5.1 in Movies but Not Games via HDMI

[dozy4850]

Hi I have a 2080 Ti on an Asrock Z490 Taichi Motherboard and its hooked up to my LG C6 TV at 4K. The TV uses ARC to my Vizio M51A soundbar so I get audio.

I have noticed I get solid 5.1 in movies and even some surround effects in my music. BUT...

When it comes to games like Halo MCC, Infinite and others, I get "fake" surround sound.

What I mean is that the dialogue and sound effects only come from the front but not from the rear. The only thing the rear speakers output is background music which I suspect is just the virtualization effect of the subwoofer workign it's magic.

The actual sound is not directional. If an enemy is coming from the rear or shooting at me, those sounds are coming from the L C R speakers in the soundbar but nothing from the rear except if there's ambient music.

This is opposite to the movies I play which have actual directional sound.

My Windows sound settings for my display via HDMI only shows 2 channels. but shows DTS and Dolby Digital as encoded formats. How can I get actual 5.1 sound via my HDMI connection. And yes my HDMI cable is working properly. Able to display 4K60 and clearly 5.1 sound via movies at 4K

I used to have a discreet but cumbersome sound system that manually took 3.5mm inputs for L,C, R, LR, RR ports and I got 5.1 that way but I'd think in 2022 I'd be able to get 5.1 via HDMI on my graphics card

Or do I need to try using my Motherboard's SPDIF connector? I doubt if the games don't put out 5.1 via HDMI, the SPDIF won't be able to either. The soundcard on the Z490 is ALC1220

Screenshot of my HDMI connection:

 

[Jetster]

If the games really have 5.1, it's compressed in a format the sound bar does not decode. Your old sound card probably had the ability. This would be my thought

 

[Gustavo Sicha]

The only solution is to use S/PDIF, you will need to follow this guide to enable Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Interactive:

In a nutshell, the process to follow is as follows:
1. Uninstall your existing Realtek drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) and reboot.
2. Download and extract zip file containing original Realtek HD audio drivers (I used version R2.82/6.0.1.8210).
3. Use Pihto's patch to patch the DLL files. The target filenames are listed on the patcher window. They begin with "rltkAPO64.dll, rltkAPO.dll" and may be in "win32" and "win64" subfolders of the Realtek package. You will have to manually select each file to patch and run the patcher multiple times to patch all matching files.
4. Now run the Realtek setup program. You may be asked to install unsigned drivers. Choose yes.
5. Do not immediately reboot. Instead, open regedit and ensure the "DisableProtectedAudioDG" registry fix is still present. If not, add it again.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Audio]
"DisableProtectedAudioDG"=dword:00000001

6. Reboot, and DDL/DTSI should be available.
7. Working properly on Windows 11 with Realtek version R2.82 or R2.80

 

[FreedomEclipse]

The only solution is to use S/PDIF, you will need to follow this guide to enable Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Interactive:

In a nutshell, the process to follow is as follows:
1. Uninstall your existing Realtek drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) and reboot.
2. Download and extract zip file containing original Realtek HD audio drivers (I used version R2.82/6.0.1.8210).
3. Use Pihto's patch to patch the DLL files. The target filenames are listed on the patcher window. They begin with "rltkAPO64.dll, rltkAPO.dll" and may be in "win32" and "win64" subfolders of the Realtek package. You will have to manually select each file to patch and run the patcher multiple times to patch all matching files.
4. Now run the Realtek setup program. You may be asked to install unsigned drivers. Choose yes.
5. Do not immediately reboot. Instead, open regedit and ensure the "DisableProtectedAudioDG" registry fix is still present. If not, add it again.

6. Reboot, and DDL/DTSI should be available.

I personally wouldnt. Youre losing quite a lot of audio fidelity by going from HDMi to S/PDIF due to the amount of bandwidth S/PDIF can carry compared to HDMi.

Uncompressed PCM vs Compressed - Uncompressed wins.

 

[Jetster]

If you really want to hear people coming up on your 6 then put the sound card in and use it with 5.1 headphones. Then switch sound devices for gaming and back to HDMI for movies.

 

[bug]

I personally wouldnt. Youre losing quite a lot of audio fidelity by going from HDMi to S/PDIF due to the amount of bandwidth S/PDIF can carry compared to HDMi.

Uncompressed PCM vs Compressed - Uncompressed wins.

Because we're all lavishing in 5.1, 192kHz uncompressed sound sources, right? SPDIF is fine. Which is more than I can say about the other part of that tip.

