Well some of the information is better than none your almost complete.

I think i might know your issue and maybe we can figure out mine sometime. I might go a little too basic so just confirm a few things.

Confirm your default windows audio playback is the HDMI to the AVR
Confirm it is configured for 7.1 speakers (not 100% sure this is required yet but confirms the HDMI is working and you get test tones to listen to)
Start PowerDVD (use the executable or media center)
Go to the settings and audio options
The speaker environment should be system default (aka HDMI) {using media center interface atm}
The output mode will say PCM decoded by PowerDVD and only offer a 2nd option of Non-decoded Dolby Digital/DTS to external device
If you set Non-decoded Dolby Digital/DTS now you will get a compressed DTS and Dolby, but if you are like me you want TRUE HD and MASTER AUDIO
Pop in blu ray with one of these formats
PLAY THE BLU RAY
You should start to hear standard audio over the HDMI and it may be PCM or Dolby/DTS
Go back to the settings and to the audio options
It will of course be on HDMI, but confirm it didn't change
Next look at the output mode again and select it
This time you will see a new option at the bottom Non-decoded high definition audio to external device
Select this and apply the change
If you were not in Dolby/DTS you will notice it will switch from PCM to one of these formats on AVR if the previews or menu supports it
Start the main feature
Your amp should then switch to the Master Audio or True HD formats
The information bar will say which version it is outputing and say compressed audio for the last

If you dont have HD audio now then let me know and we can trace things down a little further

You do not have to do these steps every time! It will remember from now on that you prefer DTS/Dolby on non HD audio DVD and Blu Ray. It will remember from now on that anytime you have a Master Audio or True HD Blu ray that you prefer that over pcm and DTS/Dolby. If you enter the audio settings and force it back to PCM or the standard DTS/Dolby you may have to set it back later to HD to get these formats back.

Hi Larry

Thanks for having a look.

Yes the default windows audio playback is the avr through HDMI
It is configured for 5.1 speakers and the test tones work a charm.

I followed your steps and it was set to HDMI (current system setting) by defualt
I only had the two output modes. pcm and non-decoded dolby digital/DTS
Movie went in and the audio works fine
back to settings and the input didnt change from HDMI

However the output box was still sadly populated by only two options
Iv tried with several blu rays to all the same avail.

If you or anyone else has some more ideas i would greatly appreciate them.

Now i have been hearing some things about codecs, could it be something to do with that.
I havnt touched or added any codecs, knowingly. unless they came in when i installed VCL or PowerDVD 10.

Thanks

Codecs can sometimes interfere yes. I admit i am not that great at reading through the dxdiag and maybe Cyberlink-Michael or another user can chime in on items they notice in it.

I will visit another area first. My onkyo tx-sr605 has an option to tell the audio to only stay at the AVR and not pass on to the TV. I had a similar problem as you and was reading about EDID overrides.

On the TX-SR605 I went to setup
The main menu displayed
I went down to hardware setup
I choose the HDMI on the hardware setup sub menu
The HDMI Sub sub menu will have HDMI AUDIO OUT mine was set to ON so i turned it off
Your computer should detect new items connected when you leave setup
For best measures I suggest a reboot

This should help since you are doing video card -> hdmi -> AVR -> hdmi -> tv.

What was happening on mine was the TV was overiding the EDID information. I could see all the formats at the Default Audio device, but PowerDVD seemed to only be reading the audio from the last device on the chain.

If this does not work there was a step I did in between untill i found that option in my amp as i was researching EDID and how to make it work. Your not going to like it but hook up at least 1 DVI port to an HDMI adapter. You will use the multiple monitor output this way since you have 2 HDMI cables active. Run 1 HDMI cable only to the AVR. Disconnect the AVR HDMI OUT from the TV! Run the 2nd HDMI cable to the TV directly. It is is important the AVR HDMI out is not connected from my experience.
Video card -> hdmi -> AVR -> HDMI OUT IS NOT CONNECTED TO ANYTHING
-> hdmi -> TV

Let me know what you get from this, but basically if this does not work we need to dig deeper and look at EDID overrides maybe.

There are lot of posts about EDID overrides in various forums as some AVR's do not have a way to terminate the HDMI AUDIO to the AVR only and other AVR's replace the EDID with only what the TV can handle.

My very similar onkyo 608 as the same menus and option
However the audio out to the monitor was already turned off.
(by the way its a monitor im displaying on not a TV if it makes any difference)
So i decided to turn it on and i maneged to get the sound coming out of the monitors speakers.
Then i turned it off and it just went back to the way things were before. rebooted and same again.

