No 5.1 on my Realtek

quantum112 · 09-04-2007, 01:55 PM

Hello. I own a DFI nF4 Ultra-D motherboard that has an integrated 5.1
Realtek ALC850 sound chip. So far I have been using XP and I was using the official nVidia drivers which you can get from the nVidia site, and with it came a program nvmixer with which you could easily switch from headphones to 2 chan to 5.1 etc. Everything was working fine. Now I recently put on a Vista installation and nVidia does not offer drivers for my sound chip, so I've downloaded the ones from realtek's website. The problem now is that when listening to music at first I didn't get absolutely any output on my rear speakers at all, until I turned on the speaker fill enhancement option for my speakers in control panel, but the volume of the front speakers greatly outpowers the volume of the rear ones and I can't hear anything from the rear speakers until I put my ear on them.
When I try to test speakers in the speaker setup all of the speakers play back completely normally and equally loud and the rear ones work perfectly. But in music this is not so, the rear ones are very silent and when I use the room correction tool I can hear the volume from the rear speakers when I boost them +10 dB but then all the music is weird and the sound from the rear is distorted - and most of the time not all channels come through- for example on the front you can hear voice and guitar and drums but on rear u can only hear guitar etc...On XP everything worked fine, but I also had to compensate because the rear speakers were a bit further (I try to make realistic surround setup) behind me and i had to lower the front ones to make the rear ones hearable. No codecs or drivers so far have helped me solve this. Any suggestions? Thank you

**eneles** · 09-05-2007, 11:13 AM

Hi,
Download and install the Vista audio driver from DFI. Uninstall the one you're using now first.

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 12:16 PM

Hey, thank you for the reply. I have already tried those drivers - but just to make sure I've deinstalled all drivers and from add/remove and the device and everything from device manager and dl'd the ones you told me again and installed them, it didn't help. But I think i have a clearer vision of the problem - I have tried playback of some music using only the rear speakers. They seem to be a lot louder when the other speakers' volume is turned down (no it's not just me I know I can hear them across the room when everything else is off and when it's not I barely hear them when I put my ear on them. Also, the sound coming from the rear speakers seems very distant, not to mention very muffly and low bitrate - kinda like when you record a video with your cellphone and post it on youtube. On the front and center speakers everything is very clear. It almost seems that it's sending some kind of a low-bitrate echo through the rear speakers and this is not true 5.1. Note: I can only get any sound on my rear speakers when using the speaker fill option - without it there's no sound on the rear ones at all, so I'm guessing this option is kind of spreading out the sound across all the speakers but it's not true 5.1 surround. I mean I know it isn't, I can tell the difference between the sound of the music playing on the rear speakers and the speaker test. On the speaker test they sound like any other speaker - it seems like none of the applications realise this is a 5.1 setup or maybe the drivers even though configured for 6 channels are not putting out all of the channels out to the speakers and that's why I only get sound with this echo filling option that kind of emulates real actual surround.
Is there any way around it cause I really don't know what to do, I don't know much about sound. Thank you.

**eneles** · 09-05-2007, 12:27 PM

I don't know if you've tried these codecs.
Have a look at the audio settings in your media player (but you've probably done that already).

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 12:37 PM

Thanks will try that now. But I'm kinda thinking this is more of a driver issue- especially since none of the hardware has changed in one day - just the OS. I've heard a lot about integrated sound chips causing lots of problems but mine have served me well so far. For the first time I'm considering getting an X-fi Xtreme Gamer...

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 01:05 PM

Nope, it didn't help :(
I tried both Winamp and WMP.
I even tried installing the latest DirectX...It's not working. It's got to be the damn drivers that don't support proper 5.1 apparently. So far there are no others. The ones from nVidia worked perfect on XP. I even mailed RealTek about this. I wonder what they'll say... :S

**tosh9i** · 09-05-2007, 01:26 PM

Do you have 5.1 selected in Control Panel > Sounds > Speaker Settings

What type of speakers do you have?

When I first got my Logitech X-540 speakers, I was having a similar problem, it turns out that I had the Matrix setting enabled, so i just disabled it and it worked fine.

