Can't get sound from receiver to PC

[Draconis1]

I've thoroughly searched the internet for a solution and I find no one has the same issues as me. First I should state that I'm not technologically impaired. I've already made sure my drivers are up to date for my MOBO, GPU, OS, and audio hardware, and I have disabled devices shown in playback devices menu.

I know this is an issue related between the Samsung home theater receiver I have and my desktop PC. The home theater works great, and I get surround sound from my cable box and my amazon fireTV box that are both connected to the TV. However when I have my PC connected to the TV via HDMI I get audio ban can only configure a "stereo" setup instead of 5.1 or 7.1 surround. However both my cable box and amazon box were able to configure settings for surround sound through the same HDMI cables and input ports on the TV.

When I plug the receiver directly into the PC via HMDI, no device gets detected whatsoever. When I try to plug it in via AUX then a device is detected and I can configure 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, but I still get no actual sound from my home theater setup.

So I am sure the receiver works, I am sure the cables work, I am sure the ports work, I am sure the drivers are all up to date, but still in quite a pickle. I need professional help.

The PC specs are:
ASRock Z170 PRO4 MOBO
EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 GPU
Intel Core i5 6600k Quad-Core Prcoessor
OS is Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit

Receiver is a Samsung 5.1CH Blu-ray Home Entertainment System

TV is an LG UHD with LED

[The Evil Overlord]

Are you using audio jacks from the mobo to the home theatre system?

What is the receiver set to when connecting the pc?? (I believe arc may work, but it's more dedicated towards audio return as the name would suggest)

So when the pc is hooked up via hdmi to the aux channel on the receiver you have no sound at all... Is the volume set too low pc side?

Also are you using the gpu for hdmi audio?

 

(Just for the sake of trying, I'd suggest trying out the on board hdmi to troubleshoot, at the very least it would rule out a faulty or incorrectly configured gpu)

[Draconis1]

I tried audio jacks on the mobo to the home theater system. I also tried using the HDMI on the GPU and the mobo. The PC volume is maxed out. It's hooked up via HDMI both in the receiver and the mobo or the GPU, neither works. When I have an AUX cord plugged into the aix ports on the receiver and then the audio jacks on the mobo, that's the only time my PC actually detects an audio device, and I can configure 5.1 surround sound, but I still get no audio. Not sure what the receiver is set to, but I'm assuming it automatically sets itself. It was set to arc when using my cable box because I was getting surround sound with the receiver hooked up to my tv via HDMI. The GPU is not faulty, it gets both audio and picture when I hook it up to my TV or my monitor, I'm just not getting surround sound audio from my receiver to my PC.

[xendrome]

Are you setting the proper output via the Sounds option in the Control Panel?

[Draconis1]

not sure exactly what you mean by "proper output" or "sounds option" the closest thing to that I can find in the control panel is the list of playback devices, if that is what you mean, the answer is yes.

[jnelsoninjax]

Right click the speaker icon in the task tray, choose playback device. Whichever one has the green check next to is the default playback device, in my case speakers, I highlight them and I have a button on the bottom left side that says Configure, that launches windows speaker setup wizard where you can choose the config (stereo, 5.1, 71, etc)  have you tried that? I believe that is what @xendrome is suggesting.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Well the most obvious solution, if it doesn't work over hdmi, do you have a digital out port supported by your motherboard that can go to your receiver? 

 

I had to get a third party digital port connector (which is supported on the ASUS H87-Plus) to get digital setup, as the board only shipped with analog  for the back of the PC, I have my 2.1 receiver connected to it and it works great. Looking at the specs, it looks analog to me https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/457413/asrock-z170-pro4/specificaties/ But I am not an audio buff by any means  

 

The digital connector plate for the back of my PC, which connected to the mobo, (now) supports both optical and coaxial (tulip)  digital output.

 

 

It says Digital "jack", but it's actually a tulip input.

[Draconis1]

1 hour ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Right click the speaker icon in the task tray, choose playback device. Whichever one has the green check next to is the default playback device, in my case speakers, I highlight them and I have a button on the bottom left side that says Configure, that launches windows speaker setup wizard where you can choose the config (stereo, 5.1, 71, etc)  have you tried that? I believe that is what @xendrome is suggesting.

Yes I have tried that. Like I said in my original post "I can only configure a "stereo" setup instead of 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound."

