Unlocked Realtek HD Audio Drivers Windows 7 & 8 (With Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive)

[Katagiri]

Thanks again. Will try yours first since it worked for you and we have the same mobo. One last question, what kind of stereo sources have you tested? So I can check similar ones to make sure I'm getting stereo to 5.1 encoding.

I used a test video I download sometime ago, it's called TEST.TOOL.Ac3 Dolby Digital 5.1Ch Sound Test

 

[ajua]

I used a test video I download sometime ago, it's called TEST.TOOL.Ac3 Dolby Digital 5.1Ch Sound Test

I have some videos like that to test my channels but in this case the one you mentioned or the ones I have are of no use if you want to see if stereo sources are being encoded (and sent) to the o the channels. Since they are videos 5.1 audio all the channels are going to work because the source is 5.1 already. The encoding is needed for 2.1 or 2.0 sources to be sent to 5.1/all channels.

If you watch a youtube video on your browser or play a music file with vlc or similar program you should hear all the channels. That would be the test needed to check if stereo sources are being encoded to 5.1 with DTS or DDL.

 

[Katagiri]

I have some videos like that to test my channels but in this case the one you mentioned or the ones I have are of no use if you want to see if stereo sources are being encoded (and sent) to the o the channels. Since they are videos 5.1 audio all the channels are going to work because the source is 5.1 already. The encoding is needed for 2.1 or 2.0 sources to be sent to 5.1/all channels.

If you watch a youtube video on your browser or play a music file with vlc or similar program you should hear all the channels. That would be the test needed to check if stereo sources are being encoded to 5.1 with DTS or DDL.

I tested a song that just won't leave my head those weeks and looks fine to me with Windows Groove player, before the patch, Groove couldn't render music well. In case you want to test, I upload the very same mp3. http://www.mediafire.com/file/lb6qpqty2txwz4n/22_-_IN_YOUR_HEART.mp3/file

 

[ajua]

I tested a song that just won't leave my head those weeks and looks fine to me with Windows Groove player, before the patch, Groove couldn't render music well. In case you want to test, I upload the very same mp3. http://www.mediafire.com/file/lb6qpqty2txwz4n/22_-_IN_YOUR_HEART.mp3/file

Thanks, I will try that one and other stereo sources to make sure everything is working as expected. I will report back in a couple of hours.

 

[hotrippr]

I think games are the easier way to test, I usually can hear animals, voices, and any other sounds from the game around my speakers as I move through the game, if you use video be careful that youre are not being fooled by bitstream. I just test with games to take the video false positives out of the equation. AAC should be good

Wow I guess it is working for AAC movies but not in games??? What the heck? This is the only video file I have in AAC and is outputting perfectly for both DTS Interactive and DDL! I am so confused now why it is not working in game.

d though.

 

[ajua]

For game it depends because some games are capable of outputting surround (5.1) sound and you can hear all the channels as you turn the camera, etc. Unless you actually configure the game to output in stereo and you hear all channels, there's no way to be 100% it's working. Audio files with vlc or media player classic and youtube or spotify are the easiest way to check the stereo to 5.1 encoding imo.

In your screenshot it appears the file you're playing has 5.1 channel audio, so it will work without any encoding, every channel will be out to the corresponding one.

 

[hotrippr]

It is working now all channels not sure what I did to get it to work but I have discrete 5.1 channel separation. Thank you Katagirl for your help.

Ajua, that is an AAC video file it is not encoded to be DTS nor DD etc. It is 5.1. It will not output multi channel audio in bitstrteam, pcm only. That is why it is a good file to test with. In game is very good for a test, find an npc to talk to and as it is speaking move the cam around 360 degrees and you can hear the voice move around your surround speakers. At least IMO I think it is the best way to tell if the sound is being output correctly.

 

[Katagiri]

I'm only playing Black Desert ATM, its sound id not the strong point.

 

[hotrippr]

I am playing BOTW on cemu and it looks and sounds awesome. This method of using current drivers and just replacing it in system32 works, I tried patching old versions, anybody wodering, do yourself a favor and do this method first.

