The device is my HP desktop computer.
I have hdmi going to the tv for video, and a (headphone) jack going from my computer to the surround sound receiver.
I can hear sound, but the problem is, sound is only coming from the two front speakers and the woofer.
So is my problem with the sound card? Do I need to buy a surround card before I can expect this to work?
I already did a test, so I know all speakers are working.
Um, you won’t get true surround sound from a two channel headphone jack.
Depending on your surround sound system and TV, you could either run the HDMI from your computer to the A/V receiver then HDMI from the A/V receiver to your TV. Or if your TV is capable of HDMI pass through (I think) then run HDMI from comp to TV, then HDMI back to your A/V receiver.
You will have to jigger with the settings so that all three devices know who is doing what but that shouldn’t be hard to do if your equipment is relatively modern, like not more than 5 years old or so.
Your biggest issue may be convincing/finding the right setting for your computer’s audio tools to push out through HDMI
It is possible to get 5.1 surround from a stereo output provided the stereo source is encoded for Pro Logic II (PLII). Even if the stereo output has not been encoded for Pro Logic, the PLII setting on your receiver can fake a surround sound experience from a normal stereo signal. This is fake surround though, Useful for getting surround sound from stereo content such as music and older stereo movies.
The best option is to get your computer to send a true 5.1 signal, for that you need a digital output such as HDMI. If that is not possible then you can still get fake surround by using PLII setting on the receiver and in some circumstances you can get true surround if the stereo signal has been encoded appropriately.
I think the more usual configuration, if the TV is capable of Dolby Digital passthrough, is you would have video+audio going to the TV through HDMI and then audio going from the TV to the home theater receiver through an optical cable. That’s how I have things connected, so that media from any HDMI source plus audio from the TV itself all goes to the same input on the A/V receiver. The alternative is to use the receiver as the HDMI switch if it has that capability.
The trick here is that it’s not clear if the OP’s computer and software can multiplex audio on the HDMI out. I don’t have a desktop computer with HDMI but my tablet has HDMI out and multiplexing the audio is a selectable option.
I haven’t been particularly impressed by Dolby Pro Logic and even less by the fake “upscaling” of non-existent surround information. So much material now has multichannel sound that it’s worth the effort to do it right if you do it at all. Otherwise, I’d focus my resources on the quality of the front speakers and leave it at that.
I had a similar issue in driving 4 speakers and a sub off my PC with a stereo headphone minijack output from the PC (just stereo not surround) to 2 RCA jacks into the receiver-amp input with a stereo mini to dual RCA adapter plugs then driving 4 speakers and a sub from that.
The issue (in my case) was that on some modern receivers just choosing A+B speakers will not do it, you need to cycle through the receiver’s choice of output modes to find stereo 5.1 or some surround variant thereof before the surround mode kicks in. This feature is often labeled under a “theatre modes” selector switch of some kind .
Does the desktop have an optical or RCA-jack “digital audio” output? Run a cable from that to a matching input on the AV receiver.