Can't get SBlive to output via Spdif in 5.1

[Wam]

My brother can't get 5.1 sound when he uses the spdif output on his SBlive 5.1. to his Denon receiver, it only comes out in stereo or 2.1 sound. It worked magically once before but he can't seem to get it working now. He's using the latest Creative drivers.

[cack01]

I think the reciever needs to have a decoder.

[Wam]

No, his reciever does have a decoder. It's a very good receiver apparently.

[cack01]

I know its a stupid question, but does he have it enabled?

[Wam]

Sometime the most stupid question brings out a solution.... but not in this case. ;) Yes he does have it enabled. I read some other people who have had exactly the same problem and I wondering if it's a creative drivers issue. He's also using AC3Filter 0.70 as his AC3Filter. Might tell him to try WinDVD or PowerDVD's filter to see if that makes any difference.

[dartor]

I have the same soundcard hooked to an external amp using the coax digital out. Unless the source material is encoded in a 5.1 format you won't get 5.1 sound. The only thing that creative can do is pass the signal through without decoding it. It is incapable of encoding a 5.1 digital signal on the fly. :( :mad:

I believe it can encode a 5.1 analog signal, but then you need 5.1 analog-in on the amp. So if you are playing games and mp3's it will probably never be 5.1. If you stick a dvd then you will get the 5.1 signal.

[Wam]

My brother got it sorted in the end. He had to tell his DVD software to output as spdif and make sure the sound card setting where set to digital output and the AC3 decode was off.