Guide on how to enable DTS 5.1 Connect/Interactive for Motherboard with onboard Realtek USB Audio

[qzack]

Thanks for the suggestion netRAT

I tried my posted solution earlier of turning on "Stereo Mix" and it does keep the "encoding" light on continuously rather than when sound happens, however it doesn't resolve the Groove music cutting in and out that I explain eariler. I think my solution here is to stop using Groove or just not be doing anything on my computer when using Groove. The sound issues I am experiencing must all be related to this app.
I jumped into Resident Evil Village last night to continue on with my playthrough and didn't hear a single pop or click. If I did hear this during game play, I would've returned the board already.

@Kraven
Thank you for all your suggestions on this topic, especially posting the walkthrough on how to enable DTS.
I feel that without your tutorial I would be stuck in 2CH Stereo Land.

 

[netRAT]

I think my solution here is to stop using Groove....

Dump it...
Don't even give it a second thought...
Grab yourself a copy of a top rated, professional audiophile grade player such as foobar2000.
It has everything one could ask for in a music player - and far beyond. Including baked-in support for the best quality codecs, low latency drivers, multichannel decoding and buttons labelled with acronyms that trigger audio functions which even an advanced user will sometimes need to research.
Totally audio-focused.
Eye-candy - not.

 

[Ferather]

I use Potplayer myself.

 

[netRAT]

I use Potplayer myself.

Yeah... it's a good all-rounder...
MPC-HC/BE + K-lite codecs will also do just fine, and so would VLC.
Yet foobar is more of an audio-centric player with tons of codec/driver/DSP extensions available...
That said, one can find themselves spending more time tweaking than actually listening and enjoying with all those checkboxes and sliders to mess with.

 

[qzack]

Fixed the popping completely.
It was my GPU.

I have two slots on my motherboard (PCI-e x16) that the GPU can go into, a top and a bottom.
I had put the card originally in the bottom slot. I did some reading on my board and decided to move
it to the top slot. I am typing this with groove open and have moved my mouse all over the app and haven't heard
a single click or pop.

Just sharing my findings in case this particular issue affects someone else.

In conclusion, having the card in the bottom slot was causing severe interference and/or bandwidth issues with audio playback.

 

[RainbowDash]

Ok, i'm writing this up in the hope that someone will find this helpful, as i've spent 2 years trying to get this to work, and it's only with Zoomer88's divine wisdom, that he talked me through all of this. THANK YOU!!!!

WARNING : This is my own experience, your mileage may vary. BACKUP YOUR PC FIRST and ensure you know how to restore from it. I take no responsibility for this.

I would appreciate someone verifying this and that I have got the steps right. They are based on my experience, and I am sure they can be simplified. I would also hope it could be rolled up into an installer such as the AAF pack at some point, as this includes the Realtek USB Driver.

It should also work on a ALC4080 solution, but I can't check that.

Goal : Use an onboard Realtek USB SPDIF to play DTS over SPDIF to speakers.

My setup :

• Asus Zenith II Extreme - ALC1220 / S1220 Realtek USB OnBoard Audio
• Logitech Z906 DTS Speakers with SPDIF input
• Windows 11

Current config :

• OnBoard Audio installed with AAF DCH Optimus Audio driver installed, but not working in 5.1
• Creative Sound Blaster Z with DTS Connect, working in 5.1, which I want to remove.

Steps I took :

1. I had AAF installed, which I removed. You may not need to do this.
   
   Uninstall AAF Audio using steps as detailed with the drivers using the standard instructions :
   Before installing this modified driver, be sure to remove any and all residues from previous Realtek audio drivers or even if there are residues from previous versions of my mods, if they persist. For this you will need the DriverStoreExplorer (by @lostindark). Remove any drivers whose "Provider" is "Realtek", "Dolby", "DTS", "Creative", "A-Volute", "AAF Optimus", etc in the "Sound, Video and Game Controllers", "Extensions", "Software Components" and "Audio Processing Objects" device categories.
   
   
2. Reboot
   
   
3. Install the standard Realtek USB audio drivers, in my case these were "Realtek USB Audio Driver V6.3.9600.2342 For Windows 10/11 64-bit." from the Asus support page for my motherboard.
   You should locate your own.
   
   
4. Locate the "APO Driver [2.10.6]", and install with only the following options. You might get an antivirus warning, you will need to decide on how you want to proceed.
   • "FX Configurator 2.0.5.1"
   • "DTS Connect APO 6.0.0000.6".
5. Reboot
   
   
6. Go to the Sound Control panel in Windows and select "Realtek Digital Output" as your default audio and run a speaker test, you should get audio from L & R speakers only. If the name is different, note down the name, as you'll need it for steps below.
   
   
7. Go to the start menu and open "FX Configurator"
   
   
8. From "FX Configurator", in the Endpoints selection, select "[Active] Realtek Digital Output (Realtek USB Audio) {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx}"
   You will see that under Effect Configuration, that Local FX APO and Global FX APO are empty.
   
