Realtek ALC885 not recognised, no 5.1 output

[LittlePinguine]

Hi every body,

I've switched from Win 7 to Fedora 15 with Gnome3 four days ago. This is my only experience with Linux. So far I must say I really like it, Gnome3 is very plesant to use.

In order to fully enjoy the new system, I'd like some advise to make it fully functionnal.

I've got a sound issue:

This command:
alsactl init
Returns this:
Found hardware: "HDA-Intel" "Intel IbexPeak HDMI" "HDA:10ec0888,19daa130,00100001 HDA:80862804,80860101,00100000" "0x19da" "0xa130"
Hardware is initialized using a generic method

This command:
lspci |grep Audio
Returns this:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)

Symptoms:

As you see, it detects the audio chips as Intel-HDA. Actually it's a Realtek ALC885 chip.
When playing videos with stereo sound, the sound is a little "late" to the image, about 250 miliseconds delay. On my Win 7 setup, all works fine, so I think it's the hardware that couses trouble.

Also films with 5.1 sound (DTS, AC-3...) come only over the front speakers with VLC and other players. But it's not a downmux from 5.1 to stereo. It plays back 5.1 but only the stereo speakers work. So a conversation that should be played back by the center and sub cannot be heared.

I'd like to have the optical SPdif-out working.

I've tested both, the analog tripple audio-jack and the optical output, both only provide stereo-sound.

Also I tried to install the 'realtek-linux-audiopack-5.16' which I grabed from the realtek download site. In the readme file they say:

Installation:
This Source Code is from www.alsa-project.org.
For OS installation, please remember add the Development tool kit.
For driver installation, please follow below steps.

Automatic install:
execute

./install

So I draged and dropped the install file onto a command window were I got 'su - ' priviledges and lanched the installation. Some lines were displayed, but I couldn't read anything. It just went too fast.

Could some of you provide me with some advice on how to make that hardware work properly, please?

EDIT: I actually did not drag and drop the install onto a command window, I just hit enter on the install file and confirmed "launch in a command windows".

[stevea]

Symptoms:

As you see, it detects the audio chips as Intel-HDA. Actually it's a Realtek ALC885 chip.
When playing videos with stereo sound, the sound is a little "late" to the image, about 250 miliseconds delay. On my Win 7 setup, all works fine, so I think it's the hardware that couses trouble.

No - the PCI interface an IntelHDA and you *may* have a realtek codec behind that interface.

The vid/sound delay is probably due to your vid player application. Many like Xine and mplayer have options to tweak the synchronization.

Since it works well in Win7 that means it is not the hardware. It's the application.

Which application are you using when the delay happens ?




Also films with 5.1 sound (DTS, AC-3...) come only over the front speakers with VLC and other players. But it's not a downmux from 5.1 to stereo. It plays back 5.1 but only the stereo speakers work. So a conversation that should be played back by the center and sub cannot be heared.

I can't recall where the sournd preferences are in F15 - but you likely need to assign the correct output type for Pulse. Setting it to 5.1 output.

Also play w/ alsamixer volumes , or better yet use pavucontrol.

sudo yum -y install pavucontrol
pavucontrol

In the Configuration tab select the "Analog 5.1 Output" or whatever.
In the 'Output Devices' tab tweak the volumes

[LittlePinguine]

Hi stevea, thank you for your input,

I have the sound delay with VLC (latest version). I just tried Xine, that works fine but it crashes when it comes to 1080p movies.

I installed pavucontrol. After the installation, it launched automatically and the audio output was set to 5.1 surround as I did it under F15 volume control before. The volume levels of each channel are at 75%.

In the output selections, there's only analog 2.1, 4, 5.1 output and digital stereo and digital HDMI but no digital 5.1.
The hardware should support digital 5.1 (optical) output as it's what I use on Win7.

Optical stereo works fine.

Eventhough these settings seem fine, when it comes to AC-3 or DTS playback, only the front left and front right speakers have sound. All conversations that should come from the front speaker cannot be heard. Also, there are no audio options awailable in VLC --> audio --> audio device is grey and not clickable.

Also when I do the speaker test in F15, only front left and front right are having output, the rest is muted.

Cheers

Edit: I also tried to reproduce this (http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubuntu-linux/100864-realtek-hd-audio-alc888.html#post500720), without any result, I can't get the install working, I'm too noob for the commands I guess.

[astrosports]

I have the same problem (only front right and front left speakers play). I have an onboard ALC662 audio chipset, (6 channels) that should be suitable for 5.1 analog surround. The issue I have isn't getting the setting to analog 5.1, but that the hardware only shows 1 output, when it should take 3.

(Namely looking under "Applications" > "System Tools" > "System Settings" > "Sound" > "Hardware")

I've searched around for previous fixes (surround sound seems to be a semi-popular topic), but many are for previous distributions (I'm on Fedora 15), and I'm also hesitant to do the commands mentioned here: http://fedorasolved.org/Members/fenris02/pulseaudio-fixes-and-workarounds as the title mentions the fixes are for chopp /skippy audo.

I tried installing pavucontrol as well, but that hasn't changed the matter either.