So I am going to explain some stuff for others that might need it and if I forget it someday. The reason I wanted to enable this is that I had 1 HDMI from my 2070 directly to my TV at 4K 60HZ, problem is my receiver cant pass that frequency through, nor my TV cant pass dts DD+ only DD audio back and forth using ARC. So to solve this I used a DP to HDMI adapter to run directly to my Receiver which will do DD+ DTSHD Master etc. The big drawback is that you technically are running 2 diplays on two different ports on the 2070 and the TV, so if I want to get into my bios I usually have to switch inputs on my tv. I also noticed just a bunch of other little problems that I am frankly sick of so that led me here.

Now I can use only 1 HDMI cable and still get surround through DDL or DTS Interactive. And I can still bitstream. The only negative to this setup is that I lose the higher end encodes of DD+ HD Master etc. I am fine with regular DD and DTS for now as I game more than watch movies. And I know what you may be thinking : "Why not just output sound through HDMI?" Again, because depending on your receiver which in my case only will passthrough 4k@30hz which is dookey. A new receiver would be key here with 4k60hz passthrough I could just passthrough all surround formats and be done with it but I am not in the mood to spend $$$ just because of that.

So until I get a new receiver I am stuck with this. If anybody has any ideas to better this setup I am glad to hear it.

 

[ajua]

@Katagiri I installed the latest version from Asus website but it's not the UAD since the Sonic Studio and Realtek Manager apps are not from the MS Store. Can you confirm which version you installed to have the panel from the MS store like in your screenshot? I installed the one from Dec 3rd in the screenshot and just downloaded the previous one just in case I need to try it with that.

 

[Katagiri]

@Katagiri I installed the latest version from Asus website but it's not the UAD since the Sonic Studio and Realtek Manager apps are not from the MS Store. Can you confirm which version you installed to have the panel from the MS store like in your screenshot? I installed the one from Dec 3rd in the screenshot and just downloaded the previous one just in case I need to try it with that.View attachment 142151

I think mine is from 2019/06/13. After that I updated from the store. You should completely uninstall the HDA version, and install UAD drivers from scratch, usually the apps from Windows store are downloaded by themselves, you can also look for them inside the driver's folders and force install. I think the latest version is not UAD since some systems are having problems with them like slow opening apps, here only Firefox and Chrome are slow.

 

[hotrippr]

Now that I think everything is up and running now, is there a solution to the audio timing out? I tried to add power entries in regedit but didnt work.

 

[bottlefedc83]

Don't install the HDA drivers, just UAD drivers, make sure no remnants of HDA drivers are left, delete the render and capture in windows registry. After you have your UAD driver installed correctly you have a couple of options with what .dll to use. You can use the 2015 one that allows you to use DDL and DTSi, be warned if you like have any APO installed this really sucks because its buggy, my best guess is it populates LFX,GFX,SFX,MFX,EFX to have both encoders available, basically leaving you with no room for any APO because in my experience if you have LFX,GFX populated SFX,MFX,EFX dont work. Just a guess with experience.

My recommendation is to find HDA driver with the closest version ,or matching preferably, patch rltkAP064.dll, when its done, rename it to rltkAPOU64.dll and throw it in system32. This will limit you to just the DDL encoder but you will be able to install any apo to use with it, I use Atmos for Gaming for my DDL on SPDIF.

In case its not clear to anyone reading all this, you dont have to install the HDA drivers to patch them, just patch the .dll in the win64 folder of the .zip.

Also dont drop the patched .dll in system32 unless your in safe mode, chance of corrupting it if you try in normal boot and crashes while copying.

 

[ajua]

@Katagiri @bottlefedc83 The Asus UAD drivers Katagiri used gave me a prompt that said timeout error when I tried to open the sonic studio app and I couldn't interact with it. I made sure both sonic studio and sonic radar were updated from the store but nothing I could do. I uninstalled and tried the latest from Asus website which are HDA and used Alan Finote's AudioDevice_sky (which is an internal realtek app iirc) and I have DTS and DDL working. One or the other, can't have both but they work encoding stereo cources to DDL or DTS. Confirmed this using MusicBee with MP3 files and YouTube with Vivaldi. All stereo audio is being encoded and sent as 5.1 to my AV receiver via digital output.

