Issues with playing surround sound from PC - HELP
I have kind of an unusual problem and need some advice. I have four AV components that have digital audio outputs and switching cables between them and my old Technics SH-AC300 is becoming a PITA so I decided to get one of these switches. My thought was that the digital audio signals would get pulled out by the switch and I would only need one digital audio input from it to the SH-AC300. The switch would use the RCA connector and the optical would be left for the TV.
This turned out to work fine with the PS3, where I was able to force its sound output to Dolby Digital (AC-3), which, to my knowledge, is the only digital format that the SH-AC300 supports. The Pivos AIOS plays sound but I don't see the AC3 light turning on and the rear speakers don't emanate sound unless I switch it to Surround sound mode (which I think is analog). I can live with that.
Unfortunately I can't get the sound from my PC to play. My hypothesis is that the Samsung PN50B650S1FXZA TV is broadcasting to the Nvidia GTX670 graphics card that it can support many more digital formats which the SH-AC300 cannot handle, and one of these is being fed to it. I think this because when I look at the HDMI audio settings in the control panel, it knows that it's connected to a Samsung TV, and lists a lot of formats that the TV purportedly supports. I cannot figure out if there is any way to force the output from the video card to AC3 only, like I was able to do with the PS3.
Is there a way to force the Nvidia GTX670 to output only in AC3 mode? If not, do I have any other options short of buying a new receiver which supports all the new formats?
BTW, the optical digital output from the on-motherboard-sound works, but I would have to give up being able to connect my TV to the AC300 because it only has a digital output. I can even change the output format for the on-board sound, but the HDMI sound seems to ignore the settings. Not sure if there is really a separate sound on the graphics card or if there is some other reason for it. Unfortunately the digital (optical) output on the TV will not pass through surround sound, just stereo (thanks Samsung :( !)
