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Question

Making PC games surround work (SONOS)

Mar 3, 2018 1:57AM PST

Hi,

My situation:
I have a SONOS soundbar + 2 rear speakers for 5.1 sound (actually 5.0 since I have no sub).

The soundbar is connected via optical cable from the TV. And the devices are connected to the TV via HDMI (PS4 + PC).

PS4 > hdmi > TV > optical > SOUNDBAR
PC > hdmi > TV > that same optical cable > SOUNDBAR

Surround via PS4 works like a charm. Video files on PC also work correctly. Both send out Dolby Digital 5.1.

My question will be about making PC games work with surround, because who can play Alien Isolation in Stereo!? Happy

PC:
- Windows 10 Pro
- Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5
- nVidia GTX 1070

I've spent hours and hours trying to get this to work...
- Windows audio config just shows stereo option when configuring the current output
- Updating all the drivers
- Downgrading my realtek so I could set 5.1 mode
- Bought an HDMI splitter with 5.1 and optical out
- Connecting the PC to the soundbar via optical has the same result
- I haven't found any software that digitally encodes sound to Dolby Digital, if someone knows of this...?
- ...

I've read somewhere that nVidia graphics cards don't support Dolby Digital anymore. Maybe this is the reason?


QUESTIONS:

1) Do you guys have any tips that I could still try?

2) I've been thinking about getting a receiver that has optical out and analog surround in. Would it work if I used three RCA cables for analog surround to the receiver, and would the receiver be able to encode the correct signal so the optical cable "hears" 6 channels?
This is practically what I've already tried, I'm just hoping there's a way to encode the signal to something SONOS understands.


Thank you in advance for any help and effort. I'm grasping at straws here.
If you don't understand something, please ask. English is not my first language.


A desperate nerd

Post was last edited on March 3, 2018 2:05 AM PST

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