Only issue I have at the moment is that the patcher/configurator makes the audio panel app look like gigabyte if using DDL or the generic realtek panel if using DTS. Even if I uninstall the drivers and programs the next time I install the official Asus drivers I get the gygabyte panel, like something is left in the system from the configurator/patcher. Any of you know how to complete clean uninstall all realtek stuff to get rid of this and get the ROG looking programs/panel? What do you mean Bottle by "delete the render and capture in windows registry ", where are these entries?

I also want to try the latest UAD drivers just for the sake of it. What do you do to install them Bottle? Just double click the InstallPackage.bat file? After that open the store and update the app(s) and drop the patched dll in safe mode? I will try that. Curious, what mobo and chip do you have?

To summarize for other readers, I have the latest Asus drivers working with DDL or DTS using the AudioDevice_sky configurator. Board is an Asus Rog Strix Z370-E with the s1220a audio chip. Shows as ALC1220 in the audio panel.

 

[Katagiri]

Maybe you can uninstall it with DDU. I have no idea how to get rid of ROG looking, only installing generic drivers but I don't think it's better.

 

[ajua]

@hotrippr I read you had the issue of stereo sources not being encoded to 5.1, just 2.1. I have the same problem. I installed the latest UAD drivers for my audio chip (s1220a) and dropped @Katagiri patched dll in system32 in safe mode. To make it clear because I think there's confusion what it actually means encoding stereo sources to 5.1 channels: with DDL or DTS working, your system will encode any source into DDL or DTS and will pass it through SPIF or HDMI to your receiver. However, a desired result for this is to have stereo sources encoded to 5.1 (also known as upmix) so you can get surround sound on all your speakers when playing stereo sources on your music player, youtube, spotify, etc.

The method us three (Katagiri, Hotrippr) did enable the DDL and DTS encoding in the digital output as shown in the screenshots below. However, stereo sources are being encoded to stereo, not 5.1. So it's like not having DDL and DTS capabilities despite the audio being output as DDL or DTS (verified this with an AV receiver and Logitech Z906 where the input is bening recognized as DTS or DDL). I tested audio files from stereo MP3s to 5.1 AC3 and video files with DTS and AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio. Also tested Spotify and YouTube with the same result: audio is being encoded but stereo still outputs only 2 channels, not 5.1.

The output is being encoded using DTS or DDL but it's using the same number of channels as the source:
Stereo source = output encoded to DTS or DDL but just two channels as the source, front right and front left.
5.1 source (AC3, DTS, AAC) = output encoded as DTS or DDL with all the channels.

How do I know the 5.1 sources are being encoded to 5.1? (So I know at least there's encoding going on in the audio chip) I disable bitstreaming in MPC-HC to make sure the audio is passed to the chip, so it gets encoded and then output. This produces 5.1 channels which the expected result and what I want for stereo sources.

The encoding is working as you can see but it's not useful in my case and I presume all others since you want DDL or DTS to encode stereo sources to 5.1. Your AV receiver or speaker system can already handle 5.1 sources as DDL or DTS.

Hotrippr, I also tested 5.1 AAC audio and it gets encoded into DTS and DDL with all the channels but it's not working for stereo sources as I described above. If I test in the audio device properties I only get left and right channels, the others are totally silent like you commented a page or two back.

Have you done any other things besides the patched dll into system32 in safe mode? Are you 100% sure you have stereo sources outputting 5.1 channels? (without using any of your receiver's capabilities to upmix the input). Can you please confirm this? Thanks.

Edit: forgot to add the screenshots.

One additional test that I just did to confirm that the DTS and DDL encoding but it's only working with the same channels as the source is to use MusicBee to play some songs. Result is that audio gets encoded but the output only has 2 channels (it remains stereo, which defeats the purpose of what I want). Then I enable an option called Upmix Stereo to 5.1 and as expected, the audio is encoded but this time it has 5.1 channels. This confirms the encoding is working but I don't know what we need to do to have stereo encoded to 5.1.

