Hmm. This is tricky to answer you.
First of all, your Z-5500 is capable of decoding Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and PCM 2.0
I would assume that you just played the movie without switching your audio option to Dolby Digital 5.1, which would mean you are playing your movie in Uncompressed PCM 5.1, which your speaker receiver/decoder does not support.
The menus and stuff may be in Dolby Digital, but not the movie itself.
Setting PowerDVD to SPDIF is the correct configuration for your case, since you are using TOSLINK.
I've also noticed you have a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. So I'm rather curious how you are able to hook up between your sound card and your speakers via TOSLINK. I have this faint suspicion that what you've been hearing from your PC is through analog and not TOSLINK.
In either case, if you want your speaker to decode Dolby Digital and DTS, you must configure your X-Fi to passthrough Dolby Digital and DTS stream out. Otherwise, your X-Fi will decode it, even if you set PowerDVD to SPDIF.
I'd try to put it as clearly as I can.
PowerDVD > 2.0 Speakers
This means PowerDVD will do the decoding and output to analog 2.0 speakers
PowerDVD > 5.1 Speakeres
Similarly, PowerDVD will decode and output to analog 5.1 speakers
PowerDVD > SPDIF > X-Fi decode
PowerDVD will not decode anything, and pass the Dolby Digital Stream out, but your X-Fi will decode, and output to your analog 5.1 speakers
PowerDVD > SPDIF > X-Fi passthrough
PowerDVD and X-Fi won't decode anything, and will pass the Dolby Digital Stream out digitally via COAXIAL or TOSLINK to external receivers/decoders. In which, your case, will be your Z-5500.
However, I just remembered you have Windows Vista, so I'm not really sure if this is supported.
PS - No offence to you dude, but could you please break up your paragraphs? It's really difficult to read.
|