Dolby Digital in Windows 7 Media Center

Question

I have a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic in my media center PC running Windows 7 Pro x64. The digital I/O connection is connected to a Denon receiver.

Under Vista, I was able to watch DVDs in Media Center and have the receiver decode either Dolby Digital or DTS sound (verified by the receiver display indicating Dolby Digital/DTS). Now under Windows 7, I can't seem to get the same functionality. The receiver display always says "Dolby Pro Logic" and never switches to Dolby Digital or DTS. When I go into the Sounds Properties in Control Panel and look at the S/PDIF output properties page and test the supported formats, both Dolby Digital and DTS work (as verified by the receiver display changing). In Media Center, I've verified that "Auto Volume" is off.

I'm using driver version 2.18.0013 from Creative's website.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Solution 1

I finally gave up on trying to get the X-Fi XtremeMusic to output Dolby Digital and DTS. I picked up the Rocketfish 5.1 channel PCI sound card at Best Buy and it works perfectly. Interestingly, it's a Creative chip on the card so I'm not sure what was preventing the X-Fi XtremeMusic from working.

Solution 2

Try using Shark007s windows 7 codec pack, and make sure you have the latest driver from creative. I can confirm that using these work with dolby digital and DTS.

When you right click on the volume button, press playback devices, then highlight your SPDIF output and press properties - one of the tabs in that section has check boxes for DTS and DD - where you can test to see if they work or not. Check this first.

Comments

[Sean Carpenter]

Thanks. I made sure the "Auto Volume" checkbox was not checked, so that wasn't it.

[Sean Carpenter]

As I noted in the question, testing both Dolby Digital and DTS works correctly. It's only in Media Center that I can't get the output. What settings would I need to make in the Shark007 codec pack?

[falter]

If you just install everything with default settings, you might find that it works ok. If not please get back to me and when I'm at my media center PC I'll make a note of my settings

[Sean Carpenter]

No luck after installing Shark007 codecs. Not sure of what settings I should be using in Windows/Media Center. Which device should be default in Windows (speakers or S/PDIF)? What speaker setup (2 or 5.1) is used in Media Center setup? What Shark007 settings are necessary?

[falter]

In playback devices - speakers means the analog outputs on your motherboard/soundcard, and SPDIF is the digital (optical) output. I just used the default settings in shark007 codec pack. Have you tried going through the setup in media center again? you should use 5.1 output and select the optical/TOSlink output if you get that option

[Sean Carpenter]

@kevyn - Thanks for the help but I tried all of these and still couldn't get it working and ended up buying a different card.