Forcing Windows 7 into 7.1 speaker setup

[rspierenburg]

Hi,

I have my setup where my HTPC is connect via HDMI to my receiver which is in turn connected via HDMI to my TV.

Normally my HTPC stays on all the time and I only turn off the TV and Receiver.

My issue is this, everytime I turn my receiver on Windows reverts back to stereo setting. I figured that its because as soon as my receiver is turned off it can no longer detect it and so it sets back to the stereo default.

I’ve tried having my harmony remote put the HTPC to sleep and turn off the TV and Receiver and when things get turned on it would first turn on the Receiver, then the TV and finally wake the HTPC. But this doesn’t help with the stereo setting.

Does anyone else know of a method of perhaps forcing Windows to stay with 7.1 speaker setup regardless of wether the receiver is on or not? Or perhaps change the default from Stereo to 7.1 speaker support?

This is very annoying and its the only hiccup I have left on my setup.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

[Adidas4275]

you have gone through the setup config in Media Center and set it to 7.1 right?

 

I leave my HTPC on running W7 and I turn my reciever and projector off and it doesnt revert to stereo….

 

What reciever do you have? 

[captain_video]

IIRC, you need to set up your speakers in Windows as stereo and then configure your receiver or preamp for 7.1.  If you configure Windows for any other surround setup then you’ll run into issues with WMC.  I forget exactly what happens but it will affect proper playback.

[babgvant]

[quote=captain_video]

IIRC, you need to set up your speakers in Windows as stereo and then configure your receiver or preamp for 7.1.  If you configure Windows for any other surround setup then you’ll run into issues with WMC.  I forget exactly what happens but it will affect proper playback.

[/quote]

If you have WMC set to use navigation sounds it can cause issues because it requires mixing the audio. If you turn that off (which I do because it’s annoying) it’s not a problem.

[babgvant]

This happens because the EDID is going away and the audio driver reverts to a “safe” setting. You can use StandbyHelper to fix it. That said, if you have your PC setup to bitstream it doesn’t matter what the speaker layout is set to.

[rspierenburg]

Thank you for all the information. I actually don’t use WMC, rather I use MediaPortal. I do bitstream most of the audio, but in cases where its an audio format that I can’t bitstream I would still like to have 5.1 channels rather than All Stereo.

[Author]

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