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
    2020-10-27T22:43:06+00:00

    It just shows stereo what do I do this is getting me so angry I'm about to break down completely

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-10-28T16:15:13+00:00

    Do you mean that you only get stereo from Netflix? That's a problem with Netflix and the browser.

    Or do you mean you have a 5.1 speaker setup, and Windows only shows 2 speakers?

            == John ==

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-10-28T19:40:40+00:00

    I have 5.1 and it works (all speakers) if i use the command line to bringup netflix.com.  But if I use the app for netflix(windows 10 Pro) i get no sound at all on same program as above.  

          If i go and test the speakers in microsoft and choose 5.1 only the front speakers give the test tone. 

    Back to the beginning i have to have in microsoft the setting set to stereo -- but i get 5.1

    If i set to 5.1 i get nothing

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  4. 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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  5. Anonymous
    2020-10-31T03:20:28+00:00

    If the 5.1 worked fine with the O/S, when testing, or when playing DVD's,  just not with Chrome, the problems are obviously different.

    That isn't what's happening with you, so your problem and some of the other poster's problems are different.

    Did you change / update the drivers for the different cards when swapping? You might also need to 'clean out' different drivers. My guess is that you've got a driver conflict on 10, but not on 7.

    What's the event log say?

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