Digital out thru HDMI Windows 10

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
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gregcra

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Digital out thru HDMI Windows 10

#1

Post by gregcra » Tue May 12, 2020 8:29 pm

Hi - this is more a windows 10 question I think. I recently change my HTPC from running windows 7 to running windows 10 (home). I've gotten thru most of the issues of getting WMC running, and running with my HDhomerun. However, I still don't have the sound running correctly. My configuration is:
PC --> Yamaha rx-s601 receiver via hdmi --> tv thru hdmi. I can only get 5.1 sound thru PCM - which i believe is the computer doing the decoding. I know in the windows 7 setup i could press "input signal' on the reciever and it was showed digital. It's not doing that. with windows 7 i had to tell WMC to output in stereo and then all was good. I've tried all that and the best i can get is pcm 5.1.

Also, i've seen the following statement:
One other important finding- the boxes under "Exclusive Mode" on the Advanced properties tab need to be checked in order to get DD to the receiver.

I hope this is not true because it took me a few days to figure out why my MUTE button was not working. When i unchecked this option it worked fine.

thanks for any help you can give me.
Greg

technodevotee

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#2

Post by technodevotee » Tue May 12, 2020 9:41 pm

I assume that Windows sound settings are set to 5.1.

Do other things output in 5.1?

Remind us which WMC installer you used.

gregcra

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#3

Post by gregcra » Tue May 12, 2020 10:58 pm

Hi - i do have windows currently set to 5.1. With windows 7 and WMC i had to set both windows and WMC to 2 channel in order to get digital output to the receiver so the receiver could make it 5.1 or what ever was necessary. With windows 10 i've tried setting windows to stereo and WMC to stereo but that does not work (or any combination does not seem to work).

I"m using your version of WMC V13.

I hope I described the situation properly - i can get 5.1 sound but it come to the receiver as pcm 5.1 - which (I believe) means the computer is decoding the digital not the receiver. I"m trying to make it so the receiver does the decoding when i send it a raw 5.1 signal. It just always comes as PCM (either 5.1 or stereo depending on what i tell windows and WMC). thanks for thinking about this!

technodevotee

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#4

Post by technodevotee » Wed May 13, 2020 5:20 am

Have you got a DVD or video with Dolby surround you can try playing in another application to find out whether the problem is with Windows or WMC?

My Living Room PC is connected via HDMI to an Onkyo 7.1 A/V amp and that outputs via HDMI to a Sony Smart TV.

The Onkyo set to auto mode, Windows is set to 5.1 and WMC (V13) is set to 5.1 and when I do the speaker test in WMC, I get sound from each speaker in turn.

I only use WMC for recording and watching TV and it plays Recorded TV perfectly in whatever sound configuration is available.

I use other software for Watching DVD/BD, Video and Playing music.

SpencerC

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#5

Post by SpencerC » Thu May 14, 2020 12:33 am

The PCM setting may be correct. When I originally got my PS3 connected to my Onkyo receiver via HDMI and then to the TV via HDMI, I had to set the PS3 to PCM.

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#6

Post by SpencerC » Thu May 14, 2020 12:46 am

Also, the audio is being passed to the receiver uncompressed using PCM. This is from a forum about passing audio from a PS3 to an Onkyo receiver. The decoding is being done in the receiver.

A little bit about PCM (and LPCM) and bitstream.
PCM stands for (Linear) Pulse code modulation. This is an uncompressed stream of audio. As it is uncompressed, a lot of information is sent along your interconnect cables. This is why the limited bandwidth of an optical connection only allows a stereo PCM signal to be carried.

Bitstream is a compressed signal (sometime lossless, sometimes lossy). This is why a bitstream 5.1 signal can be sent over optical. Because it is compressed, effectively more information can be sent. However, even compressed, optical cannot handle the new HD formats as they still exceed the optical connections limits.

Now, for bitstream to end up coming out of your speakers it has to be de-compressed. This can happen in your player or in your amp. The difference? Well, if you decode in the amp it will tell you which format it is decoding and outputting. If it is decoded by your player, the amp is only getting uncompressed sound, it does not know what compression method was used (DolbyTrueHD, DTS HD etc). This is why, when you decode the audio in a player the amp will only show 'Multich' and the pretty lights on the amp will not light up.

technodevotee

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#7

Post by technodevotee » Thu May 14, 2020 7:33 am

I've just read your initial post again and noticed this:
gregcra wrote: Tue May 12, 2020 8:29 pm Also, i've seen the following statement:
One other important finding- the boxes under "Exclusive Mode" on the Advanced properties tab need to be checked in order to get DD to the receiver.

I hope this is not true because it took me a few days to figure out why my MUTE button was not working. When i unchecked this option it worked fine.
That is how mine are set and mute works perfectly so I think there's something else on your system that is breaking it.

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