[Draconis1]

1 hour ago, Steven P. said:

Well the most obvious solution, if it doesn't work over hdmi, do you have a digital out port supported by your motherboard that can go to your receiver? 

 

I had to get a third party digital port connector (which is supported on the ASUS H87-Plus) to get digital setup, as the board only shipped with analog  for the back of the PC, I have my 2.1 receiver connected to it and it works great. Looking at the specs, it looks analog to me https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/457413/asrock-z170-pro4/specificaties/ But I am not an audio buff by any means  

 

The digital connector plate for the back of my PC, which connected to the mobo, (now) supports both optical and coaxial (tulip)  digital output.

 

 

It says Digital "jack", but it's actually a tulip input.

I've already thought that a lack of digital out support on either my mobo or gpu (or both) could be the problem. Not sure if I do have one or not, I'm assuming I do not but I 1. do not know how to check if I do have digital out support and 2. Do not know how to get it for my mobo.

[jnelsoninjax]

According to the specs:

Quote

7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)
- Premium Blu-ray Audio support
- Supports Surge Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
- ELNA Audio Caps

It supports 7.1 but does not mention digital output.

[Draconis1]

Even if the mobo doesn't, a GTX 970 should have digital output. My  playback devices window shows 3 different options for NVIDIA devices that are not plugged in. 1 becomes available when I plug in my TV via HDMI, then the sound comes through my surround sound speakers, but only the front 3, and 5.1 surround sound cannot be configured on that playback device. When I try connecting my PC directly to the receiver, all 3 NVIDIA audio output devices are listed as "not plugged in."

Edited March 21, 2017 by Draconis1

[Draconis1]

Also just in case it matters I should mention that my surround sound setup is 5.1, no need for 7.1 though I'm assuming it should still be a configuration option.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Draconis1

[The Evil Overlord]

I think you might need a sound card add on,

at a guess I think the hdmi audio out is 2 channel on your rig (guess made as most pc monitors that come with on board speakers only support 2 channel stereo sound) even though the receiver supports 5.1 (and above)

[Draconis1]

A sound card add on in what form? Would that be a hardware add-on? Software add-on? or both?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

12 hours ago, The Evil Overlord said:

I think you might need a sound card add on,

at a guess I think the hdmi audio out is 2 channel on your rig (guess made as most pc monitors that come with on board speakers only support 2 channel stereo sound) even though the receiver supports 5.1 (and above)

I think that is true, but like you, I am unsure what exactly...

[The Evil Overlord]

2 hours ago, Draconis1 said:

A sound card add on in what form? Would that be a hardware add-on? Software add-on? or both?

Maybe something like

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asound+cards&keywords=sound+cards&ie=UTF8&qid=1490124371

 

If you have indeed exhausted troubleshooting the available options and configurations on your current setup, then I can only think that the set up is working fine, within it's specific parameters.

 

So another source might be needed.

[The Evil Overlord]

1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

I think that is true, but like you, I am unsure what exactly...

I was going on the account of why full own 5.1 wouldn't necessarily be needed from GPU to monitor as monitors don't come with 5.1 surround. And high end PC's (whether home built or store bought) usually already have 5.1 outputs on the back so a user can simply hook up a set of pc 5.1 speaker systems.

 

(My Asus rog supports 5.1 via 3.5mm jacks but I only use the stereo out, as I have no need for 5.1 on my pc.

I don't know about 5.1 over HDMI, as I've never needed to find out)

[Draconis1]

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2398845/evga-gtx-970-hdmi-sound-support.html

If my card supports digital out, why would it not be detecting the receiver? The receiver is set to function "digital output" and gets detected by the tv. Also, the GPU detects the TV when connected via the same HDMI port in which it does not detect the receiver when that is connected. There shouldn't be any reason it can't detect the receiver right? Also, all of these sound cards seem to have the same audio ports that my motherboard does, so there seems to be no reason for them to need a sound card addition of some kind. Onboard audio must be activated on this mobo because when I plug my PC speakers into the mobo they work just fine. This seems to a be a software issue regarding the receiver. I have a GPU and a Motherboard that both support digital audio, I shouldn't need to spend any more money!

