5.1 Audio from FZ Series?

[dynam1ke]

Hi,

I have got a FZ21Z notebook, and I would like to watch my Bluray movies in surround sound. With the Bluray disc high birate codecs like TrueHD and/or multichannel PCM this should be very pleasurable. The problem is; there is no way of listening to these soundtracks on the Vaio notebook. The only digital sound output is the HDMI port, no SPDIF on this Vaio (no TrueHD possible through SPDIF anyway). I have had the chance to test this on a big HDMI v1.3 receiver, which should accept all possible sound formats possible to date.

The FZ21Z shows the HDMI audio device in control panel. DTS and DD test tones can be succesfully tested in multichannel. Those actualy work; the receiver shows the name of the codec and you can hear the sounds coming from the separate speakers. But when when you pop in Bluray disc, and fire up WinDVD BD for Vaio (I have also tested PowerDVD Ultra), only 2 channel audio is selectable in the playback software's audio section. I was only able to output two channel PCM audio from the laptop.

Is this truly a Bluray notebook without surround sound capabilities?

[william17]

Hello dynam1ke

I hate telling good guys bad news but as far as I know, unless it's possible to output the sound by light or by current (optic fiber/coax) from the FZ21Z which I don't see either (I have one too), we ain't gonna get any other signal than old fashion poor stereo on this unit. And correct me if I'm wrong, but our laptop is only able to playback 16 bits 44.1 khz streams (which is obviously not suitable for anything else than stereo signal) as my sequencer apps are both (Samplitude 9 & Cubase 4) forcing me to aknowledge. Let's keep watching HD on the laptop for small modest leisure time onboard if you don't like the last Air Canada selection. Otherwise I suggest trying to plug a real drive with a real optic fiber through your receiver if you want the real 24 bits/192 khz capability.

[dynam1ke]

Thanks for your reply!

Off course since the introduction of HDMI, optical and coax are not the only ways of getting digital surround anymore. HDMI on its self is capable of 8 separate channels in 192Khz/24bit. This way it is able to stream uncompressed PCM audio from for example Bluray discs. A way to play normal Dolby Digital and DTS through HDMI has already been found for the FZ21Z (newest sigmatel audio drivers and use SPDIF in PowerDVD Ultra), but for the new high bitrate codecs such as TrueHD I did not find it yet.

However, it seems that 2 channel PCM (I think even 192Khz/24bit per channel) is possible through the FZ21Z HDMI port, but not more than 2 channels. I do not know if this is in the hardware, or if this could be solved bij audio drivers or firmware updates for example. I hope to get some official answer to this question some day. But trying to get in touch with a Sony official that actualy knows this kind of stuff is just impossible it seems.

[william17]

Hello dynam1ke!

Sooo sorry for the informations I provided you with, shame on me then! Thanks much anyway for all this infos about HDMI, I was spontaneously sure from what I've experienced with my sequencers and encoders, i.e. nothing else was possible to me than stereo. But it was still only about sound, I must have jumped too quick on conclusions.

Good luck with Sony guys and hope you get some fine answers/new firmware that could make our notebook a real BD one with surround.

Have a nice day dynam1ke

[97122769]

It would be worth contacting the Technicians at WinDVD or PowerDVD fpr a solution.

[dynam1ke]

It would be worth contacting the Technicians at WinDVD or PowerDVD fpr a solution.

I'm sure PowerDVD and WinDVD are capable or doing multichannel PCM, even over HDMI. It has been succesfully tested on other PC's, but not yet on a Vaio FZ.

Is there a simple Sony email adress for tech support? The E-support is not working for me; I can't even register my laptop on that site. Maybe because I already registered normally on the Sony website for the Blu-ray offer. But that would really be weird.