How to get 5.1 channel sound? Laptop, TV, Blu Ray (Home Theater System)

Raymondha

Estimable
Jun 12, 2015
4
0
4,510
Hi,

I used my laptop to listen to music, watch videos and other activities. I have my laptop (Lenovo Y40) connected to my tv (Vizio E60-C3) through HDMI and my tv connected to my Blu Ray (Samsung HT-J5500W - Home theater system - 5.1 channel) through HDMI. My home theater system is connected through my Blu Ray. I received sound and everything, but do not get 5.1 sound. When I look at my play back devices and configure speakers, I only get stereo. 5.1 Surround Sound is not offered. Also I have updated my drivers to the latest software. How can I fix this??

Thanks guys!
 
Solution
possible culprits in order of most likely to least likely:

-your receiver despite having ARC compatibility isnt 5.1 capable via ARC or other inputs. its fairly common for cheap HTIBs (home theater in a box) sets to not offer 5.1 from anything other than their included dvd player (it sucks i know, but its common). if your htib has a direct hdmit input i'd try that, otherwise i'd try another source connected via arc from the tv to verify it doesnt just happen for the pc.

-your tv is downgrading the 5.1 to 2.0 when it exports the audio. while that might sound odd i've ran into an individual on here who had that very same problem and it was his television which was causing the issue.

-drivers on the pc. sometimes older drivers have...
possible culprits in order of most likely to least likely:

-your receiver despite having ARC compatibility isnt 5.1 capable via ARC or other inputs. its fairly common for cheap HTIBs (home theater in a box) sets to not offer 5.1 from anything other than their included dvd player (it sucks i know, but its common). if your htib has a direct hdmit input i'd try that, otherwise i'd try another source connected via arc from the tv to verify it doesnt just happen for the pc.

-your tv is downgrading the 5.1 to 2.0 when it exports the audio. while that might sound odd i've ran into an individual on here who had that very same problem and it was his television which was causing the issue.

-drivers on the pc. sometimes older drivers have issues like not having hdmi 5.1 support working properly. you already took care of the drivers so i wouldnt expect this to be an issue.

i'd try directly connecting pc -> htib if possible. given that its a cheap htib you might not have a hdmi input though.
 
Solution

Raymondha

Estimable
Jun 12, 2015
4
0
4,510


It only has 1 HDMI output, no inputs. Do you think it would work If I purchased an external sound card and connected it through optical?

Thanks for the help!
 
given that its a cheap htib, i wouldnt be surprised if it only supported 2.0 from optical. to get 5.1 over optical only compressed audio formats can be used and both the source and destination device need to support the same formats. this means that the external soundcard would need dts-connect, dolby digital live or similar and that your htib would need to support that as well.

in short: while possible, i'd lean more towards no instead of yes.