Cannot get digital SPDIF pass through to amp

[lewiswlawrence]

Folks,

My Media Center is at the lastest release and current with updates etc. It is connected via digital co-ax to a processor from an SPDIF out on the motherboard. The Motherboard is by Nvidia, and the onboard sound is using their driver and ACL850 as the codec. I am using PureVideo (Gold) as my DVD decoder, and it is set to output SPDIF digital only. Media center is setup similarly with 5.1 speakers and digital co-ax connections set.

Until sometime recently I used to be able to get digital throughput to the amp no problem, playing a disk with DD or DTS audio would show that on the amp. Not any more though! I have searched the forums and tried a number of things but nothing seems to be working, any suggestions would be gratefully received!
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Lewis

[DTSFan2001]

Are you absolutely sure that the settings for your sound card are allowing digital through the SPDIF? Not just the software, but you need to let the sound card know. Sometimes the driver for my sound card deselects my original presets. It could be that.

[simkna]

Sometimes MCE can override or reset the settings in purevideo and only put out stereo PCM. I got fed up in the end, and now use Purevideo to decode mpeg video, and FFDshow set to SPDIF to decode all audio inc. from mpeg/DVD. Works a treat.

Si.

[lewiswlawrence]

From Control Panel I have three pieces of software available for ‘sound’ settings.

ACL3 which is set to SPDIF and it should use it for all formats (Mpeg, DVD etc), and is set as the preferred playback option.

I also have a “Sound Effect Manager”, this is a thing with a little GUI that appears in the task bar and came with the soundcard drivers. No apparent way to get rid of it, but it is set to output digital to SPDIF. It as always been there and never used to cause any problems.

Then under the standard Windows “sounds” options in control panel it is using “RealtecAC97 Audio” as the playback device.

I think this is probably my problem, some time ago I added a web cam and it would seem it jiggered my settings somewhat.

Any suggestions as to what I should try from here?
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Lewis

[lochindaal]

have you applied the registry setting to force 5.1 with Pure video. As stated earlier this can be reset to stereo by MCE.

Search this forum for SPDIF and its there

[lewiswlawrence]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I already found that thread and verified the registry is set correct. I think tonight I will bite the bullet and re-install my soundcard drivers, I will post back if that works.
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Lewis

[pauls898]

When I had this problem I just installed an AC3 filter and everything worked, check out my previous link called SPDIF output format

Paul

[lewiswlawrence]

Paul,

Thanks for the information, I tried re-installing the sound card drivers last night to no avail.

I already have an AC3 filter installed and have tried setting/un-setting that without success. Clearly it isn't working properly! I have downloaded the one from the link in your previous post, and will give that a try tonight.
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Lewis