 

[hotrippr]

Here is what I did:
1. downloaded and installed latest drivers from my motherboard manufacturer. Then applied registry entry ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Audio". Add "DisableProtectedAudioDG" of DWORD (32bit value) type and set it to 1.)
2. downloaded r2.82 and extracted the executable to a folder (I tried 2.80 but didnt work)
3. downloaded the patcher and patched driver rltkAPO64.dll and then copied to desktop or wherever you want and renamed it to RltkAPOU64.dll (do not run r2.82, it is only to get the dll once you patch it and copy it to windows it can be deleted if desired)
4. restarted to safe mode and copy and pasted the .dll I patched to windows system32 folder, clicked "replace file" when it prompted
5.restarted to windows normally set up my sound to DDL or DTS in windows or in your realtek control center or whatever your motherboard mfg driver installed

Note: that when I did this I noticed the other nvidia audio devices were stuck in a weird way I had to manually toggle stereo for my other audio ports in windows that I had set up as 5.1 that were not using stereo because I unplugged it then replugged it. I kept getting game crashes and no sound because they were not configured correctly. I would just set all audio devices to stereo first if I were you. If that makes sense.

Now lossless AAC PCM5.1 audio does get encoded to DD or DTS with correct channel outputs and sounds just as good as PCM did before.

Games now run in surround aswell with DDLive and have very nice 5.1 seperation for example in game I go to an NPC that is speaking and I put my ear to Center speaker and I hear the voice, R rear I hear birds or whatever, L rear waterfall, R and L sand so on etc etc, sounds just as good as it did when I was using HDMI PCM surround in game.

Other video files in DD DTS bitsream perfectly without having to touch any sound settings, this is configured in my media player which is MPC. Sadly optical cannot bitstream D True HD or DTS HD Master and just gets bitstreamed to plain ol DD or DTS. But whatever.

Stereo sources do indeed get played as stereo only even though my AVR displays DD 5.1. No sound is coming out the rears or center as it should not be.

So in summary everything is working as it should.

I would like to add that from working with this, it is my understanding that DDLive will take PCM signals, encode, output or whatever you wanna call it, whether they are 5.1 or stereo and encode them to DD or DTS but in the same channel output. It does not take stereo and turn it into 5.1 nor I think it should nor do I want that. That is what Pro Logic did back in the day. If I want 5.1 stereo then I would just use 5ch stereo on MY AVR, if I want Pro Logic then I would have the AVR do that too.

 

[ajua]

Stereo sources do indeed get played as stereo only even though my AVR displays DD 5.1. No sound is coming out the rears or center as it should not be.

So in summary everything is working as it should.

This is the issue though. DTS and DDL encoding should encode stereo sources to 5.1 channels. It's the way these technologies have been working with onboard chips and discrete audio cards. Their most used feature is stereo to 5.1. Otherwise if you're using an AV receiver you don't need to use DTS or DDL on the PC at all since they have DTS and/or DDL encoding themselves. Only scenario that is being useful to you is to encode 5.1 AAC to DDL or DTS if you don't want your receiver to upmix the input.

Example, using my Sound Blaster Zx I just enable DDL or DTS and I get stereo (or anything) to 5.1. This is no the case with the Realtek onboard chip. If I enable DDL or DTS, I get encoding but only for the same number of channels the source has.

I wonder if there's something else I or other can do to make it encode stereo to 5.1. I had this functionality on my previous motherboard, I just enabled DDL or DTS like I do on the Sound Blaster Zx and that's it, everything gets output as 5.1.

Edit: to answer your last paragraph edit, stereo to 5.1 is a feature of DTS and DDL. It's a use case for persons that want their stereo sources output to all their channels, for example. The other is to encode everything and send it through SPIF or HDMI but this also can and should encode stereo to 5.1 as has been the case on PC on board chips for as far back as I can remember. Check the technology description in their corresponding pages or wikipedia.