Now it gets interesting.
I tried your wee work around of running hdmi to the avr with no screen attached. and running the screen from another hdmi port on the graphics card.
So turned on fine and displayed the image however in playback devices the monitor was set as the default audio device and
the other device showing as "tx-sr608-1" the avr was greayed out and said not plugged in, so i couldnt select it to output audio too. hmm...
Had a wee look into this and turning the avr off then on was advised. tried it, nothing happened. tried disabling the audio driver in device manager then enabling them, nothing happed. still "not plugged in". I also tried each of these options with a reboot.
I also tried uninstalling the drivers. The "tx-sr608-1" then disappeared from the playback devices. i then rebooted. drivers installed and showed in device manger but no sign of the "tx-sr608-1" in playback devices.
It only came back when i plugged the pc to the avr then the avr to the monitor. Bringing me back to my original setup.
Throughout all of this still no joy in powerdvd.

The audio deviced for the avr being grayed out when not connected to the monitor seems suspicious.

I should also have mentioned that i am using a dual monitor set up. So usually in playback devices there are 2 devices.
"VX2260wm-0" one monitor, used for secondary display
and "tx-sr608-1" the avr which is connected to the primary monitor

Both from the graphics card. "VX2260wm-0" being dvi to hdmi and the "tx-sr608-1" hdmi to avr then hdmi to monitor

Both monitors are identical. and the hd audio still does not work when i disconect the 2nd display.

Thanks again for helping me out with this much appreciated

Matt

Another interesting point is that the "tx-sr608-1" only came back into the audio playback devices list (after disappearing when i uninstalled the drivers) when the avr was connected back up to the monitor.

Interesting...

I assuming an HDMI monitor...

Interesting my TX-SR605 shows up in multiple monitor mode as a display device even when the HDMI out is not connected to another HDMI display device. The audio playback list showed the AVR unlike yours. Does your AVR have the option to turn on and off the HDMI monitor output?

Did you confirm the AVR showed as a second monitor and was the audio enabled on the Nvidia driver?

Out of curiosity since I dont see it mentioned. I understand both monitors are the same. Did you completely disconnect 2nd monitor? So that you only had the AVR and output to the montor? IE daisy chained and then as seperate. Just making sure, because mine was not this difficult.

Ok go ahead and give up the information requested earlier in that link...
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/8449.page
While your at it have you found other TX-SR608 users that have had to enable an EDID overide?

Yes both are hdmi monitors

The avr does not have the option to turn off hdmi monitor output. can you do it with your 605, as my 608 will be the same im guessing.

Yes the avr showed as a second monitor and the audio was enabled on the nvidia driver.

Yes i tried all combinations of single monitors and daisy chaining and seperate.
always the same effect. showed as a seconed monitor when not plugged into a monitor. and showed as unplugged in the playback devices.

After searching the internet i havnt found a specific case of 608 users having to edid overide.
But people with a similar sounding prolem as mine guess its a handshake issue.
However, if i set my playback to the little speakers on the 2nd monitor i only get the pcm option for output on powerDVD
then when i switch to the avr for output i get to choose dolby digital/dts.


Here is the setup information in full.
(sorry i did not include this to begin with)

PowerDVD Trial Verison
PowerDVD SR Number DVD101118-01
PowerDVD TR Number TR101125-051
Windows 7 64bit
administrator account
Is your PowerDVD a Retail product or bundles with HW ---- downloaded trial
Used VGA---NVidea GTX 460 1GB
Used VGA driver version---266.58
Used Audio device---HDMI to an Onkyo 608 avr
Used Audio device driver version-- 1.01.0013.0000 (English)
The Audio setting in PowerDVD -- HDMI
and in OS (default devices)-- TX-SR608-1
2- NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Used ODD drive (full model name and Firmware Version)
Drive: D:
Model: ATAPI iHAS124 Y ATA Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (English), 7/13/2009 23:19:54, 147456 bytes

this is not a blu ray drive. I am using a .mkv file with DTS-HD master audio (which is showing up in powerdvd as input)
to test the setup
will using a blu ray drive help with issues?? Dont want to buy if i have to get a stand alone BD player to get HD audio,
again it shows DTS-HD master audio in the input

Used Display(s)
HDMI
60hz
both identical. Viewsonic VX2260WM
dual monitor environment -- i have tried with single aswell.
extended mode (if use two display) again i have tried clone

What kind of Antivirus SW are you using
Comodo firewall
AVG anti- virus free edition 2011

A fresh DX diag has also been added.

Under the input/output assignments is monitor out
The HDMI monitor out off/on option tells my SR605 if it should use the HDMI instead of component or monitor out
This option controls the upconvert level my AVR does. If HDMI monitor out is on then all video sources upconvert and are put accross the HDMI.

I can't really say it turns off the HDMI, but helped me during my testing.