   
9. Select Product Config Tool from the ACTION list, it's near the bottom.
   
   
10. From the top selection, pick "3rd Effects Only", it should be already selected.
    
    
11. From the Products list, select "DTS Connect (SPDIF)" and press "Apply Product Settings to Selected Endpoints".
    This will populate Local FX APO and Global FX APO.
    
    
12. Make sure "Disable All Enhacments" is not checked under the Effects Configuration.
    
    
13. Close FX Configurator and Reboot
    
    
14. If all goes well, open the Sound Control Panel, go to the Properties for the "Realtek Digital Output", you set all the options to match the screenshot :
    
    View attachment 284052
    
    Specifically, make sure :
    • "Set as default sound device" is set to "Is default for audio"
    • "Format" = "DTS Interactive"
    • "Audio enhancements" = "Device Default Effects".
      This is VERY important, you won't enable the DTS encoder without this set. In my screenshot, it shows "AAF Optimus Effects" underneath it.
      If this is missing, you might need to install and uninstall AAF to get this.
15. Click Test, you should hear audio from L & R speakers only. Windows does not allow you to select 5.1 speakers for SPDIF endpoints, so it only tries to play stereo.
    
    
16. Done

I recommend these tests :

1. Using Chrome or Edge Chromium, search google for "Fraunhofer test with multichannel AAC" and play the video "HE-AAC Channel ID - With H.264 Video". You should hear audio correctly played back from the surround speakers.
   
   
2. VLC Player will correctly play a DTS test file in 5.1, but for some reason it will not play DD files in 5.1. I used the "DTS-HD_MA_SOUND_CHECK_51", which played back correctly.
   
   
3. I played Forza Horizon 4, which correctly played audio in 5.1 when the audio was set to Home Theatre.

For myself, the functionality i am seeing is identical to my Sound Blaster Z with DTS Connect.


Troubleshooting :

• I had some strange issues with 5.1 not working correctly, even though DTS Interactive was set. so what I did was
  1. From the FX Configurator, I selected the "Realtek Digital Output" Endpoint, and pressed "Jump to FxProperties Key"
  2. RegEdit will open to "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render\{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}\FxProperties", where the xxxx numbers match the id of the "Realtek Digital Output".
  3. I deleted the entire key and child objects "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render\{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}"
  4. Reboot
  5. Go back to Step 4 in the original guide above and perform all steps again.
• If the "Audio Enhancements" section is missing from the "Realtek Digital Output" properties section try :
  1. Go to FX Configurator
  2. Press "Rebuild All Audio Endpoints"
  3. Reboot
  4. Go to the "Realtek Digital Output" properties panel and try again.
• If the "Audio Enhancements" section is missing from the "Realtek Digital Output" properties section try :
  1. Install the "AAF DCH Optimus Audio" from the "Realtek DCH Modded Audio Driver for Windows 10/11 - Including Realtek USB Audio Devices" thread.
  2. Reboot
  3. Make sure audio works
  4. Then go back to Step 1 at the very beginning of this guide.
• If you're unsure if 5.1 is working, I disconnected the L & R speaker wires and retest the audio.
  WARNING : DON'T LET THE WIRES TOUCH EACH OTHER, in my case, I just disconnected the Negative/Black wire.

What doesn't work, which also does not work on Sound Blaster Z DTS Connect where applicable:

1. Tidal does not playback 5.1 on Windows, even though it says Atmos, it doesn't work. This is a limitation of the Tidal app.
   Although Tidal does playback Atmos tracks through 5.1 if you have it linked to your Plex account and play it back through the Windows Plex Media Player.
2. Plex via a web browser does not playback in 5.1. The "Plex for Windows" (not Server), which is on the Microsoft Store or downloadable from Plex, works fine in 5.1 DTS & DD
3. VLC Player, Dolby Digital files don't play the surround channels, whereas DTS is fine. I'm sure this is a long standing bug in VLC.
4. I can't see how to enable Dolby Digital Live Encoder, but as it is a much lower bitrate than DTS Encoder, so I can't say I'm worried.
5. The Realtek Audio Control Panel was missing for me, I located a link to the "Realtek Control Panel UWP" for the Microsoft Store and downloaded it.
   The 5.1 options are still missing, which made the control panel completely useless, so I wouldn't bother.
6. The "DECODE" light on my Logitech Z906 speakers will only light when it's playing audio. Btw, this is how I know that my PC is sending DTS Encoded audio.
7. It's not possible to select a 5.1 speaker configuration anywhere, but it is working.
8. Zoomer88 recommends disabling DTS Neo PC, by opening RegEdit and changing "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Analog Devices\DTSAPO. Just set the DTSEnableNeoPC to 0."
9. Updating the Realtek Driver, or a Major Windows Upgrade such as 22H2 to 23H2, will probably remove the settings, and you may need to perform the FX Configurator steps again.

First, I want to say thank you for this it helped a lot with my new AM5 7800X3D MSI MPG B650 CARBON WIFI build it has the ALC4080 USB Realtek chip, I confirmed this is working using https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html

I got full 5.1 surround over S/pdif with no issue so far on my Z906 Logitech sound system.

