So, next up, some final diddling in Vista and, if needed, a trip to BB to test the spdif out.
I would do the BB thing. Finding out if you are outputting a SPDIF signal will help more than anything.
1. What the heck were the designers thinking?? A 5.1 system has both a sub and a center and you assign them separate outputs. Its not an either or situation.
I can’t tell from your description if you are using Y-connectors as (tomtuttle said) for all your mini-jack outputs on your sound card. Each jack carries 2 channels and should be hooked up to the both corresponding to inputs on your receiver with a Y-connector. I’m not sure how things would work if you only connected a jack (like center/sub) to only one input on the receiver. This article might help with the cabling if that’s what’s going on. I apologize if you got this done already but I just didn’t understand the part about switching connectors.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mce/expert/connect_av.mspxHere is some VISTA specific help unfortunately Microsoft help often isn’t
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/music.mspx
2. What the He!! were all those reviewers doing that they came to the conclusion that the audio section of this board was good. I didn't pay much attention to the details at the time, but you would think, given that this was positioned as an htpc board, that they would have checked out this functionality. Apparently not. 15 minutes would have told the story.
Sadly what you are experiencing is not that uncommon. Many people have issues with onboard audio on DIY computers. And from what I’ve seen the documentation for the onboard audio is usually sparse at best.
First up, some two channel music. I get good two channel from the mains. Next I engage the fill switch (stereo to surround conversion) and... nothing. I stop the music and restart to make sure its engaged (had to do this to switch connectors) and still nothing.
I would stick to the Realtek or Windows demo sounds to troubleshoot your connections. It’s just one less variable in the mix. Once that works then move on to other playback software/devices.
Cool that you got the surrounds working. Took me awhile the first time cause when I used Realtek the outputs labeled “rear or back” were actually carrying the surround L/R. I just started randomly switching connections and found this out. I also like the pop up that shows what you just plugged in and allows you to assign it. However, I now prefer Soundblaster as I’ve the last two HTPCs I built had it and worked like a charm. I’ve always had issues with Realtek.