Hi I have a 2080 Ti on an Asrock Z490 Taichi Motherboard and its hooked up to my LG C6 TV at 4K. The TV uses ARC to my Vizio M51A soundbar so I get audio.

I have noticed I get solid 5.1 in movies and even some surround effects in my music. BUT...

When it comes to games like Halo MCC, Infinite and others, I get "fake" surround sound.

What I mean is that the dialogue and sound effects only come from the front but not from the rear. The only thing the rear speakers output is background music which I suspect is just the virtualization effect of the subwoofer workign it's magic.

The actual sound is not directional. If an enemy is coming from the rear or shooting at me, those sounds are coming from the L C R speakers in the soundbar but nothing from the rear except if there's ambient music.

This is opposite to the movies I play which have actual directional sound.

My Windows sound settings for my display via HDMI only shows 2 channels. but shows DTS and Dolby Digital as encoded formats. How can I get actual 5.1 sound via my HDMI connection. And yes my HDMI cable is working properly. Able to display 4K60 and clearly 5.1 sound via movies at 4K

I used to have a discreet but cumbersome sound system that manually took 3.5mm inputs for L,C, R, LR, RR ports and I got 5.1 that way but I'd think in 2022 I'd be able to get 5.1 via HDMI on my graphics card

Or do I need to try using my Motherboard's SPDIF connector? I doubt if the games don't put out 5.1 via HDMI, the SPDIF won't be able to either. The soundcard on the Z490 is ALC1220

Screenshot of my HDMI connection:
View attachment 234210

Well, that picture clearly says: "Max Number of Channels: 2". And I believe that, my old Samsung TV had the same thing: no matter you fed it through HDMI, it would not output more than 2 channels.

If I had to guess, I'd say you're always getting stereo, but that sound bar may be doing a better job faking surround in movies than it does for games. Hard to say for sure, though. What I'd try is hooking up the sound bar directly to the PC. If that works fine, it confirms the culprit is the TV.

 

[AsRock]

Because we're all lavishing in 5.1, 192kHz uncompressed sound sources, right? SPDIF is fine. Which is more than I can say about the other part of that tip.


Well, that picture clearly says: "Max Number of Channels: 2". And I believe that, my old Samsung TV had the same thing: no matter you fed it through HDMI, it would not output more than 2 channels.

If I had to guess, I'd say you're always getting stereo, but that sound bar may be doing a better job faking surround in movies than it does for games. Hard to say for sure, though. What I'd try is hooking up the sound bar directly to the PC. If that works fine, it confirms the culprit is the TV.

Thinking the same too.

 

[bug]

Thinking the same too.

View attachment 234245

View attachment 234246

Would you look at that? Running RX-V679 over here. Bass seems weak, tho.

 

[AsRock]

Would you look at that? Running RX-V679 over here. Bass seems weak, tho.

It depends on how windows is feeling, what it actually says, it's actually a 677 but annoyingly keeps changing to a 820, which was over a year ago and it's not even remembered the 475 or the 5830 HAHA.

Anyways yeah will be running that for now no need for the 5830 until i am able to get a v card that replace my 390X.

Well all so sounds like he's getting quad stereo, maybe check in the TV options.

Sound bar does not support Arc\eArc

VIZIO M-Series 5.1 Home Theater Sound Bar with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X | M51a-H6

www.vizio.com

Connectivity​

• HDMI Yes
• HDMI ARC / eARC No
• Optical Yes
• USB Yes, for .WAV Audio Playback
• Voice Assistant Input Yes
• Analog Yes, 3.5mm stereo mini jack
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth Yes
• Bluetooth Version 5.0

But it all so says it does too HAHAHAHA.

Unlock the Highest Quality

Using HDMI eARC, send the highest quality audio between your sound bar and the TV with a single cable and be able to control your sound bar with your TV remote.

 

[dozy4850]

The only solution is to use S/PDIF, you will need to follow this guide to enable Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Interactive:

In a nutshell, the process to follow is as follows:
1. Uninstall your existing Realtek drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) and reboot.
2. Download and extract zip file containing original Realtek HD audio drivers (I used version R2.82/6.0.1.8210).
3. Use Pihto's patch to patch the DLL files. The target filenames are listed on the patcher window. They begin with "rltkAPO64.dll, rltkAPO.dll" and may be in "win32" and "win64" subfolders of the Realtek package. You will have to manually select each file to patch and run the patcher multiple times to patch all matching files.
4. Now run the Realtek setup program. You may be asked to install unsigned drivers. Choose yes.
5. Do not immediately reboot. Instead, open regedit and ensure the "DisableProtectedAudioDG" registry fix is still present. If not, add it again.

