Questions about HDMI 2.1 AVRs with the PC, max speaker support, Atmos, etc.

[bigbluefe]

Does anyone here have an Nvidia 3000 series or AMD 6800/6900XT video card with HDMI 2.1 support connected to an AVR with more than 7 speakers? If so, does it actually work?

Even more specifically, is anyone with such a setup a programmer who has tested to see how many speakers various PC audio APIs register when you have that kind of a setup? Theoretically, in Windows, there's an audio API that's supposed to recognize up to 18 channels corresponding to the following:

SPEAKER_FRONT_LEFT - 0
SPEAKER_FRONT_RIGHT - 1
SPEAKER_FRONT_CENTER - 2
SPEAKER_LOW_FREQUENCY - 3
SPEAKER_BACK_LEFT - 4
SPEAKER_BACK_RIGHT - 5
SPEAKER_FRONT_LEFT_OF_CENTER - 6
SPEAKER_FRONT_RIGHT_OF_CENTER - 7
SPEAKER_BACK_CENTER - 8
SPEAKER_SIDE_LEFT - 9
SPEAKER_SIDE_RIGHT - 10
SPEAKER_TOP_CENTER - 11
SPEAKER_TOP_FRONT_LEFT - 12
SPEAKER_TOP_FRONT_CENTER - 13
SPEAKER_TOP_FRONT_RIGHT - 14
SPEAKER_TOP_BACK_LEFT - 15
SPEAKER_TOP_BACK_CENTER - 16
SPEAKER_TOP_BACK_RIGHT - 17

But I can't find anyone on the internet who's actually tried to test a 17.1 channel setup on the PC. Nvidia would have to support it in their HDMI driver, and they're notorious for being pieces of butt, so I won't be surprised if they didn't.

I'm teetering on the precipice of getting a new AVR and doing a 13 speaker setup, but I'm a PC guy and don't want to do it if it's not even going to work.

 

[toast0]

My wife shot me very dirty looks when me and the home theater guy were talking about 17.1 (well really 11.4.1, I think). Home theater room is looking like 7.4.1 though, which is still a lot. Not planning to do a PC in there though, so not actually helpful.

 

[bigbluefe]

As far as I can tell, an Auro-3D setup at 15.1 is about as many speakers as you can go with consumer receivers.

 

[sharknice]

I think you would use Dolby Atmos and it would send the Dolby Atmos signal which doesn't really use channels, it uses objects with positions that the receiver would translate to it's specific configuration.

You would need to pay for the Dolby Access windows 10 App, and I'm not sure if that just works with everything, or if games need to specifically support it.

 

[bigbluefe]

I think you would use Dolby Atmos and it would send the Dolby Atmos signal which doesn't really use channels, it uses objects with positions that the receiver would translate to it's specific configuration.

You would need to pay for the Dolby Access windows 10 App, and I'm not sure if that just works with everything, or if games need to specifically support it.

So with WASAPI and xaudio2, the APIs actually tell you how many speakers you have. Right now, I have a 7.1 setup, so it gives me "8."

What I want to know is, given Nvidia's HDMI driver implementation, is if one of those 15.1 channel AVR setups would actually report "16."

 

[sharknice]

So with WASAPI and xaudio2, the APIs actually tell you how many speakers you have. Right now, I have a 7.1 setup, so it gives me "8."

What I want to know is, given Nvidia's HDMI driver implementation, is if one of those 15.1 channel AVR setups would actually report "16."

I'm pretty sure it's a windows limitation not nvidia drivers.

I have my PC receiver configured for 5.1, it can do 7.1, but it does not support atmos, yet all of those options show up along with headphones, and it shows "8".

I have my home theater configured for 7.2.2 and the receiver actually supports Atmos and DTS:X and the exact same options and the "8" show up when I connected my laptop to it, which said it was using intel drivers.

I think it's a windows audio thing not nvidia drivers.

Also I think what you would actually want is spatial audio such as Dolby Atmos, not specifically set channels.
If you actually were able to setup that many channels, windows and the games you're playing would need to know where each speaker is, similar to how you choose from two 5.1 surround options in windows.

The point of spatial audio (Dolby Atmos and DTS:X) is that only the receiver needs to know this configuration, and you can position your speakers however you want and still get accurate positional audio.

 

[bigbluefe]

I'm pretty sure it's a windows limitation not nvidia drivers.

I have my PC receiver configured for 5.1, it can do 7.1, but it does not support atmos, yet all of those options show up along with headphones, and it shows "8".

I have my home theater configured for 7.2.2 and the receiver actually supports Atmos and DTS:X and the exact same options and the "8" show up when I connected my laptop to it, which said it was using intel drivers.

I think it's a windows audio thing not nvidia drivers.

Also I think what you would actually want is spatial audio such as Dolby Atmos, not specifically set channels.
If you actually were able to setup that many channels, windows and the games you're playing would need to know where each speaker is, similar to how you choose from two 5.1 surround options in windows.
View attachment 478904View attachment 478905

The point of spatial audio (Dolby Atmos and DTS:X) is that only the receiver needs to know this configuration, and you can position your speakers however you want and still get accurate positional audio.

Have you installed that Dolby Access app for Windows? I know what you mean about spatial audio, though. It seems to basically create an Atmos stream for you based on the coordinates of the sound objects you give it.

I'm just curious if any setups actually let you explicitly set the output speaker from the 18 in the list that xaudio2, WASAPI, and others supposedly support.

 

[sharknice]

Have you installed that Dolby Access app for Windows? I know what you mean about spatial audio, though. It seems to basically create an Atmos stream for you based on the coordinates of the sound objects you give it.

I'm just curious if any setups actually let you explicitly set the output speaker from the 18 in the list that xaudio2, WASAPI, and others supposedly support.

I just tried it from my work laptop which has dolby atmos speakers (lol), so it has the fully unlocked dolby access app. I connected it to my receiver with the Atmos 7.2.2 setup. The speaker setup picture shows the exact same thing as the 7.1 Surround.
In the Dolby Access app it didn't give me any options at all when I enabled Dolby Atmos for home theater. It said settings aren't available for home theater.
When I used the laptop's built in atmos speakers the settings let me choose different presets (game, movie, music, etc.) or a custom equalizer, similar to what you would do on a receiver itself.