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Thread: Can't get sound over audio on my HTPC

  1. #1
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    Unhappy Can't get sound over audio on my HTPC

    My HTPC has an old nForce2 motherboard with Soundstorm. If I use digital via optical (STB) or coax (PC), I get sound just fine.

    However when playing streaming videos, obviously I only get sound thru the front speakers. I decided to wire my speakers up with analog to see if I could get sound through all my speakers (Logitech Z-5500s).

    I connected the analog cables to the control pod, then to the PC. I connected the colors like this:

    (cables - PC)
    Green - Green
    Black - Blue
    Orange - Pink

    I also checked the boxes saying Line-In is Center and Mic is Rear, or however it's worded in Volume Control -> Advanced.

    When I run the NvMixer utility and do the speaker test, I hear the white noise when it tests digital, but not when it tests analog. I also get no sound thru Winamp, WMP, etc.

    Any ideas? I'm using Soundstorm driver 4.62 (latest I can find on nvidia.com), the motherboard is an MSI K7N2G-ILSR with the latest BIOS, and the OS is WinXP MCE 2005 SP3.
    Last edited by sm8000; 08-17-2009 at 10:23 PM.

  2. #2
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    Well, the analog plugged into my laptop produces sound.

  3. #3
    Extreme Member! BipolarBill's Avatar
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    I think that this all comes down to whether or not the source material has surround sound encoded in it. If not, you will get no sound from center or rear unless you use some sort of phony synthesized surround.

    The Z-5500 has it's own surround sound decoder. If you use the analog connection, the Z-5500 handles all decoding. When you use optical/digital, the PC is sending discrete surround directly to each speaker. Check the Z-5500 documentation to see how to use it's own processor to check channel balance. My guess is that, since the PC test is successful, it's fine. In this case, refer back to my first paragraph - if there is no surround data in the source, you won't hear center or rear. If you insist on having noise come from all speakers via analog, use the Z-5500 to synthesize surround.
    MS MCP, MCSE

  4. #4
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    Bill, I get no sound period from any speakers over analog, from my HTPC. I do on my laptop.

  5. #5
    Extreme Member! BipolarBill's Avatar
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    Have you checked in Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Audio to see which output you're using? You may have to select it when switching between digital and analog.
    MS MCP, MCSE

  6. #6
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    I will check that at home, thanks

  7. #7
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    I checked it and there is only one playback device at all.

    There's a little switch on the back of the control pod that toggles between 6 Ch. Direct and Stereo 1-3 modes. I was in the former and switched to the latter, no change.

  8. #8
    Extreme Member! BipolarBill's Avatar
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    Well, I don't think that there is any signal coming from the PC over analog. I believe that the problem is there.

    Is there any sort of audio management software that came with the mobo/sound card?
    MS MCP, MCSE

  9. #9
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    Problem fixed!

    I saw that there was a CMI audio applet in Control Panel and realized some C-Media drivers had gotten installed somehow at some point. I uninstalled the C-Media entry from Add or Remove Programs and rebooted.

    After reboot, I went into NvMixer and changed from DDL to 5.1 (non-DDL). Presto, I can do ProLogic II, Stereo X2 et al over coax. Streaming video now plays through all speakers.

  10. #10
    The Burninator sm8000's Avatar
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    Oh, and analog works too

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