Stereo sound through whole 5.1 speaker set - is it possible with WinXP or 7?

Question

Is it possible to "upmix" (split) stereo output from games, winamp, youtube and so on through 5.1 speaker set? Movies from DVD or some games uses all 6 speakers, but most of today's usage does not.

I know foobar2000 can upmix stereo MP3 to all speakers, I'd like to process all stereo sound that way.

Is there any solution for Windows XP or 7?

EDIT: I'm talking about onboard 5.1 sound output AC97 nForce2 chipset in my case. Definitely low-end. EDIT2: No digital output, 3 analog mini-jacks there.

Answer 1

As Skelly says, it would depend on your driver.

For me, it's this setting:

Answer 2

Yes it's possible, though it might depend on your sound card drivers. I use a Creative X-Fi card and the Creative Control Panel app lists two faux surround modes for upmixing stereo: Stereo Surround and Stereo Xpand. If I remember correctly, the former option does what you need, it basically puts the stereo signal from the front L+R spakers in the rear L+R speakers too, I don't remember what happens to the center channel though, it's been a while since I've used a surround speaker set.

Check your driver controls for any similar-looking options.

Answer 3

If your hardware has a 5.1 output path, the upmix will be supported.

If you are wiring your audio output to external equipment through a stereo path,
you will be limited to that.