Sending the audio as is to my receiver?

[AndersT2]

I have an HTPC in which I send the audio through the HDMI to my AV processor from Marantz.

My setup is 7.1 surround, but the audio from my PC always is sub-par compared to my Blu-ray-, DVD- or Bluesound player.

 

The audio goes through my GTX 650 graphicscard.

 

Normally I put the windows sound to 7.1. But everything sounds a little wrong, or off.

I put on a concert which have a stereo PCM soundtrack, and the difference from having the PC transform it into 7.1, and setting the PC to stereo, and letting my Marantz transform it to surround is HUGH.

Can compare it to listening to it with and without a pillow over my ears.

 

So what the PC does to the sound is just terrible.

 

Is there a way for me to set it up so the PC so I send the audio direct to my AV processor?

I use VLC to play files.

[johnt]

I have an HTPC in which I send the audio through the HDMI to my AV processor from Marantz.

My setup is 7.1 surround, but the audio from my PC always is sub-par compared to my Blu-ray-, DVD- or Bluesound player.

The audio goes through my GTX 650 graphicscard.

Normally I put the windows sound to 7.1. But everything sounds a little wrong, or off.

I put on a concert which have a stereo PCM soundtrack, and the difference from having the PC transform it into 7.1, and setting the PC to stereo, and letting my Marantz transform it to surround is HUGH.

Can compare it to listening to it with and without a pillow over my ears.

So what the PC does to the sound is just terrible.

Is there a way for me to set it up so the PC so I send the audio direct to my AV processor?

I use VLC to play files.

Can you send me a link to the concert so that I can try it on my receiver and compare?

Overall what you're experiencing is in line with what I experience. Music in general doesn't sound great from more than two channels unless my receiver mixes it for me. Than there is a lot of amplified noise from all my speakers and it's very rich sound.

However, Ive had no issues during gaming. For example, I was playing Bioshock Infinite a couple weeks ago and the starting location is a carnival with a lot of dialog and sound from every channel.

Check out Bailandos the English version. I believe it's mixed in 7.1 and it sounds pretty intense on my setup.

[AndersT2]

I don't game on my HTPC (well sometimes a little Trackmania), but with movies it's the same.

 

The concert is one that I ripped from my own DVD copy, so I don't have a link to give. When I ripped all my DVDs, I always let the sound be ripped fully, not compromised. I did a test, and it was easliy detected when I saw the first one, and it sounded funny, and it was one that I had forgotten to rip directly.

 

The concert is "The Corrs - Live at Royal Albert Hall". It is a dual sided DVD release, with 5.1 Dolby Digital on one side, and PCM on the other, and the PCM convertet to surround in my receiver sounds better than the 5.1, but not as big difference than the problem I started this thread with.

[ShearMe]

This is a somewhat complex issue - how did you rip the audio off the DVD? Were you able to rip the Dolby Digital?