Win 11 HDMI 5.1/7.1 audio output

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SJB

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#311503 22-Jan-2024 10:38

I have a Lenovo Thinkstation P330 Tiny PC with Intel UHD 630 graphics driver with an HDMI connection to a Denon receiver.

The driver supports up to 7.1 audio output but I have no options available in the Win11 sound settings, just stereo left and right settings.

After some research I've checked the EDID info in the registry for the Denon receiver and that shows that 8 channel sound is supported. I've also read that the PC hardware manufacturer can override that if needs be with info in the INF file for the driver but I see no evidence that has happened.

Anyone have any ideas what I'm missing.

reven

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#3185014 22-Jan-2024 10:43

I had similar issues, had to use optical out on windows for surround sound to work. Nothing else I tried worked.

Installed linux, worked straight away without issue over hdmi.

no help, but youre not alone in facing this issue.

SJB

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#3185242 22-Jan-2024 16:16

I've been using an HP desktop running Win10 with an NVidia addin card that has an HDMI connector and that works fine, outputs 5.1 no problem.

I'm wondering if there is something in the Lenovo hardware that means it will never work. To my simple mind 5.1 audio output via HDMI involve software only so as long as the driver (Intel UHD 630 in this case) supports 5.1 it should work.

richms

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#3185246 22-Jan-2024 16:23

reven:

I had similar issues, had to use optical out on windows for surround sound to work. Nothing else I tried worked.

Installed linux, worked straight away without issue over hdmi.

no help, but youre not alone in facing this issue.

Issue with using optical is that it will compress everything with either AC3 or DTS to get the audio out. I had my xbox decide to start using DTS because of ARC limitations and it sounded quite bad compared to 2 channel. Left me with the dilemma of have surround sound or have 4k until I upgrade my receiver or get a splitter that will take care of it.

Richard rich.ms

mentalinc

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#3185284 22-Jan-2024 18:35

Use better media player so you can bitstream the audio to the receiver to decode
Mpc-hc for example (github latest version)

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SJB

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#3185715 23-Jan-2024 22:25

Despite not being able to set Win11 to use 5.1 I have it working by setting the audio decoder filter to output AC-3 over S/PDIF but still outputting it over the HDMI connection.

I bet that means it outputs the bitstream as you have suggested above.

mentalinc

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#3185747 24-Jan-2024 07:32

Does the receiver say PCM or does it say the audio type of the file. sometimes they have a light on the front to indicate file type.

PCM means you're not bitstreaming.

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SJB

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#3185786 24-Jan-2024 09:45

Now I have it working it correctly says DD Surround and all the speakers are working. When it wasn't working the display indicated Stereo. The receiver is a Denon AVR SX960H so fairly modern.

I realize it will only work with my own media player as I have control over the output format and can ignore any Windows settings. It won't work for something like Netflix where it uses the Windows settings to determine the type of output.