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The short of it is that, given your current setup, you are relying on ARC. ARC is the cause of your problem. Let me explain why.
You have a Windows PC connected directly to your TV via an HDMI cable, so your PC has to send the audio to the TV. From there, the TV sends the audio via ARC to the Yamaha receiver.
The problem is that ARC was designed to replace SPDIF cables and so it's capabilities as far as carrying audio are pretty much exactly the same as SPDIF for compatibility purposes. This means that it can ONLY transfer 5.1 audio in a COMPRESSED audio format or codec. Examples of compressed 5.1 audio codecs include Dolby Digital and DTS.
However, your Windows PC does NOT send audio out as Dolby Digital or DTS unless it is playing audio from a prerecorded source (DVD movie, video files such as MKV) where that prerecorded source has its' audio already encoded in Dolby Digital and DTS.
Anything else on your PC, such as video games, Youtube videos, Spotify, Pandora, pretty much any music file you are playing, system sounds, whatever, would be sent out of your PC as Linear PCM audio.
Linear PCM audio is UNCOMPRESSED. ARC, like SPDIF, can only transmit 2 channels of Linear PCM audio. It cannot handle more than 2 channels of uncompressed Linear PCM audio. Therefore, when your TV sees that it is receiving Linear PCM from your WIndows PC and it knows that the ARC connection to your receiver can only handle 2 channel Linear PCM then it 'reports' itself as 2 channel capable to your PC.
Your Xbox, on the other hand, will send Dolby Digital to the TV (as you have already witnessed and stated in your post). Dolby Digital is a 5.1 compressed audio format and your TV knows that the ARC connection can handle this, so all is well.
The solution to your problem is to connect your PC to the Receiver instead of the TV. The receiver should be more than capable of handling 5.1 channel Linear PCM and you should be able to set your Windows sound settings appropriately if you connect the PC directly to the receiver.
1- did you try switching the PC conection to the HDMI 2 on the TV, the one your Xbox works? what about replacing cable?
2- i've noticed that many TV's have a limitation on the HDMI 1 port, did you check that your TV supports 5.1 audio through the HDMI 1 port?
3- most 7.1 receivers i've worked with where setup as "device -> receiver -> TV", yours is "device -> TV -> receiver". isn't the point of having a receiver to concentrate your devices?
i do not own a TV or receiver of my own, but i did help friends setup quite a few (mostly sony, and some yamaha and pionner).
It was already explained in detail in the post right above your own. Did you even read that before replying?
or are you by chance saying that a 2.0 audio device can play 5.1 media and the surround will magically appear? because all his operating sistem sees, is a 2.0 device.
if the operating system recognizes the output device as 5.1, then the type of media being played would make a difference and the output device should be configured to push that out to the speakers, but as far as i can see, OP did not reach this point yet.
please, do elaborate.
Use the PAX Drivers.
GPUs don't output surround sound, period.
It was elaborated on in my post if you bothered to read and comprehend it. ARC only supports up to 2 channels of Linear PCM audio. Period. A graphics card in a PC is going to output Linear PCM. That does, indeed, mean that the OP's PC will not be able to send 5.1 channels of Linear PCM through the TV to the receiver via ARC. It will not work. Period. End of story.
If he instead connects his computer to the receiver first he will be able to set Windows to output 5.1 as the receiver, over HDMI, can receive 5.1 channel Linear PCM without an issue. I know because I have had my PC connected to a receiver for 8 years now, first as a 7.1 system and now as a 5.1 system. I have always been able to set Windows to the appropriate speaker configuration as long as my PC is connected directly to the receiver via HDMI.
Yes, they do. Nvidia cards (I haven't had an AMD one in many years, can't speak for it with any recent knowledge) support up to 8 channels of audio passthrough. I have been using my GPU for audio passthrough for years. I have been able to set 7.1 and 5.1 output settings and it most certainly does work.
All they do is passthrough, however. They don't do any kind of actual audio encoding or processing. The CPU has to handle that in this case, in lieu of having a dedicated sound card. The GPU simply acts as the conduit through which to get the audio signal out of the PC and to a receiver or TV.
The OP's Soundblaster card, on the other hand, obviously can handle audio processing. Soundblaster cards use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, which are PC specific codecs that are designed for the real-time encoding of audio into compressed 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS format. That's how it is even able to do 5.1 over SPDIF in the first place, as SPDIF cannot handle uncompressed 5.1 audio.
It's always just "Stereo"
Through a TV you are correct. That is entirely OP's problem at the moment.
if his system recognizes his output device as Dolby Digital/DTS capable, then your point becomes valid and OP needs to address the issue with ARC or just avoid it by using the receiver as the PC's output device and the TV just for video (coming from the receiver). the way i see it, your post is one step ahead of the situation.
That's entirely my point. The TV is only a 5.1 capable device if the incoming audio is Dolby Digital or DTS format. It is not capable of handling 5.1 audio in any other format. His graphics card is not going to encode audio into Dolby Digital or DTS. The only way his graphics card would output Dolby Digital or DTS is if the audio he is listening to is already encoded in such a format. Examples of when this would be are when watching DVDs/Bluray, video files that already have audio encoded as such or apps like Netflix (my receiver's main display switches to Dolby Digital Surround when I watch Netflix through the Windows app because the Netflix Windows app uses Dolby Digital Surround audio).
For all intents and purposes, his TV is NOT a 5.1 capable device when receiving the kind of audio that a PC graphics card will output. It is only a 2 channel capable device when receiving PCM audio.
So, again, his entire issue right now is connecting directly to the TV. The receiver would not have these same limitations if he connected his PC directly to that instead.