No Dolby Digital 5.1 playback in iTunes 11 in Win 7

Question

Level 1

5 points

No Dolby Digital 5.1 playback in iTunes 11 in Win 7

I am having difficulty getting Dolby Digital 5.1 audio playback out of iTunes 11.0.2.26 in Windows 7 x64. I have downloaded a TV show from the iTunes store whose files shows under 'Get Info' as having a Dolby 5.1 audio track. During playback the audio plays in Stereo mode by default, and if I click the audio track icon, the option for the second audio track is greyed out. This problem affects both the iTunes built-in player and the standalone QuickTime video player.

I have a 5.1 audio system connected via HDMI to my AMD Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, which has an on-board audio controller supporting several bit depths, sample rates, and encoding formats, including Dolby Digital. I am using the latest device drivers from AMD, and the Windows audio configuration panel shows the speakers configured correctly. I can get flawless playback from all channels when testing the system, as well as with numerous applications.

System specs:

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU

Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz 40 °C

Bloomfield 45nm Technology

RAM

6.00 GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 534MHz (8-8-8-20)

Motherboard

ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6T (LGA1366) 33 °C

Graphics

DELL G2410 (1920x1080@60Hz)

ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series (Gigabyte)

Hard Drives

932GB Western Digital WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B1 ATA Device (SATA) 28 °C

Optical Drives

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-217D ATA Device

Audio

AMD High Definition Audio Device

iTunes-OTHER, Windows 7

Posted on Mar 14, 2013 9:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Doug_MH

Level 1

10 points

Mar 25, 2013 11:57 AM in response to Outrigger047

iTunes Dolby Digital output does not work with AMD HDMI Audio devices and Apple does not seem to have any interest in fixing this.

See: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3803912

Reply

Answer 2

Outrigger047 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 25, 2013 12:34 PM in response to Doug_MH

Unfortunately your suggested swap-for-nVidia solution isn't something I can do at the moment. Nevertheless, thank you for the info. It's good to know I wasn't making some stupid mistake.

Reply

Answer 3

Doug_MH

Level 1

10 points

Mar 25, 2013 1:16 PM in response to Outrigger047

The SPDIF output of your Mobo's Realtek codec *should* work with iTunes AC3 output, but of course than means buying & running an extra cable to your receiver (which you would probably only want to use for iTunes since it can't support HD audio for Blu-Ray playback).

Reply

Answer 4

Alex9

Level 1

4 points

Apr 13, 2013 5:11 AM in response to Outrigger047

Hi, i had the same problem here. I m using iTunes on my HP laptop on windows 7 and connected it to my TV over HDMI. When i rented a movie with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio stream, i was able to select it while playing but then i didnt hear any sound coming out. Only when i selected the Stereo stream i could hear something.

But now i found the solution.

Just deactivate the SPDIF digital audio output on your laptop in Sound properties / Playback. It seems that iTunes automaticly takes the digital audio output when its activated, although you choosed HDMI as your default device and communication device. After deactivating it the sound is now transmitted over the HDMI cable and it works perfectly!!!

Try it out, hopefully it works on your laptops too!!

Make sure you have following settings active in your driver settings. e.g. in nVidia settings.

activate Audio stream on HDMI

and have HDCP on

Then select the right audio stream in iTunes (in my case german 🙂 )

and finally dolby digital is streamed to the TV over hdmi

Reply

Answer 5

gee4vee

Level 1

20 points

Feb 8, 2014 5:20 PM in response to Alex9

This worked for me. In my case, I use the optical out port on my MOBO so I deactivated the non-optical one in Sound control panel. iTunes now outputs Dolby digital when I select the AC3 audio output!

Reply

Answer 6

JHTom

Level 1

0 points

Apr 18, 2014 10:35 PM in response to Alex9

Thanks Alex9. This helped solve my issue using itunes 11, Win 7 and Nvidia card on my HTPC (after many hours of searching). I was alread bitstreaming XBMC via HDMI without issue, but itunes was only in stereo. Disabling realtek output solved issue and all sounds great now.

Reply

Answer 7

Jul 19, 2014 4:16 PM in response to JHTom

Same problem. But how I read it... the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack only works with digital sound system? I have a 7.1 192 KHz/24 bit capable soundcard with jack and SPDIF connection. Of course, I can't even find - or afford - a digital sound system. But that's make no sense, since I can play any game, DVD, BD with 5.1 sound, expect a simple iTunes movie?

Reply