windvd bd - no dolby digital on AR21 with vista, please help

[kev777]

Hi all,

I've successfully upgraded my AR21S to vista with the vaio uograde pack, or so I'd thought and downloaded the new version of windvd BD from the vaio website. The picture is much better but now I can only output stereo via the optical output instead of 5.1. Furthermore, there are no options in control panel to select 5.1 sound (like there used to be in XP) and the options for 5.1 and 7.1 etc in windvd bd itself are all greyed out.

has anyone had the same issue, is it a windows or driver problem? I've tried installing the old XP drivers but still there's no option to select 5.1 surround sond or anything else.

Please help before I go back to XP!

Many thanks,

Kev.

[eaglesrest]

Hi,

You don't say if your using TOSLink or HDMI to carry the sound?

If HDMI then the Vista Express upgrade booklet mentions that you have to disable Dolby Digital to get any sound across HDMI. Did you do that? If so it would imply DD isn't supported on HDMI yet with the Sigmatel audio device? I don't know for sure as I use TOSLink.

If your using TOSLink to an external decoder/amp then make sure that DD and DTS are are ticked in the S/PDIF Supported Formats section. I also made sure that S/PDIF was the default device in Sounds (not speakers).

You should also ensure that when available, you select S/PDIF in all applications that support audio device selection.

[kev777]

thanks, yes, I'm using the toslink out, I've selected that and not HDMI and still can't see the settings in windvd bd or the sounds options, still only stereo...

[eaglesrest]

In WinDVD BD - Setup- Audio - Audio Output Config, mine is greyed out and has Digital (S/PDIF) selected. This is what I would expect to see. I also have the 2 speaker options below but this is ignored when S/PDIF is used.


I don't have any Bluray disks to test, but I just tried Shrek 2 and Blade 3 DVD's and it plays Dolby Digital fine (when selected from within the Movie menus).

However DTS wouldn't workin WinDVD BD? I did get it working in Windows Media Player.