Should I get an inexpensive S/PDIF Toslink Soundcard that supports DTS Interative or return a sound bar and look for a better option?

VeryColdAir · June 13, 2021

~~Why is getting surround sound so difficult?~~

Hello guys, I did some research based on a belief that my motherboard has a digital audio port and then bought a 5.1 sound bar set that had a wireless sub and satellites.... I would have bet money that my motherboard had that digital audio port, but it turns out it does not. I'm a little upset at this, and looking for some advice because I don't have a great understanding of how to make surround sound work. There might be a way to salvage this purchase cheaply, and I was hoping you guys might know of one.

Right now I feel like I have a few options:

Return the sound bar and look for another solution, possibly one that takes advantage all of all the six aux ports on my motherboard. If I'm going to return it, I'd need to decide to do it within 2 weeks.
Add a S/PDIF Toslink (or mini-toslink) port to my PC somehow (probably a sound card). I think this will need DTS interactive to do live encoding to get surround sound, else my 5.1 set-up becomes a overpriced 2.1 set-up.
Figure out how to get HDMI arc to work on a GTX 1080 that doesn't have HDMI arc (I feel like I lack the PhD in electrical and software engineering and I'd need for this.)

For the second option, is there a good, inexpensive PCIe sound card that has digital audio (S/PDIF Toslink) that supports 5.1 surround sound via DTS with DTS interactive? At first I thought the ASUS Xonar DSX was exactly what I was looking for. It comes with a mini-toslink to toslink adapter, which should work with an optical cable, but it looks like it's out of stock everywhere. I could wait around and hope it comes back in stock, or try to find an alternative.

The sound bar I got also has aux-in and HDMI. I tried connecting my MSI GTX 1080 to the sound bar via HDMI, but the sound bar isn't detected as an audio device. (The sound bar does recommend using HDMI arc as the 'best' connection.) From my own research, it doesn't look like there's a way to get the video card to recognize the sound card. If you guys know of a way, please let me know.

Eventually I'd like to build a new PC, but my current one still holds up. For my next PC, I want to go mini-ITX, and I was hoping to get a board that has the S/PDIF toslink port, even if it didn't have all of the aux ports for surround sound. Are there any motherboards that support DTS interactive (I think this would be via realtek drivers?).

Should I return the sound bar? If I do, what solution do you guys suggestion? I thought about the Logitech Z606, though I don't have as good placement options for the monitors as I do a sound bar. If I go with that, how would I connect the cables? I think I'd need two aux to split RCA, and two aux to single RCA:

L-out on the mobo to the Z606's F.R & F.L
RS-out to R.R. & R.L?
CS-out to CEN
SS-Out to Sub

Does that sound right? Has anybody else connect a Z606 to their PC?

Electronics Wizardy · June 13, 2021

4 minutes ago, VeryColdAir said:

The sound bar I got also has aux-in and HDMI. I tried connecting my MSI GTX 1080 to the sound bar via HDMI, but the sound bar isn't detected as an audio device. (The sound bar does recommend using HDMI arc as the 'best' connection.) From my own research, it doesn't look like there's a way to get the video card to recognize the sound card. If you guys know of a way, please let me know.

THis should just work. NOrmally you see the hdmi out as a audio device on your card. This is the best quality, and I don't see a reason to go optical when you can use hdmi audio. Can you show a screen shot of the audio options?

What model of soundbard do you have?

VeryColdAir · June 13, 2021

23 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What model of soundbard do you have?

I have a Vizio V51-H6.

I did just try updating my nVidia drivers to 466.77, and it still doesn't show up in the nVidia control panel.

VeryColdAir · June 13, 2021

I just found out that 'HDMI Audio Extractors" exist. This one on amazon cost $22, claims to support DTS, and the seller has said in a Q&A on the page that "Our audio extractor can output audio without connecting an output device like TV." This might be what I was looking for. Anybody use one of these before, are they any good?

BuzzingBee · June 13, 2021

Not familiar with sound bars, but kind of upsets me to research that your sound bar has "fake" hdmi input. It's only used for connecting directly to TV with ARC. Speaking of ARC it can only support through PCM 2.0 and Dolby/DTS 5.1, so whatever tricks you may find, my best guess is you can only get PCM 2.0 out of it through HDMI.

So yeah, you're left with either use optical and finding a sound card with Dolby Digital live / DTS connect, or just replace a new speaker system. I don't know much information about DDL/DTS connect as I find audio latency too unbearable I avoided them since. In case you decided to go with z606 then you got L-out and RS correct, but CS is for centre and subwoofer, and SS is for side surrounds which you won't need. But it's better to look at your motherboard's manual for multichannel audio setup.

VeryColdAir · June 19, 2021

I decided to try getting the HDMI audio splitter. As far as I can tell, it seems to work, but I'm still only getting sound from the front left and front right speakers. So either it's not working correctly, something is not configured right, or the sound bar is the issue and won't work with it. It behaves the same way with my PC as it does my laptop. I have gotten my laptop to connect to a 5.1 home theater receiver before and have proper surround sound with just an HDMI cable, so I'm a little annoyed this doesn't just work in the same way.

I have my video card connect with an HDMI to the HDMI splitter, and then the splitter connected to the sound bar via an optical cable. The splitter shows up as a sound device, and by right clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray, I can set it to 5.1 When I go into the advanced settings to test it, it defaults to the first 5.1 surround option, but only the front left and right speakers are not grayed out (see screenshot below). When I test it, it plays all of the sounds through the sound bar, not the rear or sub channels.

When I switch off of the first 5.1 Surround option from the list box to another option and then switch back, none of the speakers are grayed out. When I try to test it, it only plays test tones for the front left and front right speakers. When it is playing the test tones for the other speakers, I don't hear anything, but the master volume in windows sound settings shows something playing. I checked to see if the sound bar was set to surround, and it is set to surround "on". I tried the "dual" option as well, and there's nothing.

At this point, I think I'm giving up on trying to get the sound bar to work. I'm not sure if getting a sound card would have worked, the audio splitter seems like it's doing the same thing. It's going to be more of a hassle for me to try to get this to work than it is to return it. I found somebody selling a Logitech X-540 set, and I'm going to give that a shot. If anybody else was thinking of getting a sound bar to use with their PC, I sincerely hope you have better luck than I have.