through your audio formats correctly?
Additionally, If you tell windows that you have 5.1/7.1 speaker setup and then play a stereo (2ch) source.. Windows messes with the sound and tries to pass PCM 5.1 but this tampers with the original stereo source...
You can test this by playing a high quality stereo music file (connected via hdmi) to your AVR and setting your AVR to stereo. If you then minimise xbmc (or other media player) and change the speaker setting in windoes from 5.1 to stereo you will hear a huge improvement as the audio will be passed through as stereo (which is the original source) and there for sounds better. Windows is very poor at audio management and you don't want it touching anything if possible.
If you then do the same test with a 5.1 source (passed through) and change your speakers, you will see/hear no difference what so ever, this is because windows is not actually getting a chance to mess with the audio as it's "passed through" and windows is not aware of it's properties.
Many people make the mistake of setting the output in windows to 5.1 or 7.1 when in fact it should be set to stereo and then all available supported formats should be passed through. This way, when you play a non passed through audio format (which by that definition should only ever be 2ch mp3 etc) stereo will stay as stereo and pass to the amp cleanly, and 5.1 / 7.1 is passed raw or untouched.
If you set windows to 5.1 is means when you play a stereo (2ch) source windows will not only resample it, it will pump it through 5.1 channels... So when it eventually reaches you AVR it's in a bit of a mess... The best thing to do is set all supported formats to "pass through" and let the amp decode them.... Then set windows to stereo so that when it encounters a stereo source (which is all it will ever encounter as all other formats are passing through directly to the amp untouched) it will not tamper with it and will pass it as stereo to the amp, then the amp will/can up mix or add any effect you choose to your stereo sources (Dolby pro logic etc)
It's sounds counter Intuative I know, but once you get your head around the fact that you would never want windows up mixing or outputting your stereo music or stereo movies (2ch) to 5.1 channels as it completely messes up the original source (let your AVR do it, that's why you bought it)
Again, as stated unless you want windows messing with your files or unless your NOT passing through DTS/DD etc then by all means set to 5.1 but as you have an expensive AVR that handles all your audio, why on earth would you want windows messing with it.
If your HTPC is set up correctly, windows will never see any other source EXCEPT stereo anyway (as your passing the other formats straight through, which bypasses windows completely) so technically, for that reason it should be set to stereo.
Many will argue, against it, many agree (see AVforums for source and reference on this subject) however the only real judge is you! If your happy up mixing and messing with your stereo sources, cool
but test it out and hear the difference. It's very clear, and makes a great deal of sense.
Another way to verify this is... In windows HDMI sound properties, there is a section called "advance" in here there is a section called "digital format" which allows you to you set the output quality... If what you were saying were infact correct, if you set this to 24bit 192,000hz your DTS OR DD files would play at that sample rate.... However they don't! No matter what you set this to, no matter what! It will (and quite rightly should) be ignored when audio such as DTS/DD ETC IS "passed through" directly to the amp.... However audio which is NOT passed through (in my case 2ch mp3) WILL be affected by these settings (as well as the speaker config settings) and there for is resampled and out put to those specifications...
Think of these windows settings as your configuration screen for all audio that is NOT passed through... Things that ARE passed through, ignore all of these settings all day long.
You'll also be surprised at how many people set that to 24bit 192,000hz thinking that resampling an MP3 up to 192,000hz improves the quality??
It's mad I know and it seems to be counter Intuative but it is indeed the correct way to do it if you are connected fro a HTPC to an AVR via HDMI and passing through all HD audio formats etc..
@
bluray
Do you set xbmc to 7.1 then? Your areusing height which is technically Dolby PLIIz so technically it's a supported format and therefore constitutes 7.1 in my book... however wide front surround (mine) is an audessy DSX format and technically not a Dolby or DTS supported format so I assume, because of that I should tell my xbmx that i have 5.1 and then allow the amp and DSX to expand the 2 front channels. Otherwise, if i set it to 7.1 it will assume that I have 2 rears and 2 surround rears will it not? then again, my amp can down mix if it feels it needs to so......
@zimp
If you play a 7.1 file in xbmc and set the speaker config to 7.1 it will still only pass the DTS CORE file of 5.1 as currently xbmc can't pass HD audio and I am assumin that the file you are triying to pass it a DTSHD or such like? I think with blurays recent audio branch it will pass hd audio but dharma won't do 7.1 DTSHD afaik. Mpc-HC will though
