Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/s/wyWhWwCkHY
Well... this is starting to feel like a bad joke...
The current equipment: Samsung TV QE65Q60RAT
Speakers: Logitech Z906
Things I tried:
Steam machine -> HDMI -> TV -> Toslink -> receiver -> Stereo
Steam machine -> HDMI -> TV -> ARC -> HDMI Extractor -> Toslink -> receiver -> Stereo
Steam machine -> Generic USB Sound card "CM106 like sound device" -> Toslink -> receiver -> 5.1 Sound, randomly failing and then the card not being detected again until restart. Absolutely unreliable. Tried with two cards, same behavior, the second one would fail even faster.
Steam machine -> Creative X4 (usb) -> Toslink -> receiver -> no sound!! are you kidding me? apparently this is a known issue, none of the output formats from the X4 are compatible with the Logitech Z906!!!
I am currently waiting for an analogue cable (should be here in 3 days) to connect the X4 to the analogue input of the receiver to test it. Honestly, I am not very confident as it also failed in the same way as the generic usb card during the tests, but I want to try everything before I return it.
Is there anyone out there actually using the steam machine with a 5.1 sound system successfully??
If that's the case, what hardware and connections are you using?
At this point I am open to replace the whole sound system, this is where I usually watch movies and series, and need a full working media player.