Hi,

My motherboard is Gigabyte P35 DS3R and spekers are logitech Z5500.Am unable to get surround sound through optical cable.Sound comes from only the front left and front right speakers.I get 5.1 from direct coaxial cables but not optical.

I have tried different content ....DVDs,5.1 AC3 files.Tried different players Window media player,VLC,PowerDVD but am not able to get true 5.1 through OPtical out.

In the Realtek HD audio manager also when i test for the speaker setup,Sound comes from only the Front left n right speakers.I have been looking for a solution for quite some time.I have read on some forums that the optical out provides only 2 channels and not 5.1.If thats true it is pretty lame to use the optical out.

Will buying a coaxial digital (S/PDIF) out cable solve the problem.

What are my other otions in terms of sound cards.Whats the cheapest option???

cheers

I have 5.1 audio (AC3 in movies, using AC3Filter) working fine over both toslink and spdif (optical and coax) on the very same board...

okay am not sure but alot of people think they get 5.1 where as its just 2 channels spread over 5 and not the "True 5.1"

in powerDVD when i play a dvd and select 6 speakers from the Configuration--->Audio---->Speaker environment = 6 speakers

you should get sound from all speakers.....i get sound from all speakers in direct mode but not optical

in AC3 files or video with AC3 sound when played the output levels in the AC3 Filter configuration dialog shouls show signals in all 6 channels but mine shows only in 2

so its not true 5.1

I have voices in the center channel and so on. There's nothing fake about it.

Check the Z5500 digital display. If the optical input is receiving 5.1 audio, it will show it as 5.1 digital. If it's only showing stereo as the input, then it's a problem with the configuration. My guess is that it's not PowerDVD that you need to adjust, but the audio drivers on the motherboard itself.

the Z55 00 display shows only two things:

1.Input: Optical or Direct

2.Effect: Various settings like music,movie,stereo etc for both optical and direct

it does not show 5.1 or DTS