Onboard Realtek HD Audio Dolby Digital Live/DTS Connect Not Working in Windows 10

If you have onboard Realtek HD sound, and you’ve updated to Win 10 — even if you’re using the unlocked drivers — you will notice that it is no longer able to play anything in Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. The options are still available, but testing them produces a “Failed to play test tone” error message, and switching to DD or DTS through optical out (or any form of output) gives you dead silence when trying to play a file, or a “This device does not support the selected format” error message.

THIS IS A KNOWN BUG. It is *not* your drivers. Don’t go crazy uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. The fix is at least more than three weeks out, unfortunately, even for those in the Windows Insider program. It is being worked on, however. You can find the thread for it right here:

Realtek HD ALC892 – DTS Connect not working

Currently my workaround is to send HDMI out to my TV through my graphics card (nVidia GeForce 980Ti), then Toslink from the TV to receiver, and this way I can at least get AC3 (Dolby Digital) to work; unfortunately, I can’t get it to work in VLC Player, only in the supplied Windows 10 “Movies and TV” app. It’s annoying, but I’m not shelling out money for a new sound card when it’s a known bug being worked out that will eventually get resolved.

Good luck to all of you having the same problem.

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4 Responses to Onboard Realtek HD Audio Dolby Digital Live/DTS Connect Not Working in Windows 10

  1. samuel says:

    I am able to play a mkv with VLC player (link below), but i’am not able to play any games with DTS or dolby surround

    Can you help me?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zWDiR8NcHs

    • samuel says:

      when I tested dts and dolby in my peripheric, all works well but when i want to play far cry 4 or star craft 2, stereo are the default chanel and i can’t change this.

      • Kip says:

        See my reply to Samuel regarding the status of the fix. You can read about the fix for onboard audio here: http://goo.gl/FLWNkd — it’s coming, the Insiders get it first, but it’ll be here for us regular users eventually (I may go back to the Insider program to get it earlier, myself — you can join if you want to, it’s open to anyone, just be aware you might have to reinstall Windows if you get a bad test build)

    • Kip says:

      They have *just* fixed this in the Window Insider program (if you have onboard audio, that is). You’ll also need the unlocked drivers — you can find a how-to here, but note that this DOES NOT WORK FOR WINDOWS 10 yet. If you want to join the Insider program, you can, it’s open to anyone, and you’ll get the fix sooner. Last I checked the thread, the fix wouldn’t be out to regular users until November or later. Here’s the video on how to unlock the drivers (once Windows 10 is fixed), and it also has, in the description, a link to the officialY MSFT discussion thread on the fix. It *is* coming. You can still watch movies in Dolby Digital Live using this method, however (see the discussion thread on the fix). Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3vLvFgVlz

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