In your case, that you don't want stereo to 5.1, you can chose not to encode anything other than AAC on your video player for example. That way all sources are being passed without modification to your receiver, where you can use pro logic or any other sound options you might want. This is known as bitstreaming for those that don't know. Like if you have DDL or DTS on your audio panel you can chose to bitstream on your video or audio player to not have the signal encoded on the pc and just sent as is to the receiver.

 

[hotrippr]

You are not correct in regards to having a receiver. I will tell you why. This whole thread on the forum is because 5.1 is locked natively on the software. You do need DDLive even with a receiver if you use optical. It is what led me to this thread. I think you are confusing video files encoded with DD or DTS (or anything encoded with DD DTS for that matter, that is just bitstreamed so you are correct you do not need DDLive or DTS Interactive for that.
No games as of now are DTS or DD that I play or am familiar with, if they are it is rare. Games nowadays output surround by PCM multichannel. HDMI will pass that through to the AVR and will play lossless PCM 5.1, 7.1, etc if capable. It is a big reason why you no longer see EAX or other BS branding in games anymore, when HDMI can just past that info through directly to the AVR. So people with optical to their AVRs need DDLive DTS Interactive or Nahimic or whatever to have correct ch mappings because like I said before optical cant carry that PCM info.

As far as add on sound cards and your issue I have to admit that I cannot help you as I do not have one or had one in over a decade and do not remember anything from that long ago. Sorry I cant help much in that regard.

 

[ajua]

You are also correct but I think you misunderstood what I tried to say or I didn't explain it well. Yes, DDL and DTS will encode the audio to send it through SPDIF or HDMI. They are also capable to encoding stereo sources to 5.1 channels, not just 1:1 where stereo is encoded to DTS or DDL but just as 2.1 not 5.1.

I have used several audio chips during my life time and if they had DDL and DTS capabilities, they were all able to encode stereo to 5.1. This is the first case I find the encoding just maps the source channels to the output in a 1:1 fashion. However, it's not an advertised feature of my chip. But if the patched DLL we are using to "unlock" DTS and DDL on chips that don't have it enabled on their original drivers enables the encoding, I assume it should work for stereo to 5.1 as has been the case in all the times I used a chip that supported both technologies.

The example of my Sound Blaster is clear I think. The card has DDL and DTS capabilities with the same options and configurations for both technologies as the Realtek chip: DDL is just on or off, DTS has music and movie options. In either case, I just enable DDL or DTS and I instantly have stereo to 5.1 on both my receiver and Logitech Z906. No need to do anything else like use pro logic on the receiver or the effect options in the Z906 controller, which is similar to pro logic with surround, 4.1 which is the equivalent of pro logic multi stereo, or just 2.1.

 

[hotrippr]

I understand your issue. I am not familiar with using that feature. What about in the realtek control panel? Under enhancements, scene, or environment? Isnt there an option there? Sounds like there should be. Not everyone has an AVR and people still use and make analog equipment. Are you sure that feature is still supported?

I think the best bet is if someone that currently runs analog PC speaker system like you can chime in here.

What sound system did you say you had?

 

[ajua]

The features are still called the same, Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect and I started to use them at least 10-12 years ago. Always look for motherboards with support for them but in the recent era the high end motherboards don't come with that support anymore, at least the majority don't. Last time I used a mobo that had them was a couple of years ago with the Asus Prime Z370-A and it worked as I described, you enable DDLnor DTS and you get all sources including stereo encoded to 5.1.

I assume the technologies haven't changed because why would they when there's plenty of newer ones like Atmos and all the DTS ones like Ultra and they never changed in years after their introduction.

My current setup on the desktop is a Rog Strix Z370-E with s1220a (ALC1220) audio and I have a Sound Blaster Zx installed. I never bothered with the integrated chip because the card did that but I thought of giving the on board audio a try in case I decided to not use the card on the next upgrade.

Sound system was a Sony AVR that was like 15 years old but started to die and some channels stopped working. I bought a Logitech Z906 a couple of days ago and it sounds really good, pretty happy with the purchase and I'd recommend it to anyone that doesn't need a receiver for their desktop.

