Need help figuring out if i can get 5.1 channel audio via hdmi on these boards

[Midnightowl626]

Hi i am finally building a new pc and my old pc supports only 2 channel audio and im happy to finally upgrade to a board with 7.1 channel support. by the way since it supports 7.1 channel audio it should support 5.1 channel right? I need help figuring out if i can get 5.1 channel audio via Hdmi on these boards or do i need to plug in a toslink cable to get 5.1 channel audio to my home theater system? I want to know because the b350 board does not come with a toslink slot but the x370 does and hdmi or toslink is my only option right now of getting 5.1 channel. If i can get the 5.1 channel audio through hdmi on the b350 i would much rather buy the b350 because im going for a black/white color scheme and it costs less money. Thank you

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157761&cm_re=asrock_b350-_-13-157-761-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157774&ignorebbr=1

 

[Midnightowl626]

Via hdmi from my XFX Rx 470 by the way

 

[BFG-9000]

Why yes, HDMI can carry 8 channels either uncompressed or Linear PCM, and of course pass-through in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. That's if you get a GPU with HD audio devices on it, as I assume you are going for Ryzen.

The HDMI ports on both b350 and x370 boards are nonfunctional at the moment unless you get a APU with Excavator cores, which is "Bristol Ridge" for AM4. I assume they will not be able to handshake with a receiver for audio-only but could be wrong.

I suppose the b350 could remap the analog jacks it has to 5.1 but then it wouldn't have any to spare for a microphone or line-in, although it does also have an HD-Audio header. The photo shows an unpopulated place for a spdif header but no pins for it.

 

[Midnightowl626]

Why yes, HDMI can carry 8 channels either uncompressed or Linear PCM, and of course pass-through in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. That's if you get a GPU with HD audio devices on it, as I assume you are going for Ryzen.

The HDMI ports on both b350 and x370 boards are nonfunctional at the moment unless you get a APU with Excavator cores, which is "Bristol Ridge" for AM4. I assume they will not be able to handshake with a receiver for audio-only but could be wrong.

I suppose the b350 could remap the analog jacks it has to 5.1 but then it wouldn't have any to spare for a microphone or line-in, although it does also have an HD-Audio header. The photo shows an unpopulated place for a spdif header but no pins for it.

I will be using XFX - Radeon RX 470 4GB HS Triple X Video Card
this is the build i will be making https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fx9WgL
so it should be plug and play with that gpu? thank you

 

[Midnightowl626]

So with this ASRock AB350 Pro4 motherboard i should get 5.1 channel audio to my home theather via the hdmi on my XFX - Radeon RX 470 4GB HS Triple X Video Card? my ps4 works fine with surround sound 5.1 dolby digital the ps4 hooked to my tv via hdmi and a toslink cable hooked from my home theater to my tv receiving audio. basically ill have my Rx 470 gpu hooked to the tv with hdmi just like the ps4 is and that should work just like the ps4 does right?
Im just confused because on the asrock ab350 pro4 website in the specifications it says "To configure 7.1 CH HD Audio, it is required to use an HD front panel audio module and enable the multi-channel audio feature through the audio driver." and i dont know what that means and if it effects how im trying to connect my surround sound

 

[BFG-9000]

If you will be using the HDMI port on the RX470, then you will be using the audio hardware on the card (AMD High Definition Audio Device) and not the Realtek chip on the mobo.

The b350 board doesn't have enough ports on the back for 7.1 analog out (as I said, it has barely enough for 5.1) so you'd need to use extra ports attached to the 9-pin HD-Audio header on the board for the extra outputs. For analog outs to work with Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD you would actually need the licensed decoding software (not free) installed to decode it in the PC, whereas with digital passthrough you would instead use the decoder built-into your receiver. Having analog outs gives you the option of buying new software instead of a new receiver next time a new Dolby or DTS standard comes out, or of using an old receiver now.

If for some reason (drivers, generally) you can't get the 5.1 working on the AMD card, the x370 board gives you the backup option of s/pdif (toslink is the optical version) through the Realtek while the b350 doesn't so can't do passthrough. Otherwise the 7.1 support of the motherboard's audio chip is irrelevant because it won't be used.

 

[Midnightowl626]

Thank you im going with the x370 for the toslink backup