Hourglass

I have to say even after all of these posts I don't understand what the path forward is, will I be able to fix this issue by changing the way the audio is encoded into the optical cable or need to buy some sort of sound card or need to replace everything?

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

It occurs to me I may not have enough information about this receiver.  “Receiver” may not mean the same thing to me as it does to you.  What is the make and model of the device?
 

Assuming what you are talking about is a 5.1 audio receiver according to my understanding of that therm then:

 

Nope.

2.0 signal IS 5.1 signal.  It’s just unprocessed.  Your 5.1 audio receiver receives audio and makes it 5.1.  That’s what it does, and it very probably can’t do anything else (unless it can)

 

the only thing it knows how to work with is unprocessed 2.0.  The receiver will make the 5.1 by itself.  It receives 2.0, processes it splitting it into 5.1, amplifies it, and sends it to the speakers.

 

it will do that to anything you give it.  If you give it processed signal it will just process it again, making mush.

The receiver is a Yamaha RX-V361.

looking at page 30 in the manual of the receiver it seems that there is a setting I can turn on that will tell the receiver how to process the signal it is receiving with the AMP then MENU buttons, however the remote I have doesn't seem to do anything for these buttons, it may be that the remote is busted for the AMP button.

So basically if I give the receiver 2.0 signal via optical from my PC the receiver should be able to take that digital signal and process it into a 5.1 audio out signal?

13 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Yep.  All there ever is is 2.0.  There is no more data. That’s why it’s called “stereo”.  It’s analog.  You only need 2.0. Run it all over to the receiver uncompressed and let it do it’s “I’m a receiver” thing.  It’s probably all it can do.  It will digitize and split the analog stereo itself.  
 

the problem is conversion between computer tech and audio tech.  Audio tech only knows how to deal with analog stereo so it’s what you have to give it.

I really don't fully understand this. If I am feeding through SP/DIF my receiver a 2.0 audio signal it will only be able to give me 2.0 audio on the speakers, correct? What sort of setup do I need to move to to have actual 5.1 surround sound audio in my basement on a gaming computer?

There are no codecs for windows 10 that support DTS or Dolby in optical format as I understand it.

6 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

This happened to me once.

 

what I discovered is that the issue is the computer wants to do the sound AND the receiver wants to do the sound, and the receiver is downstream.  You can do all the Dolby and splitting with your computer.  That’s why there are i audio outs on the back, but unles your receiver has an in jack for each channel AND can be turned to some sort of “dumb” mode where all it does is act as a multichannel amp they’ll fight each other.

 

My solution was to turn the computer to “dumb stereo” turn all the Dolby and splitting off, and just pipe straight stereo to the receiver and let it do its job.  I could still vary volume from the computer.  I set the computer to max volume and then turned the receiver up to as much as I could ever reasonably want, then left it there and turned it down on the computer.  Downside is the stereo tends to get left on and wastes power.

Interesting, I can give this a try. How would one go about setting their computer to "Dump Stero" Mode?

Long story short I am trying to get my basement setup to run 5.1 surround sound audio from a PC to a receiver for movies, games, etc. 

I have a Yamaha RX-V361 receiver with speakers connected to it in a 5.1 configuration. I have an older desktop I was going to use for this purpose, my custom build from 2013(ish) which has an FX-8120, in a GA-990FXA-UD3 mobo which has optical audio out. This should be capable of outputting dolby digital or DTS 5.1 audio signals out. In fact I know it does, because when I test these encode formats in the sound settings I can hear each speaker independently playing sound. (see next picture to see where I am testing the sound).

It would seem that when I updated this computer to win 10 from win 7 the Realtek drivers associated with the mobo decided to just no longer support 5.1 sound and all it will do is 2.0, which doesn’t even make any since because I can still go into the sound settings and test a 5.1 signal and hear that is works and then there is no option to use that signal as a default, only 2.0 options (see next picture).

There isn't any modern info on the LTT youtube about audio or sound setups for computers in living room configurations. So I came here to ask: Am I screwed? Do I buy a $120+ PCI sound card just to get 5.1 optical audio out, or is there a different solution here that would involve a different receiver. I'm very lost on this issue and would appreciate any help anyone could give.

P.S. I did also try getting different drivers per this microsoft suggestion on the problem but had absolutely no luck with that. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/51-optical-not-working-in-windows-10-1809/a9026823-9ce4-458e-a7e1-11047c863c33