Force HDMI to carry 5.1 Dolby or whatever

Just want to say thanks to swirle13 and fatguy for their instructions. It helped me setup my passing 5.1 from my NUC through to my TV, through to my soundbar and speakers setup. Unfortunately it looks like a recent Windows 10 update has killed this for me. My audio stopped working, test tones wouldn't play. I uninstalled, reinstalled everything related to this HDMI passthrough, but when I select the Dolby output all I get "Format is not supported by this device".

It looks like there is a workaround for Realtek audio drivers, but because of the NUC it is using an Intel Display Audio driver that won't take any of the modding/patching for the Realtek hardware. If anyone has thoughts, would love to hear them.

swirle13 said:

So thanks to fatguy posting earlier about a different forum post, as that allowed me to install everything without a modded audio driver. He linked to a forum but it landed on a random page, so I had to search around the time he posted here, April 2020, and found the creator of the APO utility saying to install the FX Configurator and Dolby DS1 7.6.5.1 (as of this posting). I didn't need to install anything mentioning PCEE. Just set the device you want with the FX Configurator the way that fatguy showed with that imgur link (https://imgur.com/AK0MMko]) and then run the Dolby Install from his zipped file. It took me way too long to get everything together that he did, so save yourself 30-60 min and download that from page 1 on this thread and get this up and running right away.

TL;DR:

1. Download the zip file from Fatguy
2. Unzip and install APO driver, selecting "FX Configurator" and "Dolby DS1 7.6.5.1"
3. Use FX Configurator to set the device you want to using Dolby Home Theater v4 (HDMI/SPDIF), illustrated here: https://imgur.com/AK0MMko]
4. Install DolbyHomeTheater.msi from Fatguy's zip file
5. Go to your device in sound window (looks like old control panel, not modern settings page), click properties, and if successful, you should have a "Dolby" tab and in Advanced > Default Format, a "Dolby Digital" format. Pictures of my APO driver install selection and sound settings page: https://imgur.com/a/W5Yatdj]
6. Test surround sound via the 5.1 surround sound file Fatguy listed earlier via Windows Photos app (direct link here: https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/ChID-BLITS-EBU.mp4)

Thank you!

Allan Finote make a nvidia driver mod (gpu nvidia)
just unzip and install only hdaudio (with testsigning ON & Disable Driver Signature enforcement)
the dolby will work fine!
-To use PASSTHROUGH for some codecs (dts ~x/ma or dolby ~hd/atmos)..... u need to apply that in you mediaplayer or directshow filters like LAV/FFDSHOW
-SPDIF only supports 5.1ch lossy (dts/dolby digital) and 2ch pcm up to 96khz 24bit.
-5.1ch mix on chrome... u need to run with --try-supported-channel-layouts

Do you have a link for that ?

- - - Updated - - -

Found it.

AlanFinotty (Alan Finotty) / Repositories . GitHub

###

Hello all,

Very interesting read

With my Samsung 49" Curved the most helpful fix was getting into the Engineer Service menu within the TV.
The combination of remote control button pressing took hours for me to get my head around, but it was totally worth it.

Standby then 1 - 8 - 2 - INFO Standby
You will know when youve managed to get inside. Mine went into a Horizontal Flip mode and really screwed me up.
So i sat on the end of my bed upside down for 3 weeks trying to figure out how to flip it back. I eventually worked it out. 'Horizontal Flip' is damn nasty one when you dont know the menu.

Then with the USB keyboard i started to learn the TV service menu properly. Took me 3 months !
The power inside you can control every input, output, even virtual ports, change versions of HDMI, switch 3.5mm from input to output. Alter the Optical seperation of Minimum and maximum outputs for FL FR, Rear, and Subwoofer. BT, Wireless LAN, IpV6, switch 3.5mm to RS232 serial, if you want to get real dirty and have a mess.
Cloning screens with USB, Edid options.

