OK, someone PLEASE HELP ME RESOLVE THIS. I will try to keep this brief while offering all of the information I have. 

My issue dates back a few months and keeps coming up. 

It started with only getting Stereo sound from my GPU's HDMI output (in the windows interface it said only 2 channels supported). I am running it to a Sony receiver and I had no issues getting surround sound working from other sources. Eventually I found a thread that told me to install the Realtek HDMI audio driver and with that driver I got it to support 5.1. This was a few month ago and a lot of other people had this problem and fixed it with the Realtek driver as I did. Furthermore once I had it fixed there was a minor issue with it sometimes reverting to only 2.1 channel support again but with some fiddling I would get it to work again but I was never sure exactly how I did it, really. 

Fast forward to this week... I bought an HD 7870 because, well, upgrades(Also, free games). I would not have stuck with an AMD card(because of these past issues) if it weren't for the free games promotion, but alas. 

Now knowing that the AMD HDMI audio driver is, well, just total crap and does not support 5.1 properly, I installed the Realtek Driver again after installing my new card and updating with AMD's latest driver suite. 

I would have thought this would be the same simple fix but NO. Now the Realtek driver does not work properly, it shows the HDMI audio output as not plugged in. THE HDMI OUTPUT THAT I AM CURRENTLY USING TO VIEW MY SCREEN... 'not plugged in' in the audio devices window and completely grayed out. 

I have also found threads with people having this issue with the Realtek driver and they all end in the user reverting to AMD's driver to get the HDMI audio output to register... but I do not see that as an option because AMD's driver does not work properly for surround sound. That just leaves me back at square one! 

I have tried multiple times to strip all drivers and reinstall, including going as far as removing all registry entries for the drivers. I have tried doing this with the beta (13.2) driver for catalyst and also with an older version (12.3). 

I am, like the title said at my wits end with this issue. I just want a driver that works properly, I have had it working properly before, I know I can get 5.1 sound through my HDMI output and it should not be this difficult!

 

Sorry if this seems pretty angry, I am just quite frustrated by all of this.

I know you indicated this worked before and I doubt it that updating drivers would have any effect on your receiver settings, however can you check the HDMI setting in your Sony Receiver based on the information below? Just to make sure we are not dealing with a wrong setting in the receiver.

What is your Receiver model?

Problem Description:
Using the following configuration there is no Multi-Channel audio available. Windows shows only the option “STEREO” under Sound Playback.

Cause:
The HDMI setting of the Receiver is set to pass the HDMI signal to the TV set.

Generally speaking the option “Audio TV Out” under HDMI-Setting of the HDMI Receiver must be set to “OFF” otherwise the HDMI signal coming from the graphics card will not be processed by the HDMI Receiver.

 

·     By setting the “Audio TV Out” to “ON” the HDMI signal is passed through HDMI-IN to HDMI-OUT, causing the EDID information of the TV set, with a STEREO sound capabilities to be transmitted back to the graphics card.

 

See below the extract from the EDID output in the above case:

·          [Datablock 1: Audio Data Block]

·          LPCM(1).................: 2-channel, 32kHz/44.1kHz/48kHz, BitRates: 16/20

·          NOTE: E = Extended Audio Format Code

 

·     By setting the “Audio TV Out” to “OFF” the HDMI signal will be processed by the HDMI Receiver and the EDID information of the HDMI Receiver with Multi-Channel capabilities will be transmitted back to the graphics card.

See below the extract from the EDID output in the above case:

·          [Datablock 1: Audio Data Block]

·           LPCM(1).................: 2-channel, 32kHz/44.1kHz/48kHz/88.2kHz/96kHz/176.4kHz/192kHz, BitRates: 16/20/24

·          LPCM(1).................: 8-channel, 32kHz/44.1kHz/48kHz/88.2kHz/96kHz/176.4kHz/192kHz, BitRates: 16/20/24

·          AC-3(2).................: 8-channel, 32kHz/44.1kHz/48kHz, BitRate 640

·          DTS(7)..................: 8-channel, 44.1kHz/48kHz, BitRate 1536

·          DSD(9)..................: 6-channel, 44.1kHz, Audio Format Dependent Value 0

·          E-AC-3(10)..............: 8-channel, 44.1kHz/48kHz, Audio Format Dependent Value 0

·          DTS-HD(11)..............: 8-channel, 44.1kHz/48kHz/88.2kHz/96kHz/176.4kHz/192kHz, Audio Format Dependent Value 1

·          MLP(12).................: 8-channel, 48kHz/96kHz/

Solution:
The example below is based on an Onkyo HDMI Receiver. Other manufacturers might have different wording for the settings.

1. Press the “Menu” button on the Remote Control of your HDMI Receiver

2. Select “Hardware Setup”

3. Select “HDMI”

4. Set the “Audio TV Out” to “OFF”

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AMD Customer Care

The information presented in this document is for informational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors. Links to third party sites are for convenience only, and no endorsement is implied

Thank you for the response, farhads.

Also, I apologize if post is angry or agressive, I was/ am frustrated with this issue.

I am at work right now but as soon as I get home I will go over my receiver settings again and get back to you with the model I have. All I remember now is that it is a sony receiver.

I have not changed any of the settings in my receiver recently but I am willing to try anything in the hopes of getting this to work!

Just to clarify, you are talking about doing this with the AMD drivers and not the Realtek ones, correct? Does this mean that technically the AMD drivers SHOULD be supporting 5.1 output? or are there any knows issues with that?

Thanks again.

As I mentioned I doubt it that updating drivers would change any receiver settings, however I think it is not a bad idea to make sure the setting in the receiver is correct. What is the model of your receiver?

We would not need a Realtek driver. If there is indeed a problem with our HDMI driver, we would work on a fix of the AMD HDMI driver to support 5.1 and 7.2. 

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AMD Customer Care

The information presented in this document is for informational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors. Links to third party sites are for convenience only, and no endorsement is implied

Hi farhads, 

So I just got home and went over the settings in my receiver, turns out there is an option for tv AND amp under audio out and that was selected.

Once I changed it the amd driver worked correctly and displays 8 channels now!

I guess I had this setting all along but before when I had the stereo issue the realtek driver convinced my card to still output more than stereo. Now the realtek driver doesnt work at all but that is fine since I have the receiver set properly and the amd driver works now!

Thanks for putting up with my stupidity!

hi seakeg, Im glad you fixed the problem.

 

I'm also using a receiver + AMD GPU (HD6870) + TV with Catalyst 13.1.

 

Do you get delays when you pause/resume music or pause/resume videos?

Hi leviathan,

I have not experienced any noticable delay, no.

I just tested a video in VLC player and there does not seem to be any delay in audio output between pause/resume.

I hope you find your solution, though!

I am glad the instructions worked for you

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AMD Customer Care

The information presented in this document is for informational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors. Links to third party sites are for convenience only, and no endorsement is implied