iTunes rented movie not outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 audio

Anyone else? I'm in a similar bind myself. I've got all the proper things, and can listen to blu-ray movies in 5.1 on my pc (sorry for the foul language), due to the 3 analog outputs (front, center/sub, and side) and a logitech 5.1 surround sound set.

Anyone able to help here?

Same here. I bought and downloaded "The Expandables" and wanted to watch it on my Win 7 PC, as there's a 5.1 system connected.

The surround sound doesn't seem to work, and I couldn't find a solution.

I must have spent 40-50 hours over the last 6 months trying to get it to work with no success. The Windows version of iTunes does not appear to support AC-3 output at all.

Update: On a whim I thought I would test iTunes's AC3 output with completely different hardware. I hooked up my laptop to the receiver via HDMI and lo-and-behold the Dolby Digital output worked perfectly and seamlessly.

My laptop has NVidia graphics wheras my HTPC has AMD graphics (using the Realtek driver) very similar to jtp84's setup.

Looks like this might be a compatibility problem between iTunes and either the ATI hardware or the Realtek HDMI driver. I'll try switching out the Realtek driver for the AMD one to see if it makes any difference....

iTunes does not allow me to select the surround audio track when running with either the latest AMD driver or the default driver from Microsoft. The surround track is only available when the Realtek driver is installed, but it still doesn't work.

here another one having the same problem.

Latest itunes running in windows 7 x64 (10.7.0.21). Using the optical Realtek Audio ouput attached to Logitech Z-5300e 5.1

The upgrade seems to have reduce the out of sync issues but I can only use the stereo tracks.

I managed to get my DD tracks working.

First had to update itunes to the latest version (10.7.0.21) to get rid of the out of sync sound problem

Then updated the realtek driver. There was an update directly in the realtek website (mine is the HD Audio): http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24& Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

After all that. I tunes wasn't allowing anymore to select the Doubly Digital 5.1 tracks (an improvement).

Then went to the windows properties for the realtek optical output and checked both options to allow application exclusive access and to have priority (http://dailykermit.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/windows-7-exclusive-device-control/)

After all this, I was able to enjoy my rental

Glad to hear you got it working over a Reltek S/PDIF optical connection fiscli. Unfortunately 10.7 did nothing to improve my situation (audio over an AMD Radeon HDMI connection). Hopefully Apple will fix this in the new iTunes 11.

If you also tried to allow application exclusive use of the audio device, I recommend you to contact technical support, there could still something to fix regarding HDMI audio output.

Upgraded to Windows 8 this week.

Installed iTunes 10.7 again and... the problem was back.

Needed to upgrade the drivers from the realtek website, those in Windows 8 seems to be older?!

But it wasn't working for me anymore following the things I posted in my first message.

Then I noticed that after the driver update, the configuration of the supported frequences and formats had been reseted. After making sure the DTS or Doubly Surround was aktiv, my surround tracks were again available.

In my case, s/pdif / Optical output. It has to be "tested" and selected manually, it looks like this:

My only HDMI sound device is just stereo so I couldn't do the test. If your sound output is HDMI, I supposed it should look like the following picture, showing DTS or DD available

In brief, what I needed:
- upgraded realtek sound drivers
- nothing less than itunes 10.7

- DTS / DD format supported and active for the output device

- exclusive use for applications

Still a pain in the back to have to go through all that to get the surround tracks working.

After waiting patiently for the release of iTunes 11 I am highly displeased to announce that AC3 output through an AMD HDMI audio device still doesn't work. There is no improvement whatsoever: it still fails to recognize the AMD driver and still recognizes and then fails with the Realtek driver.

Well, after a year of waiting for AMD/Apple to fix this I've finally admitted defeat and solved the problem as follows:

1) Uninstall the HDMI audio driver (AMD and/or Realtek)

2) Uninstall the AMD Display driver

3) Uninstall the Radeon video card

4) Replace with an NVidia card

5) Install the NVidia drivers

Voila: Perfect Dolby Digital output from ITunes over HDMI, and $50 less in my bank account.

(I'm not bitter at all, really!)

For those who still have problems with dolby digital over hdmi with itunes, check my post. maybe these hints can help you.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4887911?answerId=21774144022#21774144022

Hey fischli, are you from switzerland, fribourg....??? 🙂

Close, Zürich 😀