Question Optimal Audio With Entertainment System PC

[jdwclemson]

What is the best way to achieve optimal surround sound and video performance when ARC isn't working? Do you send audio and video separately or do you go through the TV to the receiver or the receiver to the TV? I am trying to get surround sound to work with my new TV (Samsung S95B) connected to my PC for gaming and I'm not getting surround sound when I connect my PC directly to the TV and use ARC . When I connect directly to my receiver, I can get the surround sound, but the receiver is only HDMI 2.0 without 120hz/VRR. I can get audio from my surround sound, but not from all of the speakers, so its more like 3.1 audio channels despite selecting 5.1 or 7.1 on my PC. I could get a new HDMI 2.1 receiver, but I'm concerned that putting video through a receiver may cause some form of response time or other quality reductions with video. Another solution would be to send video and audio through distinct channels to the receiver and TV separately, but graphics cards don't seem to be designed to do that, and I read the motherboard audio isn't as good as what's built into GPUs such as the nvidia 40 series. If my graphics card had the option to send audio and video over distinct HDMI cables, that would be an easy solution, but unfortunately that isn't an option.

-Would I lose any form of display/VRR/120hz performance by putting video through the receiver?
-Noting that my GPU only has one HDMI out and the S95B only has HDMI, is there a way to send optimal audio and video outputs to the receiver and TV separately? I haven't used a sound card or motherboard audio in over a decade, but I'm open to options as long as I'm not sacrificing audio quality.

 

[dwd999]

What is the best way to achieve optimal surround sound and video performance when ARC isn't working? Do you send audio and video separately or do you go through the TV to the receiver or the receiver to the TV? I am trying to get surround sound to work with my new TV (Samsung S95B) connected to my PC for gaming and I'm not getting surround sound when I connect my PC directly to the TV and use ARC . When I connect directly to my receiver, I can get the surround sound, but the receiver is only HDMI 2.0 without 120hz/VRR. I can get audio from my surround sound, but not from all of the speakers, so its more like 3.1 audio channels despite selecting 5.1 or 7.1 on my PC. I could get a new HDMI 2.1 receiver, but I'm concerned that putting video through a receiver may cause some form of response time or other quality reductions with video. Another solution would be to send video and audio through distinct channels to the receiver and TV separately, but graphics cards don't seem to be designed to do that, and I read the motherboard audio isn't as good as what's built into GPUs such as the nvidia 40 series. If my graphics card had the option to send audio and video over distinct HDMI cables, that would be an easy solution, but unfortunately that isn't an option.

-Would I lose any form of display/VRR/120hz performance by putting video through the receiver?
-Noting that my GPU only has one HDMI out and the S95B only has HDMI, is there a way to send optimal audio and video outputs to the receiver and TV separately? I haven't used a sound card or motherboard audio in over a decade, but I'm open to options as long as I'm not sacrificing audio quality.

If you connect your pc to the tv you should be able to connect the tv's optical output to your receiver and get surround sound that way. You could also check your tv's settings to make sure the Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) is turned on since that's necessary for eARC output to work, or that the audio output is set for optical if you're going to use that. There are so many settings involved that you have to go through them step by step to get them all working.