Mono and stereo audio output

[CoyoteChris]

I had to do a recovery on my HP Pavilion A6603w.  I set up my HP supplied RealTek HD Audio manager for a four speaker system, as before and did the Realtek tests which went fine.  It sounds great just as before the recovery when I am playing stereo music.  The odd thing is, when I am listening to something over the web which isn't stereo, or anything generated by the computer in mono, it now only comes out of the front speakers (located in the monitor) whereas before the recovery, even mono came out of all four speakers.  Is this really how the machine is supposed to work or is there a way to make mono audio come out of all four speakers? 

Chris

[RasterBlaster]

If you still have Vista...

Click Start, Control Panel, Hardware, Sound.

Click the Playback Tab, select your default playback device (speakers?)

Click Configure and select 5.1.

Click OK.

Now all the stuff going through Windows Audio should output 5.1 - system sounds etc...

[CoyoteChris]

OK,In my Vista, I can get as far as "Spkrs" and then I get my Realtek audio parameters (bit rate, etc.) So I opened my REaltek audio manager and selected 5.1 option, which gave me the option of putting in a sub-woffer and center speaker.  I deselected those two but left 5.1 enabled and will reboot to see what happens, but right now, I still get monoral signals only out of the front speakers.  We shall see what happens after reboot.

[RasterBlaster]

The key here is telling "Windows" that you are have a 5.1 speaker setup. If you are getting 5.1 sound from your DVD software player or games, etc... but Windows sounds are only coming from the front two speakers, then you have to Windows that you want to use 5.1. For the encorporated Realtek driver, you should be able to select the Speakers icon in Sound Properties and then click the configuration button to get to a Speaker setup screen.

To get the Configure button to be active, the speakers icon has to be selected (in blue) - not just set to default.

What you are talking about is the Realtek HD Sound Manager software. You should leave all the speaker selections checked on the left. But these settings are treated as separate and enable sound throughput at a lower (?) level. The Vista configuration setting simply tells Windows to send Windows Audio through 5.1 channels instead of stereo (default).

 

[CoyoteChris]

Thanks for your help.!. Your instructions are very clear and I have set up both Windows and the Realtec Audio software just as you stated. Both windows and Realtec pass all the given tests as far as where the audio should come out of. They are both set to 5.1.

When I play a stored stereo songs that are on my hard drive, it sounds great and the sound card acts normally.
When I get sounds off the web, playing YouTube videos for instance, sound only comes out of the front speakers.

Any more ideas?

Chris

[RasterBlaster]

To me, that sounds normal. I don't think IE or other browsers upmix stereo to 5.1 through Windows Audio. I'm not 100% sure though as I don't have a 5.1 system in the office. I'll have to play around with it when I get home. -Sorry

[CoyoteChris]

If it is normal, then I can live with it.  I have a small stereo system pluged into the rear speaker jack and when I watch streaming video of ice skating, I can just plug the stereo into the front speaker jack for good sound.  The wierd thing is that before the HP support person in India had me do a complete recovery due to the network card not working, ANYTHING I listened to came through both the front and back speakers, which really made the skating music sound great.....I was just hoping someone out there might have a HP desktop hooked up with front and back speakers and could tell me how their machine handled audio that wasnt stereo.

[hpa6603w]

hey do u know where to get the sound driver for my hp a6603w?