Where am I going wrong? (2 channel pc audio when I had surround before)

[azgarod]

I am using a Yamaha RX-V383 receiver. I was at one time getting surround sound from my pc and everything was great. Something somewhere changed and I'm back to square one where all I am able to achieve is 2 channel audio. I have to imagine it's because I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to sound systems.

The basics. I have a pc with a sound card that as far as i know is working.
I have a yamaha receiver. RX-V383
I have 2 speakers mounted behind me, 2 in front, a center and a subwooffer. All are connected and I assume in good working order. They were working properly as of yesterday.

I am currently connected from the receiver to the pc using a Y audio cable to AV2 on the receiver to line out on pc. I am only getting 2 channel Audio.

I currently have a S/PDIF cable, several hdmi cables, 2 Y cables, and monday, I'll have the HDMI port on the GPU free as well.

Does anyone have advice or insight as to how to make this function?

 

[lovinthehd]

The only way you're going to get multich audio from an analog 2.0 input is by upmixing using your avr's sound modes (like Dolby PLII or the DTS equivalent). Use either an hdmi or optical output from your pc and appropriate input on your avr if you want multich audio from your pc (do you have multich audio on your pc to begin with?).

 

[azgarod]

I cant say for certain, but I built it in 2019 and it has a sound card. Also I had surround sound from it already though I'm not sure how I got all speakers working via the Y audio cable.

In any case, currently I have the S/PDIF cable connected between the 2 although it appears to either be doing nothing or I dont know how to direct sound over it. I'll have to wait on the hdmi until monday because my GPU only has 1 hdmi port . I'll update when I test these other methods. Thank you

 

[lovinthehd]

I cant say for certain, but I built it in 2019 and it has a sound card. Also I had surround sound from it already though I'm not sure how I got all speakers working via the Y audio cable.

In any case, currently I have the S/PDIF cable connected between the 2 although it appears to either be doing nothing or I dont know how to direct sound over it. I'll have to wait on the hdmi until monday because my GPU only has 1 hdmi port . I'll update when I test these other methods. Thank you

You're exporting the sound from the computer with an analog 2.0 cable....no native surround capabilities. You might check your sound card's audio output settings for the optical cable. You can use your avr's features to upmix it to surround from the y-cable for now. With hdmi and proper settings in your sound card (assuming it is capable) then you can utilize 5.1/7.1 audio from the computer.

ps Likewise with the soundcard's output settings, make sure the input source is set properly for analog/optical/hdmi etc....some do it automatically, too.

 

[sterling shoote]

OP, here's a means to get playback of multi-channel music stored in PC's music folder : connect PC to your receiver via HDMI and from a player which accommodates your multi-channel music downloads, such as Foobar 2000, if you've downloaded multi-channel FLAC files, just set your receiver to HDMI input from PC and then control desired music playback from the player. That's it. This means to multi-channel is gapless too, which is not always the case with a wireless Network connection. Now, another means to multi-channel music stored in your computer is via usb drive port connection from computer to receiver but this connection, while excellent, has about 15 steps from your receiver's menu to get to the music you want to play but it eliminates the need for play via a media player app on your PC.