I have been using SPDIF for both the AVR and the Logitech Z906, no analog.

The Realtek control panel has DDL and DTS options as shown in the screenshots I posted earlier but there are no additional options. All the motherboards I have used with these technologies and my sound card are the same: DDL is just enabled and DTS has a setting where you choose music or movie or none.

The weird thing as I already explained is that the encoding is not encoding stereo to 5.1. If I switch to my sound card as the audio device DDL and DTS on it do stereo to 5.1.

Since we're using modified drivers or dll files to enable them in unsupported audio chips (for license anyway since most or all of them are capable anyway) there's no way to troubleshoot or find why stereo is not encoded into 5.1.

Luckily I still have the option to not remove the sound card and keep using it but it Sucks that I can't consider getting rid of it or using it on anew htpc I have planned to do this year because I would lose the capability on my desktop.

 

[funboy6942]

Not sure if this will help you, or what you are looking for, but I use VLC player, and then I also use the K-lite program in install all my codec and the windows classic media player within. When my board with the 1220-VB and just the 1220 chipset is set to dd or dts its like mono using those players with almost all sound coming through the center, but if I choose, using spdif to my denon btw, 24bit 96K HZ and switch my Denon to DTS Neo Cinema then the vocals come through the center and there is really good separation with the rest going to my side and rear speakers really filling the room up nicely keeping like I said the vocals centered. I use this set up when I want to fill the room up with particular songs I like to hear this way, maybe it will help you as well and get that sweet spot as well? Just thought Id pass that on to you, and fyi I have nothing else put on, no sound blaster, no Dolby theater, just 24bit 96k HZ and thats it with either of the two players. OH in VLC you may have to go into preferences/audio and turn on spdif for its off naively for what ever reason.

 

[ajua]

@funboy6942 I appreciate the tip. That can be done with an AVR or even the Z906 but in my use case I need to have dts or ddl enabled to hear games in 5.1 with proper channel mapping. Since the AVR got replaced with the Z906 I can't have proper separation for stereo sources with the s1220a ddl or dts encoding as explained in previous posts. Especially when I usually listen to music while playing and with 5.1 from game and stereo from music it doesn't sound right at the same time.

I will give the on board audio a day or two of more tries with different drivers and see if I can get stereo to 5.1 working with it. If not, I will disable it and will continue using my trusty sound blaster Zx.

 

[bottlefedc83]

For those of you that are having issues getting sound to not be 2.1 when on DTSi or DDL after using the patch and rename method, you should open your FX configurator select your SPDIF Optical endpoint, delete all entries in the Composite MFX APO and Steam MFX APO Processing, apply, restart driver and test. Deleting the entries in those has fixed it for me in the past, some vendor drivers use this MFX to block 5.1 7.1 etc.

You are also correct but I think you misunderstood what I tried to say or I didn't explain it well. Yes, DDL and DTS will encode the audio to send it through SPDIF or HDMI. They are also capable to encoding stereo sources to 5.1 channels, not just 1:1 where stereo is encoded to DTS or DDL but just as 2.1 not 5.1.

I have used several audio chips during my life time and if they had DDL and DTS capabilities, they were all able to encode stereo to 5.1. This is the first case I find the encoding just maps the source channels to the output in a 1:1 fashion. However, it's not an advertised feature of my chip. But if the patched DLL we are using to "unlock" DTS and DDL on chips that don't have it enabled on their original drivers enables the encoding, I assume it should work for stereo to 5.1 as has been the case in all the times I used a chip that supported both technologies.

The example of my Sound Blaster is clear I think. The card has DDL and DTS capabilities with the same options and configurations for both technologies as the Realtek chip: DDL is just on or off, DTS has music and movie options. In either case, I just enable DDL or DTS and I instantly have stereo to 5.1 on both my receiver and Logitech Z906. No need to do anything else like use pro logic on the receiver or the effect options in the Z906 controller, which is similar to pro logic with surround, 4.1 which is the equivalent of pro logic multi stereo, or just 2.1.

Try the method I said above, if you need more assistance ill try to post pics off my media computer.