5 1 Test Sound
You said that the windows speaker test came out perfect. Likely you have everything hooked up correct.i have a 5.1 high end sound system hooked up to a receiver (photos in signature link) and the youtube flash video tests only play on my fronts (and sometimes center) regardless of whether they say its a 5.1 surround sound test or not. My thoughts are that surround sound isnt supported by flash and/or youtube and those videos are garbage. In any case most internet streaming and windows sounds are stereo only.your surround sound content will be games, movies and some specially recorded music.
There might be some streaming content with surround sound but for the pc its pretty hard to come by.here are come actual working surround sound teststhe TS files can be played by windows media player. @wamdac: digital analog converter.
5.1 Surround Sound Test
Just what do you think a soundcard is (hint: it has a dac). Now, i do agree there are many different levels and some are better than others for sure.if sound was recorded in stereo then there is no way to get true surround from it.
Most of the time stereo sound to dac (regardless if its a high end sound system or just your soundcard) equals stereo sound and not surround. Any kind of surround you do get (from some headphones with an onboard dolby digital soundcard or with software or other such device) are virtual surround only. You cant pull something from nothing without faking it.the only way to get true surround is from a source recorded in such a manner. Again, your system's codecs need to be able to handle it for sure but most soundcards support all of the latest formats.i'm on a $1500 sound system (my receiver alone was $500) and i note the same issues as the op.
Its perfectly normal.