# No 5.1 on my Realtek



## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Hello. I own a DFI nF4 Ultra-D motherboard that has an integrated 5.1
Realtek ALC850 sound chip. So far I have been using XP and I was using the official nVidia drivers which you can get from the nVidia site, and with it came a program nvmixer with which you could easily switch from headphones to 2 chan to 5.1 etc. Everything was working fine. Now I recently put on a Vista installation and nVidia does not offer drivers for my sound chip, so I've downloaded the ones from realtek's website. The problem now is that when listening to music at first I didn't get absolutely any output on my rear speakers at all, until I turned on the speaker fill enhancement option for my speakers in control panel, but the volume of the front speakers greatly outpowers the volume of the rear ones and I can't hear anything from the rear speakers until I put my ear on them.
When I try to test speakers in the speaker setup all of the speakers play back completely normally and equally loud and the rear ones work perfectly. But in music this is not so, the rear ones are very silent and when I use the room correction tool I can hear the volume from the rear speakers when I boost them +10 dB but then all the music is weird and the sound from the rear is distorted - and most of the time not all channels come through- for example on the front you can hear voice and guitar and drums but on rear u can only hear guitar etc...On XP everything worked fine, but I also had to compensate because the rear speakers were a bit further (I try to make realistic surround setup) behind me and i had to lower the front ones to make the rear ones hearable. No codecs or drivers so far have helped me solve this. Any suggestions? Thank you


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

Hi,
Download and install the *Vista audio driver from DFI*. Uninstall the one you're using now first.


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Hey, thank you for the reply. I have already tried those drivers - but just to make sure I've deinstalled all drivers and from add/remove and the device and everything from device manager and dl'd the ones you told me again and installed them, it didn't help. But I think i have a clearer vision of the problem - I have tried playback of some music using only the rear speakers. They seem to be a lot louder when the other speakers' volume is turned down (no it's not just me I know I can hear them across the room when everything else is off and when it's not I barely hear them when I put my ear on them. Also, the sound coming from the rear speakers seems very distant, not to mention very muffly and low bitrate - kinda like when you record a video with your cellphone and post it on youtube. On the front and center speakers everything is very clear. It almost seems that it's sending some kind of a low-bitrate echo through the rear speakers and this is not true 5.1. Note: I can only get any sound on my rear speakers when using the speaker fill option - without it there's no sound on the rear ones at all, so I'm guessing this option is kind of spreading out the sound across all the speakers but it's not true 5.1 surround. I mean I know it isn't, I can tell the difference between the sound of the music playing on the rear speakers and the speaker test. On the speaker test they sound like any other speaker - it seems like none of the applications realise this is a 5.1 setup or maybe the drivers even though configured for 6 channels are not putting out all of the channels out to the speakers and that's why I only get sound with this echo filling option that kind of emulates real actual surround.
Is there any way around it cause I really don't know what to do, I don't know much about sound. Thank you.


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

I don't know if you've tried these *codecs*.
Have a look at the audio settings in your media player (but you've probably done that already).


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Thanks will try that now. But I'm kinda thinking this is more of a driver issue- especially since none of the hardware has changed in one day - just the OS. I've heard a lot about integrated sound chips causing lots of problems but mine have served me well so far. For the first time I'm considering getting an X-fi Xtreme Gamer...


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Nope, it didn't help 
I tried both Winamp and WMP.
I even tried installing the latest DirectX...It's not working. It's got to be the damn drivers that don't support proper 5.1 apparently. So far there are no others. The ones from nVidia worked perfect on XP. I even mailed RealTek about this. I wonder what they'll say... :S


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Do you have 5.1 selected in Control Panel > Sounds > Speaker Settings

What type of speakers do you have?

When I first got my Logitech X-540 speakers, I was having a similar problem, it turns out that I had the Matrix setting enabled, so i just disabled it and it worked fine.


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

I'm using vista so I don't have that menu but I've selected 6ch in SOUNDMAN and I've done it in the speaker configuration in control panel too, not helping. What is this matrix thing and where can i disable it?

Speakers are Creative Labs iNSPIRE T6060.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Your speakers probably don't have it. If it did it would be in a obvious place such as:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...Depa=0&Description=Logitech+X-540+5.1+Speaker


What happens when you play games or watch movies, do you get the same result, or does this only affect audio files?


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Well, I've tried it in Garry's Mod 10 now and it seems to work, I put both the right and rear left speaker next to my ear and both seem to be of equal volume. I wonder why it doesn't work in windows and music. I don't have a movie at hand so I can't try.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Did you download and install any Codec pack, if so which one?

You might be able to configure the codecs for your mp3s.


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Yeah the one that eneles recommended.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Go to your start menu. Do you see the codecs listed there?


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Yeah, I don't quite know how to use them though. I tried configuring ac3 and ffdshow audio decoder but nothing I do has any effect on winamp. I never worked around codecs much so I don't know how they work.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

AC3, that's good, that's what I use. Open AC3 Filter Config > Gains > from there you should see L R C and so on, those are your speakers. Note: there are Input and Output gains, I don't have a clue as to what the difference between the two are, so I make the same adjustments on both the input and output gains.

Bottom line, play something (mp3) while adjusting those gains (volumes) until it "feels" right.

Also, on the Mixer Tab, you'll see Output Format, make sure 5.1 is selected


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Doesn't seem to be working - whatever changes I make nothing happens. Ain't i supposed to load the codec into winamp somehow? :F


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

I was afraid that this would happen. It's possible that the mp3 is using a different codec.

When you open an mp3, does the codec appear in your system tray.

Also, when you open Winamp, try going to options. See if they offer anything that will allow you to adjust your speakers.