[The Evil Overlord]

I was thinking it might be (extremely loosely related) something similar to trying to hook up a turntable to an aux port in your stereo, it MIGHT work, but generally it never does, and that's why one needs a phono input on the stereo, the output from the turntable is simply too low.

 

I went ahead and assumed (possibly incorrectly) that when you successfully hooked up the pc and receiver, to the point where windows detected it, and tried to configure it, that this might be the case, (which led me to suggest an add on sound card)

 

The other thing I could go back to was earlier when you said...

 

On ‎21‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 2:13 AM, Draconis1 said:

Even if the mobo doesn't, a GTX 970 should have digital output. My  playback devices window shows 3 different options for NVIDIA devices that are not plugged in. 1 becomes available when I plug in my TV via HDMI, then the sound comes through my surround sound speakers, but only the front 3, and 5.1 surround sound cannot be configured on that playback device. When I try connecting my PC directly to the receiver, all 3 NVIDIA audio output devices are listed as "not plugged in."

 

assuming you tried the various different input modes on the receiver whilst on that wizard window, either something is broken and not detectable outside a specialised technician, or it is working as intended, and was only intended to work in stereo out.

 

That's not to say I'm right, I could very well be wrong, but without physically being there to troubleshoot 'on site' as it were, I can only offer help based on a theory of what could be causing an issue.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Well certain ports only support certain audio channels, that's a fact. It's the same with audio over hdmi, someone else mentioned that the cable (or card) might only support 2.0.

 

If you have a digital jack on the card and/or motherboard.. Can you try connecting that to your receiver? I think it will be the black 3.5mm port on your motherboard.

[The Evil Overlord]

12 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

Well certain ports only support certain audio channels, that's a fact. It's the same with audio over hdmi, someone else mentioned that the cable (or card) might only support 2.0.

 

If you have a digital jack on the card and/or motherboard.. Can you try connecting that to your receiver? I think it will be the black 3.5mm port on your motherboard.

(Yeah, I only said that after reading my rog crossfire user manual, and remembering something I was once told, if it doesn't specify it, <5.1 or 7.1 over hdmi>, then it probably doesn't support it)

[Draconis1]

I'm thinking the case is that my HDMI doesn't support 5.1 so I ordered one that does. Will arrive tomorrow.

17 hours ago, Steven P. said:

Well certain ports only support certain audio channels, that's a fact. It's the same with audio over hdmi, someone else mentioned that the cable (or card) might only support 2.0.

 

If you have a digital jack on the card and/or motherboard.. Can you try connecting that to your receiver? I think it will be the black 3.5mm port on your motherboard.

Is a digital jack different from AUX? I tried connected the receiver to the Mobo with an AUX, I just plugged them into the first two sound output ports on my motherboard that were recommended in my manual motherboard for a 2 channel audio output, which were the lime colored (front) speaker jack and the grey colored (rear) speaker jack. This was the only connection to the receiver my OS has been able to detect thus far, but I was getting no sound regardless. Unfortunately, I tried it again yesterday and Windows did not detect an audio device at all this time around.

[mervincm]

Don't mess with anything but HDMI. disable all your realtek or built in audio stuff in your bios to make things more obvious. remove any audio cards that you might have added.

 

You should run HDMI from back of Nvidia card to your receiver. use an auxiliary HDMI input or something like that. your system will see the receiver as a new monitor, make sure not to disable that display. You will also see a new audio input/output in device manager.  This should show up as the name of your receiver.   Optionally, you can plug your monitor into the HDMI output of your receiver.  I don't do that as it needs to be a 16x9 standard res monitor to work well, and mine is 16x10.

 

note below it shows 4 monitors.  I have 3 real monitors and the 4th is actually my receiver.     

 

Once you have it connected, make sure to put your receiver in a mode to accept multi channel audio, you don't want it down mixing everything

[mervincm]

forgot a comment. you are a little loosy-goosy with your description, it might be part of why you have an issue.

 

eg your title is "Can't get sound from receiver to PC"

didn't you really mean the other way around?  don't you really mean that you can't get sound from PC to receiver?

 

when you say "When I plug the receiver directly into the PC via HMDI, "

didn't you mean plus your PC into your receiver? you want the sound to go FROM PC INTO receiver right?

 

You may think that its the same thing, but it is not.  some HDMI cables are unidirectional, you need to pay attention what direction your data is flowing.

 

 

[T3X4S]

nvm