OT: Video Card Only Output's Stereo

[Bert 49]

Hi, I have an older system that connects to an XBOX One as a TV source in my theater room.  Just upgraded to Windows 10 and think maybe I made a mistake.  Everything works ok but when I set up the speakers, it only gives me the option of 2 channels.  This is the card that is in it:

 

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-630

 

So, I installed the beta driver and everything says HD Audio all over it, however, I never get the option to setup more than two speakers.  I looked on their support page and it appears it gets what they term "legacy support" which I am reading as not much.  So, my hunch is that their isn't a good driver currently for this old video card and it would need to be replaced with a newer PCI Express 2.0 (that's what this one is) card.  Does this sound right?  Am I missing something?  I didn't install any LAV Filters but Kodi is and I would think that would be unrelated.  Any advice is appreciated!

 

TIA

[Bert 49]

Actually figured it out, the hdmi in for the Xbox One only does two channel.  Dumb.

[Raff 51]

I'm slightly confused and may one day pass my living room PC through the HDMI port to simplify my set-up so a question: Are you saying your PC doesn't have the option to output surround when connected?

 

Did you try setting up surround sound in the XB1?

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/live-tv/connect-console-to-home-theater#bf037722268e42f3a4e44fbeaedf8f1e

[Bert 49]

Yeah read the notes of the first setup in the link provided. It states the hdmi port of the Xbox one will not pass surround sound

[Raff 51]

Yeah read the notes of the first setup in the link provided. It states the hdmi port of the Xbox one will not pass surround sound

That is the second configuration - connecting the XB1 to an A/V receiver. There is no such note in the other three cases, which seems odd if it did apply to each.

 

So would this statement on the same page:

 

 

You can pass surround sound from your set-top box to your TV or A/V receiver directly from your Xbox One console. Here’s how:

 

No worries if you don't want to mess with it. I'm probably going to test this myself in the near future since that PC is due the Win 10 update anyway.

[Bert 49]

I've messed with it...lol.... I'm ultimately trying to Bitstream to my receiver... When hooked up to the Xbox One the audio option is only xbox One and there is only an option for stereo. When connected to my Receiver it reports as a Samsung which is the TV. This makes sense at least in that a Samsung TV is indeed the monitor for the receiver and also allows setup of multiple speakers. I am however somewhat confused if I am actually bitstreaming though. I have only installed Kodi on the machine and the receiver does not have a way to report that it's bitstreaming nor if it's DTS as would be the ultimate goal. I don't know what else to try really.

[Bert 49]

Additionally the video card Driver keeps crashing with Kodi paused etc. Which leads me back to maybe just getting a video card that's better suited for Windows 10..... Or rolling back to 7

[trusselo 220]

I ran into these issues with surround sound years ago.

Windows has always had poor support for *digital* multi-channel output, whether being on HDMI or SPDIF/dig-coax.

 

I have avoided this issue by using an optical cable to my audio video receiver, from a sound card that supports Dolby *Encoding*

Tell windows to output to multi-channel analog out > enable DD encoding in soundcard drivers

Everything output from the optical is DD.   there is options for up-sampling from 2 channel to 5.1 that works pretty good on soundblaster cards. i dont recommend the Asus (current)  the soundblaster also had DD pass-through when needed.  Asus supposedly does but it has never worked. no driver support. have to manually change windows output to  optical passthrouh when needed/wanted.  which isnt a big deal unless youre a gamer. games have weird support with surround sound.

 

PCI Express X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series

i miss this card. I touched it and it died...

Edited August 28, 2015 by trusselo

[shaefurr 1337]

its always worked great for me with nvidia cards over hdmi @ 5.1, I always use the nvidia HD audio drivers over the ones microsoft installs. if using an nvidia card make sure when you go into the audio devices it comes up as nvidia high definition audio. Works great in Kodi using passthrough as well.

[trusselo 220]

hmm ive always had the AMD HD audio drivers installed but selecting that input in windows > properties only shows 2.0 

Hooked up to TV though, have yet to play with HDMI AV Receiver... but it seems that DD does pass-through the HDMI through the TV to the optical out. but everything else that is not an encoded DD or DTS will only output at 2.0

 

I have avoided this.

 

But its also time for an HDMI Receiver and that might make all the difference...  or cause more problems with my 3 monitor +1 TV / 6.1 setup....

Edited August 29, 2015 by trusselo

[Bert 49]

OK, I found the information screen on my receiver.  XBOX One directly hooked up to receiver reports DTS as does the HTPC when hooked directly to the receiver.  There is also a bitrate, which I am hoping indicates I am bitstreaming.  When HTPC hooked up through the XBOX One the receiver reports a DTS Signal, however, only two speakers output.  If you google xbox one dts passthrough and read some of the comments, it appears it is a known issue that passthrough does not work through the xbox one input.  Shame too because with Kinect the voice control is pretty handy on my other similar setup with no surround sound.  

 

Conclusion is that HDMI In of XBOX One is not capable of sending a bitstream through it and is limited to stereo.  I also noticed that it would go back to PCM depending on what was plugged in and what was off or restarted between plugging different things in.  In other words, when trying different combinations, I should have turned everything off while switching cables.