The only way I have ever seen the Decoding light stay on my unit even when I was using the old AAF driver on my other build was when I use a program called Voicemeeter Potato made by VB-audio, some of you might know them, but this program keeps the decoder active when in silence on both old and new builds.

hope my info helps someone!

just wanted to post here my specs and what chips I have so someone else might find them using Google!

 

[Kraven]

I do hope someone is able to create a driver package that does all of this in one go, as each time a major windows build comes out, I have to fiddle with the driver to re-enable DTS as the Windows Installer rebuilds the Audio Endpoints, which breaks the config.

 

[Ferather]

I would if I had a Realtek USB model to play with, not that I would get one specifically.

 

[Ferather]

@Kraven, my DTS Ultra pack 'should' now give you DTS Interactive on USB, based on your first post (I have not tested). Secondly, without a modded driver its still possible to mod the default config.
You need to find the registry points for the EP and FX data being used when the device is setup for the first time, EP holds the default format, FX the FX keys.

You may need to read the installed driver .inf file to determine the registry names being used (example OEMSPDIFSettingsOverride).

 

[Kraven]

Apologies, i've been MIA with a failed PSU. Just getting back up and running and will try this shortly.

Thank you for bringing it together.

 

[Kraven]

@Kraven, my DTS Ultra pack 'should' now give you DTS Interactive on USB, based on your first post (I have not tested). Secondly, without a modded driver its still possible to mod the default config.
You need to find the registry points for the EP and FX data being used when the device is setup for the first time, EP holds the default format, FX the FX keys.

You may need to read the installed driver .inf file to determine the registry names being used (example OEMSPDIFSettingsOverride).

Ferather, I think I got it working, but had lots of issues.

I used Driver Explorer and removed absolutely everything first.

1. FXConfigurator broke, for some reason using the FX.bat generated an error "Failed to create a process", which seems to come from NSudo being broken. Running "AutoHotkeyU64.exe FXConfigurator.ahk" from an administrator command prompt got it to work.

2. I had to amend the reg files Multichannel [Interactive].reg & Multichannel [Interactive].reg to add the GUID, as per your guide, so it definitely works.

What I didn't do was test this from a clean install, but something is working.

Thank you for this, but I don't think i'll have a definitive confirmation for a while.

 

[Ferather]

You are welcome, you should see a shortcut for FX Config, double click it, it will run as admin. Else you might get errors as you mentioned.
It definitely works as I did TeamViewer with an American friend with a USB ALC4080, all working as intended, fresh install.

 

[Kraven]

It’s the nsudo program, it’s a known issue, as the FX shortcuts call it. The big test will be with the next windows update, as this normally wipes out the settings.

Thanks again for this as it’s a big step forward for us USB based sound cards.

 

[Ferather]

Noted, and no problem. You will only need the last few posts in the DTS Ultra thread (starting @#237 for easy reading). Making sure you put the encoder (DTS Interactive) on composite EFX.
All setup correctly, Windows shouldn't reset the endpoint data, since the files are signed, and it should be no different to adding Equalizer APO.

Still let me know what happens, if 'Restore Defaults' is grey/missing from the advanced tab, when using Interactive, you should be all good to go without resets.
LFX, GFX, and single line SFX, MFX, EFX, should all be empty, you should add only the encoder to the currently existing Realtek-Other APO's.

You get the extra benefit of the already installed APO's processing audio before it reaches the encoder which is the final APO. Realtek panel features will work as normal.

 

[Ferather]

I edited-updated FX Config, with the latest Nsudo version.

 

[purplenoice]

The sound of the dts encoder is still rubbish when it has to upmix stereo tracks...

 

[Ferather]

You mean DTS Neo-PC? If you do, then yes I don't like stereo expand tech, its almost always noisy.
Stereo surround (cloned) is much better, given the bitrate. 640 /6 vs 1509 /6.

 

[purplenoice]

Yeah I mean DTS Neo.. I must Agree with yours second comment.

 

[Ferather]

Sadly its crap technology. Still it was before spatial, and DTS spatial is actually very good.
My DTS packages don't have Neo for this reason.

 

[purplenoice]

Yes I found my self in spatial full enjoy!
And I think like before the DTS is still better then Atmos.

 

[Ferather]

Quite a few people have said that.

 

[purplenoice]

I had the opportunity to test DTS-X and DolbyAccess, of course in their supported formats, and I still use DTS-X more than DolbyAccess.. Just my opinion, maybe I'm wrong about the quality between the formats

What's new with you, you're still perfecting dts driver?

 

[Ferather]

I guess it depends, people have contacted me about having a more positive experience with DTS:X HT. Even the response time.

Am on a break from updates at the moment, but yes.

 

[Ferather]

 

[purplenoice]

Did you know why DTSX for home theater is always a grayedout option in the application? Microsoft claims that it only works when using the XBox uwp app on windows!