I can now force the Samsung to act like a PC Monitor and fast Startup, throwing away any sign of a Samsung Smart Hub junk TV with fast boot, USB2 and USB3 swappable ports. Switch ARC outputs. Can create upto 10 Virtual devices, Scart, Dsub, DVI, even though the TV hasnt got them. You'll love it

Firmware options i got into. I then realised that i hate this Samsung TV now. It has a built in GPS device, which if corrupt, she'll update the tele when its in Standby Mode, crap. But i know my horizontal and vertical frequencies from home made satelite recievers. Blocked 27,000 mhz and that stopped the 29.2 Astra junk from updating.

Anyway sorry to talk other stuff, but i so so recommend attacking the Service menu of 2017 Samsung Smart TVs and the like, you will not be dissapointed with the Audio options and removes the hassle of expecting Microsoft to sell something thats supposely works, yeah right haha !

There is so much in the menu at first, it totally blew me away. I think it took me about 3 months to finally get my head around the sheer amount of options inside.
Even has Spread Spectrum for memory control and makes a PC motherboard bios look like a Texas Instruments Speak and Spell ! Really

I highly do recommend TV Engineer Service menu options.

Laterz

swirle13 said:

So thanks to fatguy posting earlier about a different forum post, as that allowed me to install everything without a modded audio driver. He linked to a forum but it landed on a random page, so I had to search around the time he posted here, April 2020, and found the creator of the APO utility saying to install the FX Configurator and Dolby DS1 7.6.5.1 (as of this posting). I didn't need to install anything mentioning PCEE. Just set the device you want with the FX Configurator the way that fatguy showed with that imgur link (https://imgur.com/AK0MMko]) and then run the Dolby Install from his zipped file. It took me way too long to get everything together that he did, so save yourself 30-60 min and download that from page 1 on this thread and get this up and running right away.

TL;DR:

1. Download the zip file from Fatguy
2. Unzip and install APO driver, selecting "FX Configurator" and "Dolby DS1 7.6.5.1"
3. Use FX Configurator to set the device you want to using Dolby Home Theater v4 (HDMI/SPDIF), illustrated here: https://imgur.com/AK0MMko]
4. Install DolbyHomeTheater.msi from Fatguy's zip file
5. Go to your device in sound window (looks like old control panel, not modern settings page), click properties, and if successful, you should have a "Dolby" tab and in Advanced > Default Format, a "Dolby Digital" format. Pictures of my APO driver install selection and sound settings page: https://imgur.com/a/W5Yatdj]
6. Test surround sound via the 5.1 surround sound file Fatguy listed earlier via Windows Photos app (direct link here: https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/ChID-BLITS-EBU.mp4)

Hey,
unfortunately the imgur Links in this guide don't work anymore. Anyone got the content ?

monocult said:

Hey,
unfortunately the imgur Links in this guide don't work anymore. Anyone got the content ?

they work, remove the ] at the end of the link.

I was able to get most audio working with the pc set to dolby atmos. the 5.1, and 7.1 options are there but do not work or revert to stereo.
Also, for most audio to play the correct channel i have to set my hisense tv to "pass through" earc. When something doesnt play I change that to PCM and then it plays but only in multiplexed stereo. there is an "auto" most but that adds to much lag and the videos lipsync to audio is all messed up.

I used cru to enable the dolby atmos option in the windows sound setting.. I also bought the dolby atmos codec from the windows store. Also, to add support for EARC since my AV receiver is so old i bought an HDA-927 box from amazon.

Thanks to everyone that conributed to this guide. By the way my set up is, GTX3070 to an LG C9, eArc to my soundbar.

I was getting so frustrated that my speakers were not working correctly, yet when the Atmos app installed, the speakers worked. I could get stereo fine, but selecting anyhing else meant centre and rears not working.

Initially downloaded the Dolby Atmos app from Microsoft store when troubleshooting, which gave me the permanent "fake" Atmos reading on my soundbar, upscaling on all sounds to the speakers, but anything else selected in the sounds settings was boken. 5.1 and 7.1 would not play correctly, or give an unsupported error.

Ran through the steps here and bingo! Sounds from all the speakers correctly (even identified that I had my rears the wrong way around)

I then ran the Dolby Atmos app, played the Forza demo, it pops up saying Atmos not enabled, but my soundbar picks up the Atmos track and it works fine, so pretty happy.