Long ago I gave up on running 7.1 analog to my receiver because I was only getting front stereo. So now I am running S/PDIF to my receiver. I have a new build with an Asus M3A79-T Deluxe. I set everything up and again only get stereo sound. I checked the sound max control panel and all of my speakers are listed as connected. When I test the sound cycle through but I can only hear front L/R, no center, etc. Same goes for anything I set for 7.1, powerDVD only gives L/R sound with Blu-ray playback, works fine with S/PDIF (5.1). I am using XP pro with the latest drivers form ASUS, and k-lite codec pack installed. Thanks in advance for any help.
Make sure you have the latest ac3 filter and you need to configure it to play your digital sound through spdif. Also the files you play must have the same sound configuration if they are in pcm they won't play the have to be in AC3 sound. here are two links I found might help http://ac3filter.net/guides/ac3filter_spdif and http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-7177.html
Sooo sorry for this post. It was my mistake after all of course. It had nothing to do with the computer. Living with my receiver for the past 3 years I had become very comfortable with its operation. I found out after consulting the owner's manual you actually have to hit a "multi-channel" button AFTER setting it to analog input, otherwise you only get 2 channel PCM. Thanks anyway for the help, all is working well now. ---Chikn
