I'm running a Gigabyte X58 board with integrated Realtek HD Audio under Windows 7 64bit and I'm wanting to pass surround audio to my AV receiver via the onboard coaxial S/PDIF output.
When using Microsoft's own certified driver for the Realtek HD Audio there are setup options for bitrates and surround codecs (AC3/DTS), I can select them, test them and everything works fine including the multichannel tests. So far so good. However, all applications that can output surround sound (games, VLC etc.) are unaware of the multichannel capabilities and the amp only ever receives a stereo signal. This issue is covered by this question although it's not adequately answered.
So, I thought I may be able to get better results using manufacturer provided drivers over the MS offerings, however this has opened up a whole new world of misery. I first tried Gigabyte's official driver, which is basically a branded version of the OEM Realtek HD Audio v2.70. Upon rebooting I suddenly started receiving a popup message from the Realtek audio manager saying either "You've just plugged in an audio device" or "You've just unplugged an audio device".
I was right about the OEM drivers in that there are more options for surround configuration, which is what I want. Or, would be what I wanted if the configuration page would stop disappearing and reappearing. This behaviour occurs at the same time as the connect/disconnect messages.
The popup messages are a real nuisance as they seem to have priority over just about everything, and the interruptions are unacceptable. The popups can be suppressed but the underlying problem still exists with the Realtek speaker setup page becoming available, briefly, before disappearing again.
I need to point out that nothing has been connected or disconnected and the only active connection is the coax S/PDIF output. All sockets are in good condition, basically having never been used. I've seen many forum posts to the effect of "You need to have your sockets checked by a technician, they may be broken and need soldering" etc., generally seeming to come from people taking wild stabs in the dark - there isn't a hardware issue as the the basic MS driver works fine, just no surround output. And yes, I'm trying to output DTS/AC3 audio streams as opposed to outputting stereo and expecting it to magically become surroundified, but the MS driver doggedly outputs a stereo PCM stream in spite of it successfully configuring and testing surround output functionality over S/PDIF.
I've tried the latest Realtek HD Audio drivers, v2.75, but these give exactly the same result.
So the big question is has anyone here experienced the same issue and successfully found a fix for it? I've seen many threads on this subject but I've yet to find one offering a working solution other than disabling the device and using a discrete audio card instead. It's frustrating because the hardware is working ok with the MS drivers, just no surround output.
