I just built a new PC. The motherboard is an ASUS M3A78-EM. It has audio jacks for 5.1 surround but my receiver is a Sony DAV-HDZ278 and it does not have input for multiple jacks. It has RCA jacks red and white, a simple headphone jack and optical input. With my laptop I was using rca jacks or headphone jacks and not gettin 5.1 only 2.1 but i figured once i got the new PC and purchased an optical cable I would get 5.1 sound with no issues. Wrong. Under properties for the realtek digital output(optical) i only have 2 channel 24 and 16bit sound available in the advanced tab. DTS and Dolby Digital are checked for formats as well. It is the same for HDMI properties and speaker properties. I understand there are open forums all over the internet for similar issues but none of them have solved my problem. I have tested the speakers with dvds and they play surround sound so i dont see why i cant get 5.1 through an optical cable. In a perfect world I would like winamp, wmp, itunes whatever to play in 5.1, my dvd rips with vlc to play in 5.1 as well as my pc games.
It might be a realtek digital problem. Mine had a problem and it was new. Even though I could have returned it I did not I just bought a new card. A new card was far easier that returning it and putting together a new one. You will see at least on realtek problem on each page. On the other hand, may you just made a mistake. We don't know if those problems were ever solved because often the posters never say what worked. I still bet it is a hardware problem.
