Audio guide: fixing surround sound, enabling DD&DTS output

A guide explains how to get surround via optical output; for those who have 5.1 dolby digital or dts receiver.

Being stuck with PCM output

Windows won't let you have dolby output, no matter what soundcard, receiver/speaker setup you have, you simply cannot enable surround output under device default format. Even if you have dolby soundcard. Licensing, greed and usual corpo BS won't let you.

This guide will help you get pass that and enjoy incredible audio in the Cyberpunk 2077.

Asus Xonar (or cards w/ cmedia chip)

You need Unified Xonar drivers. These are modified to have less bugs, almost zero DPC latency and better functionality. Plus, you can evade windows 10 issue where you cannot select DD Live as default output format with these.

http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
or
http://uni.maxedtech.com/uxr-uni-xonar-driver-download-table/

You can find documentation and read through which version does what or if it's suitable for your chip on links.
For certain cards/chips, you have to boot windows with Disabling Driver Signature Verification. How to reboot with startup options: (Navigate to Start -> power, Click restart while holding Shift key.) Select advanced startup options.

For card I have, latest driver (v1.81a r2) works without issue and without "driver signature verification" boot option at setup. For optimal performance, select C-Media interface instead of default asus xonar app. CMedia control panel might not look pretty compared to asus control panel, but this is necessary if you have internal latency or you want to get rid of it completely.

How to enable dolby digital forAsus Xonar cards:

• Uninstall existing drivers
  
• Browse to http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
  
• Choose windows 10 driver according to your card, download
  
• Select "CMedia control panel" on setup instead of asus control centre
  
• Enable DD output from cmedia control panel

Onboard Realtek chips

All you need is motherboard with w/ optical output to make this work. Most mobo w/ realtek chipset (all of 'em?) is compatible. These drivers have lot of other stuff in them; different control panels such as Dolby atmos, sonic studio etc. but all you need is the driver itself and you can deselect these other apps at setup, which is what I recommend. Less software interference means less potential issues, internal latency.

Realtek Audio Driver Mods by Alan Finotty:
https://github.com/AlanFinotty/AAFRealtekMod/releases
TechPowerUp main post:
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/realtek-dch-modded-audio-driver-for-windows-10.250915/page-127#post-4451526

• Uninstall existing realtek drivers software if you have
  
• Download AAF modded realtek drivers
  
• Reboot with startup options (Navigate to Start -> power, Click restart while holding Shift key.) Select advanced boot options, restart.
  
• Boot with Disabling Driver Signature Verification
  
• Install AAF modded drivers, reboot.

To get DD&DTS to work, all you need is realtek audio console. Open it.
Select optical output, choose DTS or DD 5.1 output according to receiver compatibility, that's it.

Like previously said, this package have other optional apps. It is your choice, you can play around with different install configurations. All you need to do is uninstall and restart with driver sig verification, install selecting different apps etc.

Test If it works

Open sound settings, go to Sound control panel settings. Test if digital output sending signal to receiver.
It should work If everything else in order.

Now you can enjoy Cyberpunk 2077 with proper surround sound.