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 01:28 PM

I'm using vista so I don't have that menu but I've selected 6ch in SOUNDMAN and I've done it in the speaker configuration in control panel too, not helping. What is this matrix thing and where can i disable it?

Speakers are Creative Labs iNSPIRE T6060.

**tosh9i** · 09-05-2007, 01:35 PM

Your speakers probably don't have it. If it did it would be in a obvious place such as:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowIm...40+5.1+Speaker

What happens when you play games or watch movies, do you get the same result, or does this only affect audio files?

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 01:55 PM

Well, I've tried it in Garry's Mod 10 now and it seems to work, I put both the right and rear left speaker next to my ear and both seem to be of equal volume. I wonder why it doesn't work in windows and music. I don't have a movie at hand so I can't try.

**tosh9i** · 09-05-2007, 01:58 PM

Did you download and install any Codec pack, if so which one?

You might be able to configure the codecs for your mp3s.

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 02:25 PM

Yeah the one that eneles recommended.

**tosh9i** · 09-05-2007, 02:28 PM

Go to your start menu. Do you see the codecs listed there?

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 02:34 PM

Yeah, I don't quite know how to use them though. I tried configuring ac3 and ffdshow audio decoder but nothing I do has any effect on winamp. I never worked around codecs much so I don't know how they work.

**tosh9i** · 09-05-2007, 03:02 PM

AC3, that's good, that's what I use. Open AC3 Filter Config > Gains > from there you should see L R C and so on, those are your speakers. Note: there are Input and Output gains, I don't have a clue as to what the difference between the two are, so I make the same adjustments on both the input and output gains.

Bottom line, play something (mp3) while adjusting those gains (volumes) until it "feels" right.

Also, on the Mixer Tab, you'll see Output Format, make sure 5.1 is selected

quantum112 · 09-05-2007, 03:10 PM

Doesn't seem to be working - whatever changes I make nothing happens. Ain't i supposed to load the codec into winamp somehow? :F

**tosh9i** · 09-05-2007, 03:15 PM

I was afraid that this would happen. It's possible that the mp3 is using a different codec.

When you open an mp3, does the codec appear in your system tray.

Also, when you open Winamp, try going to options. See if they offer anything that will allow you to adjust your speakers.

quantum112 · 09-06-2007, 11:38 AM

I don't get any tray icon. Winamp has minimal options regarding output etc...Ah what the hell. I hope nVidia releases Vista drivers soon, seems as they're the only one who can get it right :S Either that or I'm ditching this onboard c*** and buying a real sound card.

**tosh9i** · 09-06-2007, 12:05 PM

Go back to the Start Menu and open the ffdshow audio decoder.

After it's open, go to the left column and click on Tray, dialogs and path. Then in the top right column, make sure one of the tray icons is selected.

Next, scroll all the way down to Mixer and make sure that it's checkmarked. Then in the right column, where it says Output speaker configuration, make sure 3/2 5 channels is selected.

For now, click on Apply and open an MP3 to see if that did anything. Whether it did or didn't, go pack to ffdshow audio decoder and in the right column, checkmark Volume. And adjust your speaker's volume.

Keep in mind, this will only work if your MP3s use this codec.

quantum112 · 09-06-2007, 01:03 PM

OK before you have written this post I have removed the realtek drivers and software and installed the ones that I had on XP and that worked there. I managed to install everything and it worked, so I hoped i would finally get 5.1. Wrong. Even in NVMIXER, even with 5.1 selected I see that its only outputting to 3 channels on a spectrum so this isnt a hardware issue. I've read around seems vista is having problems with 5.1 i dont know why but theres no fix. and no the codecs havent helped :S

