Hi,
I have a playbar, sub and 2 play 1's
Currently I have my PC connected to my TV over HDMI and then the TV connects to the playbar over Optical - because of this Windows only let's me select "stereo" for the sound output format because Windows does not see the soundbar, it only sees the TV as a stereo sound system using it's EDID data during the HDMI handshake process
I want to change this to Dolby Digital 5.1 so that I can get surround sound through the Sonos system
How exactly do I go about getting this done?
I know there are several options, but the two main ones seem to be getting some sort of HDMI to Optical switching tool which confuses the PC into thinking it's a 5.1 audio system OR another option I've found is getting a sound card which supports Dolby Digital Live encoding - that would allow me to connect the sound card to the playbar over optical and force all audio output into DD 5.1 format
Has anyone done the above, which is easier/better and are there any other options out there?
Also forgot to mention, my TV is a Samsung KS8000, I play my PC games at 4k resolution, 60fps and with HDR - if you guys think the HDMI to optical audio switching tool is a good idea, can you please recommend one which supports all the above?
Thanks
Getting DD 5.1 to the Playbar from a PC
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Hi Naekyr
Although you didn't say which what type of PC you are using here's a solution that may work for Windows 10:?
Go sound settings, select your device Properties > Advanced tab then select 24bit, 96000Hz from the dropdown.
Cheers!
Although you didn't say which what type of PC you are using here's a solution that may work for Windows 10:?
Go sound settings, select your device Properties > Advanced tab then select 24bit, 96000Hz from the dropdown.
Cheers!
Hi Aj
I doubt changing the bitrate output will suddenly create a DD 5.1 encoded sound stream - it will increase sound quality however I very much also doubt that 24 bit will pass through the optical input of a playbar
I've found the solution to my question in another thread - the only way to get 5.1 Dolby Digital from a PC to a Sonos Playbar is to use a Soundcard on the PC that does real time DD 5.1 encoding using the Dolby Digital Live software
As for my PC, it's custom built - I'd rather not list all the parts as it's not relevant because the issue I have is a software issue and not hardware based - my PC only uses the onboard sound, which does not feature DD Live encoding due to Realtek not wanting to pay for the licensing fees
Cheers
I doubt changing the bitrate output will suddenly create a DD 5.1 encoded sound stream - it will increase sound quality however I very much also doubt that 24 bit will pass through the optical input of a playbar
I've found the solution to my question in another thread - the only way to get 5.1 Dolby Digital from a PC to a Sonos Playbar is to use a Soundcard on the PC that does real time DD 5.1 encoding using the Dolby Digital Live software
As for my PC, it's custom built - I'd rather not list all the parts as it's not relevant because the issue I have is a software issue and not hardware based - my PC only uses the onboard sound, which does not feature DD Live encoding due to Realtek not wanting to pay for the licensing fees
Cheers
Feel free to send me a copy of your drivers or point in the direction where I can download them because the ones that came with my motherboard don't have that option
SONOS ARC | SONOS Sub | SONOS Play 1 x 2 | LG C9 OLED | PS5 | RTX3090 Gaming PC | Sennheiser GSP600 Headset | Audio Pro T8L Desktop Monitors
I now have this working with a souncard, which is better than realtek because it's not using the CPU for the encoding and it works fantastic, I've now learnt how bad Realtek is, will never use their crap drivers again - cheap junk
Which sound card did you end up using?
Thanks!
Hi tangman,
I got the Creative Soundblaster soundcard, in the driver software under the "Cinematic tab" - there is a check box called "Dolby Digital Live", ticking the box enables the PC to send out Dolby 5.1 surround sound to the Plarbar over the optical cable and it sounds fantastic 🙂
A bit late but hopefully you'll receive some notification about this!
With a soundcard, how is the hdmi connected to the tv? Is it still via the graphics card or is it connected to the sound card? How does this work? Connecting it through the sound card would affect the video quality, right?
Or will the soundcard do the realtime encoding and then pass it through the graphics card or something?
I don't have a lot of knowledge with how the hardware of a computer "talks" and cooperate..
Also, is it working for you with both videos and games?
With a soundcard, how is the hdmi connected to the tv? Is it still via the graphics card or is it connected to the sound card? How does this work? Connecting it through the sound card would affect the video quality, right?
Or will the soundcard do the realtime encoding and then pass it through the graphics card or something?
I don't have a lot of knowledge with how the hardware of a computer "talks" and cooperate..
Also, is it working for you with both videos and games?
With a soundcard, how is the hdmi connected to the tv? Is it still via the graphics card or is it connected to the sound card? How does this work? Connecting it through the sound card would affect the video quality, right?
Or will the soundcard do the realtime encoding and then pass it through the graphics card or something?
I don't have a lot of knowledge with how the hardware of a computer "talks" and cooperate..
