Vista and 5.1 sound

[typod]

Hi,

Is anyone else having problems getting Vista to drive the rear speakers in a 5.1 setup? I have done some research and it looks like this can be fixed by enabling speaker fill on the enhancements tab of the speaker properties. However on my XL301 I am missing that tab.

Anyone got around this issue?

Cheers

[pclarkson]

With what input?

My 5.1 set-up works fine when i have dolby digital AC3 file playing. You can use FFDshow to upmix the sound to 5.1 from 2.0 stereo but there is numerous reasons why not too. It doesn't upmix mp3s but i just use my audio base unit to do that.

[typod]

I am using S/PDIF to goto a sony amp/dvd player

[pclarkson]

What sound file are you trying to get to upmix? (mp3, DVD, windows sounds)

What sound card do you have?

If it is SigmaTel onboard sound card doesn't do upmixing itself.

[typod]

Yea it's the onboard sound card I am using.

I am just trying to get movies to play in 5.1. These are DVD movies so it should work. When I do a speaker test from Media Center I do get sound from the rears.

If all I need todo is get another sound card I am happy to do that. Any recomendations?

Thanks

[pclarkson]

You shouldn't need a new audio card as the onboard card can output 5.1 as long as the input is 5.1 e.g. on DVDs

What the onboard sound won't do is take a 2.0 stereo music file and upmix it too 5.1.

Its odd that the DVDs aren't outputting 5.1

Have you installed any codecs?

AC3filter is a very good tool for this.

[typod]

I have FFDShow and the Vista Codec Pack installed. I have just put AC3Filter on and will give that a shot. I have done some research and several other people are having this problem and it does seem to be a problem with Vista rather than XP.

Some things that have been mentioned that fix it are the option called speaker fill on the enhancements tab of the speaker properities pages that is supposed to fix it but i don't have that tab. Using seperate cables for each speaker rather than S/PDIF or using a media center compatible amp.

A friend of mind had the same problem when he upgraded his media center to Vista and he had to go back to XP which isn't an option for me. I really hope this can be fixed as it's stopping me enjoying my new device.

[ITTroll]

Any Codec Pack is a bad idea. You shouldn't need anything other than FFDShow for pretty much everything.

[typod]

Cheers, I will try and remove it. Also I have just spoken to the Sony shop they reckon it will not work using S/PDIF they say I need to use 3.5" jacks.

[Exinferis]

Seeing mention of codec pack, I have to disagree with IT Troll; I've been using the K-Lite codec pack for ages and it covers everything. You could try that.

Have you tried playing your DVD's in something a bit more robust? VLC Media Player is pretty much unbreakable. Try that and see if you get your 5.1 going through that.

Ex