Issues with 5.1 Surround Sound with Windows 10

Anonymous
2019-06-25T18:59:15+00:00

I can not get 5.1 Surround Sound to play for my computer with any audio player; i.e. DVD/CD optical drive, Pandora, etc. but when I run an audio test using the device manager it tests perfectly.  I have heard that there might be a compatibility issue with 5.1/7.1 Surround Sound and Windows 10.

Please let me know if anybody has had this problem and what the solution is.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-10-31T02:06:23+00:00

    This IS a Microsoft problem. Windows 7, onboard Realtek 5.1 worked great, external SB 5.1 worked great. Window 10, neither my Asus Xonar 5.1 card, Sound Blaster Audigy FX 5.1, or Sound Blaster external 5.1 unit work on ANY Windows 10 machine. swapped out drive back to Win 7 drive in one system, 5.1 worked.

    NONE of them would work with center, rear, or subwoofer test, even though they were a speaker option. Only front left and right. On the test it showed on screen sound was being sent to them, but no sound.

    Now, 3 cards oout of three not working on anything? Yeah that is most definitely an MS problem, which means it's my problem now...

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-10T15:25:26+00:00

    Mate the problem will not be fixed by buying a new speaker system or installing new and up to date drivers.  The problem is with windows 10 compatibility issues.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-05-13T19:48:09+00:00

    With earlier drivers, the Audio Control Panel was included where the surround sound could be activated and Sterio became a sound that fitted perfectly with a 5.1 system. This is currently a problem with MS and Realtek. Audio Control Panel is no longer included in the driver. For playback I use a codec package with audio rendering, which helps. Then I can distribute stereo to all speakers.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-16T01:27:51+00:00

    Very odd that all motherboards and home receivers, since the invention of 5.1, have mislabeled channel 5 and 6 as rear output. 7.1 splits the surround and rear channel information into 4 outputs instead of 2 for traditional 5.1, thus adding channel 7 and 8 as the side speakers for the extra outputs.  The default sound scheme for Windows 10 for 5.1 is sending the surround output 5 and 6 to channel 7 and 8.  Which would explain why 5.1 only works when 7.1 is selected.  There's nothing convoluted about this and proper speaker position isn't going to fix the incorrect output channels.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-01-11T14:39:39+00:00

    Don't know exactly what this means but I gave up trying.  See my previous response.

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