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

I don't get any tray icon. Winamp has minimal options regarding output etc...Ah what the hell. I hope nVidia releases Vista drivers soon, seems as they're the only one who can get it right :S Either that or I'm ditching this onboard c*** and buying a real sound card.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Go back to the Start Menu and open the ffdshow audio decoder.

After it's open, go to the left column and click on Tray, dialogs and path. Then in the top right column, make sure one of the tray icons is selected.


Next, scroll all the way down to Mixer and make sure that it's checkmarked. Then in the right column, where it says Output speaker configuration, make sure 3/2 5 channels is selected.

For now, click on Apply and open an MP3 to see if that did anything. Whether it did or didn't, go pack to ffdshow audio decoder and in the right column, checkmark Volume. And adjust your speaker's volume.

Keep in mind, this will only work if your MP3s use this codec.


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

OK before you have written this post I have removed the realtek drivers and software and installed the ones that I had on XP and that worked there. I managed to install everything and it worked, so I hoped i would finally get 5.1. Wrong. Even in NVMIXER, even with 5.1 selected I see that its only outputting to 3 channels on a spectrum so this isnt a hardware issue. I've read around seems vista is having problems with 5.1 i dont know why but theres no fix. and no the codecs havent helped :S


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/0,39029441,49287112,00.htm


Well I'll be damned...
Sigh.
I'm getting that X-Fi after all then.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

I see what you mean. I saw this on another site:

"I have been told by MS engineer people that in Vista SP1 (Early Q3) the bug will be fixed"

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/558077-5-1-vista-please-help.html


I want to try one last thing. Instead of using Winamp, try using Windows Media Player Classic, it might work or it might not work, who knows. And pay attention to the codecs.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Well, so much for that. Maybe I can help you find an X-fi soundcard.


Just remember, you need an *XtremeGamer*.



""Note: X-FI soundcards are not necessarily bank breaking. OEM versions of the X-FI Extreme Audio card are available for around £25 only." 
*True, but alchemy DOES NOT SUPPORT the X-FI extreme audio card...only the creative X-FI cards ABOVE this card (trust me, i had to take back my x-treme audio and get an x-treme gamer) . *So what is the point of getting an extreme gamer when alchemy doesn't support it anyway. You would be stuck with 2d sound. "

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/0,39030906,49287112-20147856o,00.htm


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Yeah, why not? I'm not really up with money at the moment but I guess I could 
buy an X-Fi Gamer or something. I hear it's a very good card for the price. The stores here have it in two versions: bulk and retail, and the price difference is about 30$. What's the main difference and should I save up for retail or just get the bulk one? I don't know about the Fatal1ty or champion versions of the X-Fi cards since they're not in stores here but they're probably more expensive.


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

For the past couple of weeks, there have been some good sales for the XtremeGamer card ranging from $55 AR to $80 AR. But those are expired for now.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/search.php?searchid=15555739

I'll keep a look out for one, but I think the best thing to do right now is sit back and wait.

By the way, do you live in the UK or US or somewhere else?


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Croatia actually  The problem is any kind of ordering from outside the country with all the shipping and border crossing fees would probably be more than the cost of the card itself which is lame. I checked the store now they got a whole new set of creative cards but they're all fairly expensive and there's also the Gamer edition but Fatal1ty so not sure how much that differs in performance but it does in price. I'd go for the gamer edition but like I said there's bulk and retail so not sure what the difference here is?


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

bulk = oem

"What is the difference between "OEM" and "Retail Box"? 
OEM generally means "original equipment manufacturer."

Almost all PC component and software venders make two versions of the same product based on a difference in the distribution channels.

The first 'version type' is retail boxed products. In the case of software products such as Microsoft Windows, Symantec Norton Antivirus and others, the retail versions include the CD, manual and any other information applicable to the product. These retail versions are packaged in a sealed box much like you would see at a retail store.

The second 'version type' is OEM products. Generally, OEM products are sold mainly to system builders, such as Compaq and Dell. These bulk-pack products do not have the retail packaging materials and are often produced in much higher volume, often resulting in lower prices for the end consumer. The OEM products are of the same quality and often carry the same manufacture warranty as their retail counterparts. OEM software products may or may not include supporting materials such as manuals. OEM hardware products generally do not include cables, mounting hardware, software utilities etc.

Note: Because OEM products differ with regards to warranty and included materials, it is always a good practice to check with the reseller before purchasing."

http://shopper.cnet.com/4002-5_9-5127786.html


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Xtremegamer vs Fatality Xtremegamer

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/228315-28-xtremegamer-fatality-xtremegamer

Bottom line: get Xtremegamer not Fatality


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Righto then. I'd also need new headphones so do you think these are good:

http://www.trust.com/products/default.aspx?cat=SOUND&grp=HEADSETS&type=5.1-USB-HEADBAND&item=14804


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Are you looking for "headphones" or a "headset"?


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

"Trust - HS-6200 features - Verdict
With support for the key surround sound technologies and all-round good performance from the headset, we found ourselves warming to Trust's latest. Long term, we wonder if it's destined to be best used in short bursts, and if you're looking for something for more prolonged use then it may be worth shelling out a little more. But we were quite happy with the HS-6200 set and will continue to use it."

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1009.htm


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## quantum112 (Jul 20, 2007)

Yeah sorry about that, it needs to have a mic. Well they seem good, having 5.1 and Dolby Digital and EAX and all of that, besides I owned quite a few TRUST products and it's been fairly good. I'll be getting those then.


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## Ahty123 (May 11, 2008)

Dude, i got this wonderful plug-out for winamp, you can move the sliders for everything (bass,left,right,center,rear speakers,front speakers etc.) The link is http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/183408 , it is especially for 5.1 system! Congratz! problem solved!


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