I will have to let others speak on the MKV and PowerDVD since i have no files like these with TrueHD or Master Audio encoded in them. I will do a looking around and see what i can find and test on my setup. If you know of a public domain sample that is MKV with Master Audio or TrueHD let me know so i can download it. Please do not post anything that is copyrighted as this could get you in trouble with these forums.

I will look at your DXDiag, but i am weak in this area and maybe some others can speak up.

I can tell you with the PowerDVD 10 Trial I was able to play Master Audio and TrueHD using my GTX 460 HDMI to my TX-SR605 when playing a Blu Ray. I didn't test none Blu Ray formats...

I did a quick scan on EDID and TX-SR608 but didn't get to far. Handshaking though? i will see what i can find on that.

The ODD Drive model is ok I believe that is a Liteon iHAS124, but the firmware they want is the one flashed on the drive. It can be seen in the device list with a little digging or using another piece of software to tell. Please understand this is based off the information you provided and I would NOT just jump on upgrading it yet since you are not playing blu rays.
http://www.firmwarehq.com/Lite-On/iHAS124%2BY/files.html
There may be more official updates at Liteon using thier software and personally those are the only updates I would apply.

I can see some differences in your DXDiag from both of your postings. I am not seeing indications of SP1 being applied yet am I correct on this? Personally i had my working before SP1...

I must warn you i have seen some problems in the past on these forums with Comodo Firewall. I really doubt turning off the firewall and the antivirus software will give you the HD audio you want. Out of curiosty did you try this?

I did have problems with clone mode and had to switch to extended with a primary display forced to get a reliable play back with blu ray

The problem is solved!!

I had a check with MKV and HD audio. soon found this http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/13346.page

Although it shows as DTS-HD in the input. powerDVD apparently cant handle it. and outputs DTS

so i downloaded some new test files http://www.mediafire.com/?x1mwwymzqwu
(these will be good for others to test with aswell. going into BDMV then STREAM and playing the .m2ts file there
Should i make a new post letting people know about the download, as i think others could find it usefull. there is an ISO for many different formats.)

And like magic everything worked as it should have. selected hd output and the lights on the avr lit up (along with my smile)


I must apologize larry as i feel i have wasted your time . Although i woudlnt have got there if you hadnt questioned the mkv format so a big thanks to you. And the great help you gave in general.

You mentioned in your first post "I think i might know your issue and maybe we can figure out mine sometime."
If you tell me your issue or point to a thread where it is being discussed i would like return the favor and lend my research to it.

Again, thank you very much

Matt
p.s well time to go off and get lost in the world of buying a projector

So it seems even if the MKV has HD audio PowerDVD does not currently pass it. I didn't pay close attention to the date and the version release, but the most recent updates do not mention adding HD audio to MKV.

I must admit I am on the verge of making some MKV files with HD audio to see if i can break mine. I have mostly found M2TS. Since the files you have for testing were ISO powerDVD probably just considered them to be Blu Ray and presented the extra output after pressing play. Out of curriosty now that you have that enabled, did you go back to your MKV and try it again? Cause once it is enabled as long as the settings are not changed it will hold that new setting. It might be the PowerDVD needs to treat MKV like it does M2TS in order for it to actually play the HD audio. Which from that post you found they were not doing back then.

Well here is my main thread at the moment...
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16172.page
I started off having nice Blu Ray playback untill i reached 1 of my movies. Then i ran into a problem and from there it has progressed downhill. So far no DVD's I try i have stutters. Most every Blu Ray has stutters now, even ones that played near perfect before! As always the first thing pointed out is copy protection so I downloaded a trial of AnyDVD to see if it relieved the stuttering. I found out so far PowerDVD and AnyDVD do not like each other if your using WMC mode of PowerDVD. If i go start playing under normal PowerDVD then AnyDVD will function and remove protection on the fly. The movie still has stuters. I admit less, but still stutters. So they next thing will be something with my hardware. Well I am bit miffed at this point because when all copy protection was enabled I had near perfect playback untill this movie.

Anyways I would be curious how your playback goes with your Nvidia GTX460. There are a ton more ATI users from experience using PowerDVD.

When i was playing the test files i was mounting the iso images and opening the disk contents and playing the m2ts file. So powerdvd was reading just the file. immediately tried the mkv file after but still no hd audio. must be the file type.

Ok matches what i tried to do. I also had to load M2TS sometimes and other times the mounted iso worked directly. Odly enough i have tried creating my own MKV files and i am failing at getting true HD audio stored inside. If i manage to locate to find a way to get the HD audio inside then i can see if playing that HD audio inside MKV works. So far i am thinking cyberlink is only accepting HD audio inside certain containers and ignoring all other containers as a possibility. This would sort of match the statement from that post you found.