Abit IS7-E and spdif

[electron]

Does anyone have one of these boards? I use the SPDIF link to connect my HTPC to my Onkyo receiver, but the receiver isn't seeing a Dolby signal (i.e. Showtime broadcasts in Dolby 5.1 and the receiver will show this). Does anyone have any experience on configuring this motherboard? I do get sound, just not Dolby 5.1.

 

[Skibum]

I use IS-7's but I've never played with the SPDIF.

 

[smee]

Is your source on the PC 5.1 (DVD or game)?

What is the receiver showing you?

 

[electron]

DVD or Dolby 5.1 encoded video files, I tried both and no luck.

 

[Skibum]

I assume that you have enabled the digital out?

 

[Squintz]

I use the SPDIF on my ASUS board and i hat to go into the sound properties and enable it. I forget the exact process for doing this but i know it was off by default.

 

[electron]

I would assume the digital out is enabled as the optical cable is the only link between the PC and the receiver, and I have no problems playing sound except for it not being dolby 5.1. I configured the sound properties as well as I could, but it didn't make a difference.

 

[smee]

Is there a utility program associated with the sound hardware? I've used a couple motherboards that didn't give me configuration stuff through the normal drivers and control panel. I needed to run their application to configure.

See if the program you're using to play the files also has a setting somewhere.

 

[electron]

MCE has settings for Dolby which I enabled, and there is an option in the control panel dedicated to configuring this soundcard, but no luck.

 

[TechTooth]

I don't have any solid experience with this board, but I just had a quick look at the manual online and came across this (see picture attached).

This reminded me of a problem I had once with a DVD player that had both anolog 6 channel out and digital out. By default, it would only let 5.1 through the 6 channel (3 x 3.5mm stereo minijack) analog outputs, and the digital would only give out 2.0 (FL + FR).
This could be what is happening here too.

You may actually have to DISABLE 5.1 on your control panel settings (not the ones on MCE or it will downmix). This is because the board is doing the 5.1 decoding, when you actually want the receiver to be doing this.

Or you may (also?) have to check that the digital output is set to "RAW", not "bitstream/LPCM".

Don't know if this is relevant in this case, just thought I'd post my thoughts on the off-chance that it might help .

 

[electron]

I can see what I did wrong , I have the card doing the encoding, which is wrong, thanks for clearing that up. Not sure if this will fix the issue, but will play with it some more.

 

[TechTooth]

Good stuff!

Pleased I could help .

Keep us posted about if you get it working.

Note my post on thread below:
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=1155
I think it's relevant although it's talking about an SB Audigy card. May help with your settings .

BTW it's DD decoding, not encoding.