6. Reboot, and DDL/DTSI should be available.

Are you familiar with this thing: http://puresoftapps.blogspot.com/2018/04/realtek-apo-driver.html
I've heard some people say that all they need to do was install this and nothing else and they got 5.1

With the fix you tell me, wouldn't I need to run through this process again after every patch? And is it actually compartible with all Realtek cbips?

Because we're all lavishing in 5.1, 192kHz uncompressed sound sources, right? SPDIF is fine. Which is more than I can say about the other part of that tip.


Well, that picture clearly says: "Max Number of Channels: 2". And I believe that, my old Samsung TV had the same thing: no matter you fed it through HDMI, it would not output more than 2 channels.

If I had to guess, I'd say you're always getting stereo, but that sound bar may be doing a better job faking surround in movies than it does for games. Hard to say for sure, though. What I'd try is hooking up the sound bar directly to the PC. If that works fine, it confirms the culprit is the TV.

Yeah I don't think so.
So I fed my PC's HDMI connection straight to my soundbar and then from soundbar to tv and enabled eARC. I was able to get the max output message to switch to 6 channels. And even Windows spacial now gave me 5.1 surround option. However it said my sound was still stereo despite saying I can get a max of 6 channel. It also had an expanded format support now.

However, the sound effects stayed the same. Movies had 5.1 sound. Tested with Fury Road and Savinf Private Ryan. The soundbar is good but it cannot mimic true directional sound . There's a stark difference when a movie with directional sound is playing and when it's emulating it in video games.

It appears my issues is that I need to either unlock DDL or DTS Connect on my Z490 Taichi motherboard or buy a Creative Sound Blaster Z SE that comes with DDL and DTS Connect.

It depends on how windows is feeling, what it actually says, it's actually a 677 but annoyingly keeps changing to a 820, which was over a year ago and it's not even remembered the 475 or the 5830 HAHA.

Anyways yeah will be running that for now no need for the 5830 until i am able to get a v card that replace my 390X.

Well all so sounds like he's getting quad stereo, maybe check in the TV options.

Sound bar does not support Arc\eArc

VIZIO M-Series 5.1 Home Theater Sound Bar with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X | M51a-H6

www.vizio.com

But it all so says it does too HAHAHAHA.

It definitely supports eARC.

 

[AsRock]

Are you familiar with this thing: http://puresoftapps.blogspot.com/2018/04/realtek-apo-driver.html
I've heard some people say that all they need to do was install this and nothing else and they got 5.1

With the fix you tell me, wouldn't I need to run through this process again after every patch? And is it actually compartible with all Realtek cbips?



Yeah I don't think so.
So I fed my PC's HDMI connection straight to my soundbar and then from soundbar to tv and enabled eARC. I was able to get the max output message to switch to 6 channels. And even Windows spacial now gave me 5.1 surround option. However it said my sound was still stereo despite saying I can get a max of 6 channel. It also had an expanded format support now.

However, the sound effects stayed the same. Movies had 5.1 sound. Tested with Fury Road and Savinf Private Ryan. The soundbar is good but it cannot mimic true directional sound . There's a stark difference when a movie with directional sound is playing and when it's emulating it in video games.

It appears my issues is that I need to either unlock DDL or DTS Connect on my Z490 Taichi motherboard or buy a Creative Sound Blaster Z SE that comes with DDL and DTS Connect.


It definitely supports eARC.

Hey just going by there site and if i was interested in one my self i would not get it as the specs says it don't, just saying.


So windows says 6 channels now ?, when you click the sound icon near the clock do you get the 5.1 channel option ?, if so configure it see if that helps as the 5.1 options are normally there when available.

EDIT: All so right clicking the icon should all so show speaker options too

 

[Clibanarius]

I was having this issue with a game that utilizes XAudio2 libs, Nioh 2. Turns out, if you're using DTS Interactive or Dolby Digital Live encoding methods to send compressed audio out, Windows has that identified and mapped as '2 speakers' within the audio interface at some point and that it's not re-expanding the channel count up to what it needs to be. It's just a patched set of .dll replacements/a patcher you can use on your own. https://blog.klauspost.com/xaudio2-dolby-digital-live-patcher/ Lemme know if that helps ya out any in your case!

 

[Ferather]

You can have a transcoder (DTS, Dolby), on the system and still get 2 channel always, as you mentioned.
This happens if the device, the driver or APO does not correctly adjust registry data.

In some cases a device might have an in-built policy you cannot edit (lack of tools), or restrictions.

----

If I remember correctly, If I set HDMI to 5.1 via the system tray, it sets 6 channels, but not fully.

