hdmi audio output

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achrist0418

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i thought this was fixed but i guess not... so i had 7.1 surround configured and working for a couple of weeks. i watched movies, bluerays, and surround demos to test/configure. i even used the widnows built in surround setup to see how well it worked. well fast forward and now i can only get 2 channel mode out of hdmi. the 5.1 and 7.1 are grayed out and i cant find ANY way to make it come back. no hardware changes occurred. laptop is a dell with intel HD and GTX 1060go. i need some help here on forcing windows to output 7.1...
 
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boju

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Realtek software is for laptop speakers/ headphones, reason why 5.1/7.1 is unselectable.

Hdmi audio is found in audio playback devices in Windows if you enable Nvidia digital audio and configure surround here. Think speakers has somehow been enabled by default. Speakers = Realtek.
 
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achrist0418

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so lets not get to far down into the basics here... obviously the realtek and nvidia are two seperate audio devices.

i uninstalled realtek and still no change, so i quit for the night. today after coming home from work and plugging my laptop back into the hdmi i have the ability to select 7.1 again. i am not going to change anything for the next few days and will see if the option stays. i get the feeling (untested as of now) that its some what random, when i unplug and replug the hdmi.
 
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boju

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Didn't mean it to seem demeaning for that im sorry. What i meant was only one audio source can be enabled at once, and trying Realtek drivers gave me the impression you didn't know. So you did set hdmi source in Windows audio playback devices to default and still weren't able to set surround?
 
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achrist0418

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i was trying reltek because i could see a scenario where windows sees a stereo device first and decides it cant allow greater channels. also because this is a laptop i dont know how the hardware is connected, are both realtek and nvidia on the same bus? are they on separate bus's and one takes priority?

can audio be routed between the two and how does the HD intel card interact here as you can have HDMI out with audio from the HD card as well as the NVIDIA card depending on what power profile you are running. also the realtek HD drivers support 7.1 surround on desktop cards so even tho the hardware is not there on this laptop the drivers would be, and idk perhaps there is a bit stream profile to send greater than 2.0 through an analog output?

also in the past i have used programs such as vlc, power dvd, and the like ot send uncompressed audio and that bypassed all computer sound settings (including volume as its toslink) but now that we have HDMI instead of SPDIF that does not seem to work the same, even when you run uncompressed through powerdvd windows still retains volume control, enhancements, and other bitrate settings from sound panel.

also speaking of sound panels - when 7.1 does work i can go into config and setup time alignment, test individual speakers and so on. when it does not work all those options are there but just greyed out. if you look at a device such as analog stereo out those options are nto there at all so on some level windows KNOWS more is possible but it does not allow it.


so i have uninstalled EVERYTHING realtek from the computer. i dont know if its related but now i have 7.1 again on HDMI. i plug and unplug daily as i take my comptuer to work and back every day (i dont have a desktop). so at work this laptop is used in an automotive shop and at home its my media center. i am going to run like it is for a few days and if 7.1 does not fail i will reinstall realtek and see if it goes away. i want to know WHY im having such a hard time here. i also want to roll back nvidia drivers 3 or 4 versions sequentially to track down if that makes a difference. i have recently updated the drivers for my nvidia so perhaps that impacted this as well.


when this does not work i still get HDMI out but stereo only, 5.1/7.1 are there but i cant select them. in the near future i want to run 14.2 atmos so i dont know if i can even do that but that is a problem for another day
 
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boju

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As you would know desktop versions of Realtek have physical analog connections on motherboard for surround. Notebooks rely on digital for less clutter.

What laptop model do you have?

Intel HD graphics/audio shares Hdmi port with Nvidia. Intel's audio chip from cpu and Nvidia audio chip from the gpu . Realtek's audio chip on the motherboard should only be for laptop speakers and headphones. It is possible somehow Realtek is influencing something, or it could be coincidence and Realtek is influencing Intel's HD audio and limiting Nvidia.

What you could try is

Latest Intel Hd drivers
Latest Realtek drivers from Realtek.com
And check Bios for anything audio related to Intel that may improve things, even try disabling if theres an option.

It should be something simple hopefully. There should be no reason why you couldn't use atmos with Intel's HD audio and Nvidia's HD audio as both should support 7.1.
 
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achrist0418

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i have changed nothing and now today when i got home from work i have no audio. i pluged hdmi in and it comes up with muted, so i raise the volume nad it shows 7.1 under the name BUT when you right click and go to speaker setup only stereo is available. im about to try restarting and tinkering but this proves it is an issue with the plug and play setup here, something is trying to auto detect rather than just accepting the last known value
 
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achrist0418

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it lists audio as Nvidia high def audio device. i just disabled the intel HD, disabled onboard audio (realtek), and did a clean install of nvidia drivers. nothing. still only have 2 channel audio. im about to try another HDMI cable for s and g...
 
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achrist0418

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i right click on my sound icon on the task bar, in that menu it shows "speaker setup" under that menu are 2.0, 5.1, 7.1. some times i can select any of them but most of the time only stero is available. the rest are blacked out
 
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boju

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Could be hdmi hand shake issue. Your laptop is connected direct to avr right. Try different combinations which device is turned on. Like avr on first then laptop shortly after or laptop on first wait till it boots then turn avr on.
 
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achrist0418

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yes i tried all that HOWEVER i was thinking... there is a chain here, from laptop to reciver to tv. what if the nvidia is seeing teh TV and not the reciever! so unpluged the TV and low and behold i got HDMI to show 7.1... so i think there is an issue with nvidia searching for the display device as audio rather than an audio device. going to tinker here and see hwat i get.

if this is the case then that means i was correct in suspecting it was a glitch, although it may be a glitch when its WORKING instead of a glitch when its NOT working
 
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achrist0418

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ok i found a setting to disable all audio passthrough on the reciever. i have that turned on now and ill see if that changes how this thing behaves. i am using a series of 5.1, 7.1, 14.2 test videos from dolbys website to verify things are working. so far so good, i can now play crysis and know what direction im being shot at from :)

im going to enable the various system components i disabled tomorrow, for now i just want to make sure it stays working for a bit.
 
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boju

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Very good. It's making more sense now.

If using arc that could be a problem also. Perhaps try a different hdmi non arc channel on tv and turn audio passthrough back on in avr. Ignore if arc - audio return channel isnt what you're using.
 
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achrist0418

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i dont think i need passthrough so im just going to lave that off and we will see if i ever have a need for it again. this was so FU*K*ng frustrating over the past month! i hope this solves it
 
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boju

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Purpose is to replace the limited optical since most TVs nowadays dont pay licensing for real-time Dolby/DTS compression encoders to send surround over optical cable so instead use hdmi for lossless uncompressed audio. If you were to hook an xbox or ps4 or other means of surround audio direct to the tv you can get complete 5.1 or 7.1 sent to the avr instead of 2.1 which optical is limited to uncompressed.
 
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achrist0418

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but... so i dont get this, if you have a reciever then all your various media items (xbox, ps, computer, dvd, blueray, sat, cable, so on) are pluged into the reciever and you switch source to change whats on the TV. i cant think of any reason why one would have some devices going to a reciever and some going directly to the TV... even a N64 would benifit from reciever for prologic and upconverting
 
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