09-04-2007, 01:55 PM	#1 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	No 5.1 on my Realtek Hello. I own a DFI nF4 Ultra-D motherboard that has an integrated 5.1 Realtek ALC850 sound chip. So far I have been using XP and I was using the official nVidia drivers which you can get from the nVidia site, and with it came a program nvmixer with which you could easily switch from headphones to 2 chan to 5.1 etc. Everything was working fine. Now I recently put on a Vista installation and nVidia does not offer drivers for my sound chip, so I've downloaded the ones from realtek's website. The problem now is that when listening to music at first I didn't get absolutely any output on my rear speakers at all, until I turned on the speaker fill enhancement option for my speakers in control panel, but the volume of the front speakers greatly outpowers the volume of the rear ones and I can't hear anything from the rear speakers until I put my ear on them. When I try to test speakers in the speaker setup all of the speakers play back completely normally and equally loud and the rear ones work perfectly. But in music this is not so, the rear ones are very silent and when I use the room correction tool I can hear the volume from the rear speakers when I boost them +10 dB but then all the music is weird and the sound from the rear is distorted - and most of the time not all channels come through- for example on the front you can hear voice and guitar and drums but on rear u can only hear guitar etc...On XP everything worked fine, but I also had to compensate because the rear speakers were a bit further (I try to make realistic surround setup) behind me and i had to lower the front ones to make the rear ones hearable. No codecs or drivers so far have helped me solve this. Any suggestions? Thank you

09-05-2007, 11:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
eneles Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Sweden/Denmark Posts: 21,193 OS: 98SE/XP SP3/Vista SP1/Ubuntu 8.04 My System	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Hi, Download and install the Vista audio driver from DFI. Uninstall the one you're using now first. __________________ Click the banner for links

09-05-2007, 12:16 PM	#3 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Hey, thank you for the reply. I have already tried those drivers - but just to make sure I've deinstalled all drivers and from add/remove and the device and everything from device manager and dl'd the ones you told me again and installed them, it didn't help. But I think i have a clearer vision of the problem - I have tried playback of some music using only the rear speakers. They seem to be a lot louder when the other speakers' volume is turned down (no it's not just me I know I can hear them across the room when everything else is off and when it's not I barely hear them when I put my ear on them. Also, the sound coming from the rear speakers seems very distant, not to mention very muffly and low bitrate - kinda like when you record a video with your cellphone and post it on youtube. On the front and center speakers everything is very clear. It almost seems that it's sending some kind of a low-bitrate echo through the rear speakers and this is not true 5.1. Note: I can only get any sound on my rear speakers when using the speaker fill option - without it there's no sound on the rear ones at all, so I'm guessing this option is kind of spreading out the sound across all the speakers but it's not true 5.1 surround. I mean I know it isn't, I can tell the difference between the sound of the music playing on the rear speakers and the speaker test. On the speaker test they sound like any other speaker - it seems like none of the applications realise this is a 5.1 setup or maybe the drivers even though configured for 6 channels are not putting out all of the channels out to the speakers and that's why I only get sound with this echo filling option that kind of emulates real actual surround. Is there any way around it cause I really don't know what to do, I don't know much about sound. Thank you.

09-05-2007, 12:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
eneles Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Sweden/Denmark Posts: 21,193 OS: 98SE/XP SP3/Vista SP1/Ubuntu 8.04 My System	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek I don't know if you've tried these codecs. Have a look at the audio settings in your media player (but you've probably done that already). __________________ Click the banner for links

09-05-2007, 12:37 PM	#5 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Thanks will try that now. But I'm kinda thinking this is more of a driver issue- especially since none of the hardware has changed in one day - just the OS. I've heard a lot about integrated sound chips causing lots of problems but mine have served me well so far. For the first time I'm considering getting an X-fi Xtreme Gamer...

09-05-2007, 01:05 PM	#6 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Nope, it didn't help :( I tried both Winamp and WMP. I even tried installing the latest DirectX...It's not working. It's got to be the damn drivers that don't support proper 5.1 apparently. So far there are no others. The ones from nVidia worked perfect on XP. I even mailed RealTek about this. I wonder what they'll say... :S

09-05-2007, 01:26 PM	#7 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Do you have 5.1 selected in Control Panel > Sounds > Speaker Settings What type of speakers do you have? When I first got my Logitech X-540 speakers, I was having a similar problem, it turns out that I had the Matrix setting enabled, so i just disabled it and it worked fine.