 

[dozy4850]

You can have a transcoder (DTS, Dolby), on the system and still get 2 channel always, as you mentioned.
This happens if the device, the driver or APO does not correctly adjust registry data.

In some cases a device might have an in-built policy you cannot edit (lack of tools), or restrictions.

----

If I remember correctly, If I set HDMI to 5.1 via the system tray, it sets 6 channels, but not fully.

What do you mean by fully?

 

[Ferather]

It sets the device to do 6 channels, but does not update attached speakers in the reg.

{1da5d803-d492-4edd-8c23-e0c0ffee7f0e},6
{1da5d803-d492-4edd-8c23-e0c0ffee7f0e},3

I can tell because an APO and app I use, react to the above keys.

 

[bug]

Yeah I don't think so.
So I fed my PC's HDMI connection straight to my soundbar and then from soundbar to tv and enabled eARC. I was able to get the max output message to switch to 6 channels. And even Windows spacial now gave me 5.1 surround option. However it said my sound was still stereo despite saying I can get a max of 6 channel. It also had an expanded format support now.

However, the sound effects stayed the same. Movies had 5.1 sound. Tested with Fury Road and Savinf Private Ryan. The soundbar is good but it cannot mimic true directional sound . There's a stark difference when a movie with directional sound is playing and when it's emulating it in video games.

It appears my issues is that I need to either unlock DDL or DTS Connect on my Z490 Taichi motherboard or buy a Creative Sound Blaster Z SE that comes with DDL and DTS Connect.

I don't whether you're aware, but DDL and DTS Connect are for shoving 5.1 onto SPDIF.

However, if your problem comes from games, I'm not sure why you brought the TV and ARC into that testing setup. Are you playing games on the TV? I would minimize the number of factors in the equation and play on a plain monitor while sending the sound directly to the sound bar. If that works, you know it's the TV. If it doesn't probably the game doesn't output sound in the right format.

 

[dozy4850]

I don't whether you're aware, but DDL and DTS Connect are for shoving 5.1 onto SPDIF.

However, if your problem comes from games, I'm not sure why you brought the TV and ARC into that testing setup. Are you playing games on the TV? I would minimize the number of factors in the equation and play on a plain monitor while sending the sound directly to the sound bar. If that works, you know it's the TV. If it doesn't probably the game doesn't output sound in the right format.

So I do play games on my TV. The only thing I play on my monitor are RTS games.

Yes I am aware of shoving 5.1 through SPIDF. Thats the only option I have now apart from fiddling with drivers that I would then have to keep fiddling with after every windows update.

I have connected my computer to SPDIF to the soundbar and it's the same result. You'd think a Z490 board with Windows 10 would natively do this with no issue. I just now need to try eARC but manually set my speakers to 6 and see if it helps at all. This is beyond ridiculous

 

[Gustavo Sicha]

I currently have the Sony Home Theater BDV-N9200W/N9200WL and I use SPDIF to get DDL and DTS Connect, because I don't buy soundbars until today, because currently soundbars don't convince me and their sound spectrum doesn't fill my whole room it's like if you hear the sound coming from the sound bar but it doesn't fill the room and I can't hear that supposed Dolby Atmos, DTS X in my ears. Instead with a Sony Home Theater BDV-N9200W/N9200WL the sound is REAL and very loud and can be heard everywhere and clearly.
I have used HDMI directly to my Home Theater and it allows me 6 channels, 24 bit, ACC, Dolby Digital and DTS but it does not let me select DDL or DTS Connect so on youtube the stereo sound is not encoded to Multichannel 5.1, I use the SPDIF connection and I patch the official Realtek Audio drivers on my Gigabyte board to unlock DDL, DTS Connect, Dolby Pro Logic II and all my games are now heard in 5.1 Multichannel and if it sounds like it should, it's not just making stereo audio sound in the 5 speakers it also has to encode them so that each effect, dialogue and ambient sound are located in the 5 speakers according to the sound that is being encoded and Dolby Pro Logic II takes care of that

 

[Ferather]

I dropped my HDMI, I went from SPDIF + TOSLink to HDMI + TOSLink, and well audio quality can vary by a small amount depending on the driver, HDMI was more issue prone.
For audio only, its definitely worse than SPDIF, its slower in bitrate, less responsive, uses conductive circuit, and your GPU has to make a wasted video feed.

In terms of PCM, well that's more down to the OEM who makes the device, both SPDIF and HDMI, SPDIF is still the daddy for digital.