Also, is it working for you with both videos and games?
My soundcard doesn't have any HDMI connections
I have a HDMI cable from the graphics card into the TV and a optical cable from the soundcard to the playbar
I then go to Windows settings and set the sound to output over optical only (this takes 2 seconds to do) and then the picture goes over HDMI and sound over optical
Yes, everything works flawlessly for games, movies etc. Even if my PC did send sound over optical and HDMI at the same time, it wouldn't be an issue cause the Playbar disables my TV's speakers so sound only comes out of the Sonos speakers anyway
Also, I've never encountered any lip sync issues with this configuration
Thanks for quick answer!
Aha ok! I guess i could have some sort of switch (i've seen people posting about them) if I want to have sound from my ps4 pro aswell.
My only problem is my computer is 11-13 meters (along the wall) away from the tv and playbar, would there be any problems with a optical cable that long?
Technically there is no problem sending 5.1 over hdmi, right? The problem is with the EDID you mentioned between the computer and Tv? If that would be overriden could things start working?
Or i've also read some stuff about the realtime dolby digital encoding being licenced and in that case the nvidia graphics card would not be able to pass through game 5.1 via the hdmi (from what I understand, not sure if I retell it correctly). But in a world where the computer would recognize that the tv can handle 5.1 it should work with regular movies?
Not sure if above makes sense, but i read this: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/481638/geforce-300-200-100-series/cant-get-5-1-audio-over-hdmi/post/5861310/#5861310
And I think this is what I understood about that post
Aha ok! I guess i could have some sort of switch (i've seen people posting about them) if I want to have sound from my ps4 pro aswell.
My only problem is my computer is 11-13 meters (along the wall) away from the tv and playbar, would there be any problems with a optical cable that long?
Technically there is no problem sending 5.1 over hdmi, right? The problem is with the EDID you mentioned between the computer and Tv? If that would be overriden could things start working?
Or i've also read some stuff about the realtime dolby digital encoding being licenced and in that case the nvidia graphics card would not be able to pass through game 5.1 via the hdmi (from what I understand, not sure if I retell it correctly). But in a world where the computer would recognize that the tv can handle 5.1 it should work with regular movies?
Not sure if above makes sense, but i read this: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/481638/geforce-300-200-100-series/cant-get-5-1-audio-over-hdmi/post/5861310/#5861310
And I think this is what I understood about that post
I can't comment accurately on your other questions, I just know that it works fantastically for the setup that I have
I did so some research before I went with this to make sure it's going to work for me.
* I'm not sure about the cable length, best to do some research on that
* Yes 5.1 can go over HDMI, the problem for me is that that Playbar doesn't accept HDMI and going from the graphics card to the TV, my PC sees the TV as a 2.0 stereo speaker system so my PC doesn't let me enable 5.1 over HDMI. Also, doing 5.1 over HDMI is more likely to be multi channel encoded and not dolby, so even if the Playbar had an HDMI port it may not work. Other soundbars do support LPCM encoding over HDMI from a PC. The EDID question is an interesting one, in theory it could work but I've never tried it so I can't comment.
Based on all of this, getting dolby 5.1 from a PC to the playbar can work, but it requires some planning, research and maybe trial and error. If you did the same as my setup it would 100% work, but doing some different I can't guarantee it, you have to try for yourself
For anyone that doesn't already own a Playbar, to be honest I'd just suggest buying something else for your PC. Any high end 5.1 or 7.1 soundbar package from LG, Sony, Samsung etc will support LPCM and Dolby and DTS, so it doesn't even matter - anyway you send 5.1 to the soundbar it will just work, no EDID switches, no soundcards needed etc
I did so some research before I went with this to make sure it's going to work for me.
* I'm not sure about the cable length, best to do some research on that
* Yes 5.1 can go over HDMI, the problem for me is that that Playbar doesn't accept HDMI and going from the graphics card to the TV, my PC sees the TV as a 2.0 stereo speaker system so my PC doesn't let me enable 5.1 over HDMI. Also, doing 5.1 over HDMI is more likely to be multi channel encoded and not dolby, so even if the Playbar had an HDMI port it may not work. Other soundbars do support LPCM encoding over HDMI from a PC. The EDID question is an interesting one, in theory it could work but I've never tried it so I can't comment.
Based on all of this, getting dolby 5.1 from a PC to the playbar can work, but it requires some planning, research and maybe trial and error. If you did the same as my setup it would 100% work, but doing some different I can't guarantee it, you have to try for yourself
For anyone that doesn't already own a Playbar, to be honest I'd just suggest buying something else for your PC. Any high end 5.1 or 7.1 soundbar package from LG, Sony, Samsung etc will support LPCM and Dolby and DTS, so it doesn't even matter - anyway you send 5.1 to the soundbar it will just work, no EDID switches, no soundcards needed etc
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