09-05-2007, 01:28 PM	#8 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek I'm using vista so I don't have that menu but I've selected 6ch in SOUNDMAN and I've done it in the speaker configuration in control panel too, not helping. What is this matrix thing and where can i disable it? Speakers are Creative Labs iNSPIRE T6060. Last edited by quantum112 : 09-05-2007 at 01:30 PM.

09-05-2007, 01:35 PM	#9 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Your speakers probably don't have it. If it did it would be in a obvious place such as: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowIm...40+5.1+Speaker What happens when you play games or watch movies, do you get the same result, or does this only affect audio files?

09-05-2007, 01:55 PM	#10 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Well, I've tried it in Garry's Mod 10 now and it seems to work, I put both the right and rear left speaker next to my ear and both seem to be of equal volume. I wonder why it doesn't work in windows and music. I don't have a movie at hand so I can't try.

09-05-2007, 01:58 PM	#11 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Did you download and install any Codec pack, if so which one? You might be able to configure the codecs for your mp3s. Last edited by tosh9i : 09-05-2007 at 02:24 PM.

09-05-2007, 02:25 PM	#12 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Yeah the one that eneles recommended.

09-05-2007, 02:28 PM	#13 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Go to your start menu. Do you see the codecs listed there?

09-05-2007, 02:34 PM	#14 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Yeah, I don't quite know how to use them though. I tried configuring ac3 and ffdshow audio decoder but nothing I do has any effect on winamp. I never worked around codecs much so I don't know how they work.

09-05-2007, 03:02 PM	#15 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek AC3, that's good, that's what I use. Open AC3 Filter Config > Gains > from there you should see L R C and so on, those are your speakers. Note: there are Input and Output gains, I don't have a clue as to what the difference between the two are, so I make the same adjustments on both the input and output gains. Bottom line, play something (mp3) while adjusting those gains (volumes) until it "feels" right. Also, on the Mixer Tab, you'll see Output Format, make sure 5.1 is selected

09-05-2007, 03:10 PM	#16 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Doesn't seem to be working - whatever changes I make nothing happens. Ain't i supposed to load the codec into winamp somehow? :F

09-05-2007, 03:15 PM	#17 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek I was afraid that this would happen. It's possible that the mp3 is using a different codec. When you open an mp3, does the codec appear in your system tray. Also, when you open Winamp, try going to options. See if they offer anything that will allow you to adjust your speakers. Last edited by tosh9i : 09-05-2007 at 03:20 PM.

09-06-2007, 11:38 AM	#18 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek I don't get any tray icon. Winamp has minimal options regarding output etc...Ah what the hell. I hope nVidia releases Vista drivers soon, seems as they're the only one who can get it right :S Either that or I'm ditching this onboard c*** and buying a real sound card.

09-06-2007, 12:05 PM	#19 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,832 OS: Windows XP	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek Go back to the Start Menu and open the ffdshow audio decoder. After it's open, go to the left column and click on Tray, dialogs and path. Then in the top right column, make sure one of the tray icons is selected. Next, scroll all the way down to Mixer and make sure that it's checkmarked. Then in the right column, where it says Output speaker configuration, make sure 3/2 5 channels is selected. For now, click on Apply and open an MP3 to see if that did anything. Whether it did or didn't, go pack to ffdshow audio decoder and in the right column, checkmark Volume. And adjust your speaker's volume. Keep in mind, this will only work if your MP3s use this codec.

09-06-2007, 01:03 PM	#20 (permalink)
quantum112 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 29 OS: Windows XP Professional	Re: No 5.1 on my Realtek OK before you have written this post I have removed the realtek drivers and software and installed the ones that I had on XP and that worked there. I managed to install everything and it worked, so I hoped i would finally get 5.1. Wrong. Even in NVMIXER, even with 5.1 selected I see that its only outputting to 3 channels on a spectrum so this isnt a hardware issue. I've read around seems vista is having problems with 5.1 i dont know why but theres no fix. and no the codecs havent helped :S