Proper drivers and settings for surround-sound over HDMI on Predator Helios PH18-72?

Hi all,

TLDR version:

Anyone with this laptop have surround sound over HDMI working as intended? If so, what's your setup?

Detailed version:

I have an Acer Helios Predator PH18-72 connected to a Sony TV (XBR-85X900H) via HDMI. The TV is connected to a Yamaha (RX-V673) receiver's ARC HDMI input. I have 8 speakers connected to the Yamaha in the 5.1.2 configuration (The 0.2 are "presence" speakers that are mounted up front near the ceiling). For some reason I'm only getting sound out of the front left, center, and right channels, even though I have the speaker configuration set as 5.1 (I've also tried the other options including 7.1, quadrophonic, etc.). No sound is going to the subwoofer or the rear channels. I suspect that this is a configuration or driver issue, because when I connect my PS5 in the same way, I get surround-sound. I've also connected the laptop HDMI output directly to the RX, with the same results. I can see that the RX is seeing a signal because the display changes when I play a test tone, but no sound comes out. Is there a way to change the encoding of the audio signal being sent over HDMI? Any other ideas regarding what could be wrong?

Accepted answers

All comments

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/723024/proper-drivers-and-settings-for-surround-sound-over-hdmi-on-ph18-72

The only drivers that the PH18-72 has is what Acer has on the Acer support page for the PH18-72, there are no specific surround sound drivers for HDMI. Or uninstall Realtek audio and use the DDU uninstaller in safe mode to completely uninstall the Intel and NVidia graphics drivers and their audio components attached to them and then reinstall all these drivers again and the graphics drivers do a clean install and see if the 5.1 surround sound works, otherwise, you need to consult your Hi-Fi components manuals for proper settings.

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Waynoski

Thanks for the reply.. there's an "audio driver" and an "audio console driver" on that page. What's the difference and does the install order matter?

I'd still love to hear if anyone has successfully gotten a 5.1 surround sound setup to work with this laptop. I did some uninstall and re-install of drivers yesterday and now when I click on the rear speakers in the speaker configuration I get sound, but it's coming out of the same-side FRONT speakers. Seems like there's also a difference in behaviour based on if graphics is set to Nvidia only or automatic, in the BIOS.