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[CraigNZ]

I am running 33.0.37 version of MC.  The system consists of an Asus PN40 mini PC, HDMI direct to an Anthem AVM70 8k processor.  I have enabled WDM in MC and configured it for 5.1 speaker configuration.  The properties shows the link supports 16 bit 192 khz .. but when running direct from Amazon Music to the HDMI device (not using WDM) the link shows 24 bit processing capable.  I read somewhere that 24 bit is actually going through WDM even though in properties it says 16 bit.  I most use this system to listen to streaming music from the Amazon Music app on windows and with an unlimited membership I can see tracks of UltraHD with 24/192 format.  I have configured the audio in MC to use the AVM70 HDMI device WASAPI.  No DSP options.  Bitstreaming enabled.

Now the problem.  If I select an external music source (e.g., Amazon Music) or an internal music source (e.g., Icecast) I always get "Multi PCM".  Since these are 2 channel sources and I am bitstreaming then I should see "Stereo" coming into the AVR.  If I look at the Audio Path it shows 6 ch output, 24 bit padded.  This is incorrect.  It should be 2 ch output, 16 bit or so.

Is there anyway to get bitstreaming to work so it shows up as "Stereo".  Or is windows somehow capturing the audio first, before the driver, and seeing I have 5.1 speakers it goes ahead and upmixes?  I was hoping the raw audio from the app would go direct to the driver first.

[CraigNZ]

Forgot to mention, I am running Windows 11 v 23H2.

When using an external streaming music app like Audials, in MC the audio path shows 192kHz 24Bit 6ch, which is the way I configured JR driver in windows sound settings.  So I think what is happening is the app is going to windows first, picking up the configuration for the driver.  The raw data stream, according to Audials, is 192kHz MP3.  So someone is converting this .. windows or WDM.

Here is what I hoped would happen, Audials would convert the 2ch 192kHz MP3 raw data stream to a 16 bit 44kHz 2ch datastream and pass it to the driver.  WDM would then bitstream this to the AVR and the AVR would show a "stereo" input.  Since this is not the case, someone is upmixing it and outputing to the AVR as Multi PCM.

[CraigNZ]

If I set my default audio output to the AVM70, not using WDM, I get the same results.  In other words, if I set the number of speakers in the AVM70 driver configuration to 2 ch then I do not get Multi PCM but instead Stereo on my AVM.  But if I set the number of speakers to 5.1 then I get Multi PCM.  By using two different audio drivers, WDM and AVM70, with both configured to 2ch I get Stereo on the AVR, but 5.1 channels and I get multiPCM.  So it does appear this is being done by the application and windows ahead of the audio output driver.  Not sure if there is anyway to override this in windows.

I am surprised though that if I stream icecast directly within MC that it would also do the same thing as the other streaming apps.  I am guessing MC uses some windows services to input the streaming audio, which is then converted before MC gets a chance to pass it on to the WDM driver.  I was hoping all the streaming audio processing would be done within MC .. which hopefully would not upmix the datastream based on the WDM driver configuration.  I did enable audio DSP function and disabled upmixing but that made no difference.