Realtek HD audio stereo to 5.1 Metalic

[Rastalovich]

I`ve gone to the Abit IP35`s onboard, after hearing that it`s "pretty good", and aside from other problems, if I play an audio track in mp, when it does the stereo sound->5.1 thing (spreading a stereo track around all the speakers), it sounds like Metal Mickey in the rear speakers.

If I goto the HD Audio Manager, and run the test sound thing - it sounds great. If I play the audio in stereo, or just front speakers - it sounds great. If I turn my balance thing (on the actual amp) to just rear speakers, I hear Mr Metal guy.

All effects are off. If I turn effects on, I get Metal Mickey in that environment.

(Vista 64bit btw)

hehe any ideas ?

 

[FarFarAway]

Don't use a stereo track with fake surround sound? Mine sounds awesome on stereo and 5.1 sounds good too

Check you've got digital effects turned off

 

[Rastalovich]

All effects are showing <NONE>.

I`ve tried a number of tracks, the one I`m specific on is a stereo recording from cbs radio compiled as a wma. (but I`ve just tried a few mp3s and they sound the same too)

Kemp, do u use ur amp to stereo->5.1 or Realtek it ?

 

[FarFarAway]

I output Dolby Digital bitstream (optical) set to Stereo to my AV receiver which can cope with anything up to Dolby Master Studio

 

[Rastalovich]

Ah ic, urs is decoded at the amp. I`m using 3x 3.5mm jack to Cambridge Soundworks thing.

Out of interest, what realtek driver u using ? I assume it`s vista64bit.

 

[FarFarAway]

Ye using 6.0.1.5223 64bit

Don't use Virtual surround mate for a stereo track, it's rubbish and is on any sound card

Analogue surround sound works fine for me though

 

[Rastalovich]

hmmm I got 6.0.1.6158 (R192) atm, as the one on the abit cd did the same.

I don`t understand what u mean by analogue surround ? afaic I just tick "Speaker fill" on the Manager and it should work ? (but it`s metalic)

 

[FarFarAway]

Well analogue is just stereo jacks, I only use stereo headphones for that

Don't tick speaker fill, because any kind of 5.1 emulation is absolute rubbish if it's a stereo source

 

[Rastalovich]

Well it aint rubbish, I used it all the time with the creative cards, all it does is play the same audio from ur front speakers in the rear speakers - that`s all I`m after.

Cept I think it`s trying to do it but screwing it up.

I`m gonna be putting my soundcard back in aren`t I >.<

I`m googling and there`s plenty of shouts about this problem and the other spdif problem I`m having, but there is no answer to either of them. Cept that it works in XP, apparently.

 

[Rastalovich]

I gotta install something other than mediaplayer in order to do it.

So I`m using Nero and it works by doing it itself.

 

[FarFarAway]

Confused? Is it a codec your missing?

 

[Rastalovich]

Apparantly a codec would solve the problem too. Only I`ll need one for each type of music wma, mp3, flc, etc and have them convert to 5.1 on the fly.

AC3Filter won`t work cos media player doesn`t use it in Vista, it does a different sound output thing.

So in order to play a stereo music file and have it come out of 5.1 instead of just 2 speakers, I need to find a 3rd party piece of software.

It`s the Realtek drivers that won`t do it on 64bit. It also doesn`t do hdmi audio via the spdif onboard jumper pins, and u can`t do anything with the spdif in without some 3rd party software. Spdif out works.

How it`s supposed to work is that u tick "Speaker Fill", similar to how u would using a soundcard`s prefs.

It`s a crock tbh.