 

[Gustavo Sicha]

I dropped my HDMI, I went from SPDIF + TOSLink to HDMI + TOSLink, and well audio quality can vary by a small amount depending on the driver, HDMI was more issue prone.
For audio only, its definitely worse than SPDIF, its slower in bitrate, less responsive, uses conductive circuit, and your GPU has to make a wasted video feed.

In terms of PCM, well that's more down to the OEM who makes the device, both SPDIF and HDMI, SPDIF is still the daddy for digital.

you are right for some reason the Dolby Digital and DTS via HDMI had a little latency to change sound in real time, and I always had to choose PCM that's why I prefer SPDIF that has no latency.
That is if I have the SPDIF optical audio cable connected directly from my PC => Home Theater, since my Samsung TV Q7FN55 does not support DTS

 

[dozy4850]

It sets the device to do 6 channels, but does not update attached speakers in the reg.

{1da5d803-d492-4edd-8c23-e0c0ffee7f0e},6
{1da5d803-d492-4edd-8c23-e0c0ffee7f0e},3

I can tell because an APO and app I use, react to the above keys.

I connected my HDMI from GPU to the soundbar and selected eARC on the soundbar. I can get the 5 speaker option but I don't get the audio tone from any speaker that's not L/R. Windows is so retarded. The sound in games now seem a bit more 5.1 but I can't help but think something is missing. Its not as pronounced. It seems slightly, very slightly better than when it was optical out or when I plugged it straight to my TV.

I'll see what it sounds like when the Creative Sound Blaster Z SE I bought comes in tomorrow with DDL and DTS Connect.

Btw it still shows this under the properties. The slight 5.1 improvement i hear in games might be coming from Windows Spacial effect that defaulted to 5.1 when I connected HDMI to my soundbar:

 

[Gustavo Sicha]

I think it's not necessary to spend so much money on sound cards when just connecting it to the S/PDIF connector is more than enough. Also, I think you can't get Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive on HDMI or I wouldn't know how to tell you because my TV does not support eARC or Dolby Atmos.

About that Creative Sound Blaster Z SE sound card before buying it first read the analysis, reviews and comments of the product that other users have already bought and tested.

You will still have to use the S/PDIF interface on that sound card you want to buy to get Dolby Digital Live and DTS.

 

[Ferather]

@dozy4850, it indeed looks like its a stereo setup with multichannel in software, that's why you get left right only, best guess.
In advanced and then formats, how many channels show, does it say 6 channels 24 bit 48k, or 2 channels?

Edit just noticed the image in post 1, hardware you have only 2 channels. In fact its old SPDIF over HDMI hehe.

 

[dozy4850]

I think it's not necessary to spend so much money on sound cards when just connecting it to the S/PDIF connector is more than enough. Also, I think you can't get Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive on HDMI or I wouldn't know how to tell you because my TV does not support eARC or Dolby Atmos.

About that Creative Sound Blaster Z SE sound card before buying it first read the analysis, reviews and comments of the product that other users have already bought and tested.

You will still have to use the S/PDIF interface on that sound card you want to buy to get Dolby Digital Live and DTS.

Thats the problem though, my Motherboard doesn't have explicit DDL and DTS Connect license. So I need something that does. Or fiddle around with hacked drivers

I read the reviews, seems it can be wonky but so is every discreet soundcard. I don't like this route but at least it stops me from buying a reciever

@dozy4850, it indeed looks like its a stereo setup with multichannel in software, that's why you get left right only, best guess.
In advanced and then formats, how many channels show, does it say 6 channels 24 bit 48k, or 2 channels?

Edit just noticed the image in post 1, hardware you have only 2 channels. In fact its old SPDIF over HDMI hehe.

here:

 

[Gustavo Sicha]

When reviewing your model Asrock Z490 Taichiit has the following specifications:
Audio
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec)
- Premium Blu-ray Audio support
- Supports Surge Protection
- WIMA Audio Capacitors (For Front Outputs)
- ESS SABRE9218 DAC for Front Panel Audio (130dB SNR)
- Pure Power-In
- Direct Drive Technology
- PCB Isolate Shielding
- Impedance Sensing on Rear Out port
- Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
- Gold Audio Jacks
- 15μ Gold Audio Connector
- Nahimic Audio

I noticed that your Asrock z490 Taichi motherboard has the same Realtek ALC1220 as my Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 motherboard.
So yes, it should be able to unlock DDL and DTS Connect, but it will only work when connected to the SPDIF interface. I recommend that you download an official Realtek Audio version R2.80 or R2.79 from another page and that its weight is approximately 300mb so that you can unlock DDL and DTS Connect.