DVD Dolby Digital 5.1 Question (1 Viewer)

[Roy Van Nostrand]

I'm trying to get Dolby Digital 5.1 to work, all I can get is Dolby Pro Logic.
I've tried many combinations of settings and can't figure it out.
PIII 1000mhz, 512 MB Ram, Win2K, Samsung SD 616 DVD-Rom, Intervideo WinDVD, Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card feeding a Sony SDP-EP9ES processor. The sound card is configured for digital out on the one "versa jack". The Sony is set on auto-detect(I've tried the manual setting as well).
I think I've tried every possible combination of settings on everything but all I can get is Pro Logic. The DVD is 5.1 and set accordingly. The properties menu in the WinDVD setting is set to DD5.1. The sound card speaker mode is set to digital out/4.1 and I've tried 2, 4 and 6 speaker out settings, even though I'm not connecting speakers to it. I want the single digital out AC3 from the sound card to feed the digital in on the Sony processor.
Am I missing something important like a special cable or connection from the DVD player to the sound card that is unique to supporting 5.1?
Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks.
Roy Van Nostrand

 

[JeremyErwin]

Is WinDVD set to "Enable SPDIF Output"? (Properties:Audio) The 5.1 option allows one to use a 6 channel soundcard; the S/PDIF option, to stream Dolby Digital or DTS to an external decoder. (I use WinDVD 2.3, your copy may differ slightly)
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[Roy Van Nostrand]

Thanks for the help Jeremy! It lead me in the right direction.
I thought I had all my cards lined up to be able to retrieve DD 5.1, but I didn't. The OEM version of WinDVD 2000 does not give me the ability to enable sp/dif; however the software download "DVD Genie" let me enable the sp/dif switch which was "grayed out" on the OEM version of WinDVD 2000. Also missing from the setup is the sp/dif cable itself from the DVD Rom to the Santa Cruz soundcard. The cable was available direct from the soundcard manufacturer for $1.95. I'm waiting for it to arrive now.
The more I realize how much I had to learn about something, the stupider I realize I must've been.
Roy Van Nostrand

 

[KeithA]

Maybe this is too late, or maybe your configuration is different, but you shouldn't need a cable between your DVD-ROM and your soundcard to do DD passthrough. I think that's all done at the data layer by your software decoder...