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Hi,
Since I upgraded to Windows 11 a few days ago, I now no longer have the option in sound settings to enable 5.1 or 7.1 surround support, as I did in Windows 10. At least I believe that I had that option in Windows 10, all I have now is stereo only and I miss the added depth of sound of my 5.1 speakers. Am I failing to see the obvious, or is this an oversight in the programming. If anyone has any thoughts on solving this issue it would be most welcome. I admit I have not tried installing the Realtek Audio Manager, as that file looks as though it may not be compatible with Windows 11 although it did function in Windows 10.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hit Windows Key + R, and enter mmsys.cpl, and hit Enter. Then click on speaker configuration and set it to 5.1 7.1 or whatever your system can run. All the other answers are wrong, and the people posting them are clueless. Windows 11 has an issue that needs to be fixed. This will solve your issue in the meantime. You will have to continue to do this until its fixed. Make sure to run the Test, so you can see that all of your speakers and sub are working.
Hi Palcouk,
This is in effect a self build, as I purchased a motherboard/processor bundle from a very reputable company here in the UK, as an upgrade to my pc for Windows 11. I had it running Windows 10 for about ten day's prior to installing Windows 11 without any problems at all and I had already updated to the most recent drivers. Do you have any further thoughts on this issue, or should I just hope that Microsoft get enough people report the same problem and they implement a fix?
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Looks like Windows 11 optical audio is faulty.
When I run an audio check on my reciever Windows is only sending 2channel audio. Even when I play a 5.1 audio the rear speaker audio is played from the front speakers.
I have tried everything I can but it just looks like it doesn't work correctly.
Speaker setup does not work on optical.
Audio test works incorrectly too.
It is not faulty.
You don't have 5.1 optical because you didn't pay for it. Your computer manufacturer (Dell/HP/Lenovo) or your motherboard manufacturer (ASUS, Asrock, Gigabyte) didn't pay Dolby Digital for your specific computer model. If you use the Netflix app on your computer, you will have 5.1 optical because Netflix paid for Dolby Digital for the Netflix app. This is also why Netflix said that if you use your browser to watch Netflix, you will not have 5.1 (because Microsoft didn't pay for Dolby Digital).
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14163
Take the Realtek ALC898 audio chipset, it is lited as 8 channel (ALC8xx) so it is 7.1 capable. It is 7.1 analog only.
https://www.realtek.com/en/products/computer-peripheral-ics/item/alc898
S/pdif was invented back in 1983 with the CD. It has only enough bandwidth for 2 channel uncompressed audio. In order for optical cable to send 5.1 audio, it has to send proprietary compressed Dolby Digital codec --- which the Realtek website clearly stated that it is an optional feature for the ALC898 chipset.
Any luck?
I have the RealTek Audio Console and it doesn't give the option for anything but stereo over Optical. I've gone to my motherboard's maufacturer's (ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming) website and it's list the same driver as what was auto installed by Windows Update. I've attempted to obtain a drive from Realtek but their site seems to only have older drivers for older OS (and it's painfully slow)
This was broken on Win10 too
