Audigy 2 owners and/or know-it-alls! Get in here!

[StattlichPassat]

I'm thinking about upgrading my Live! value card for one of these- the DVD Audio feature sounds awesome! I have no traditional computer speakers to hook up to the card- is there an SPDIF output that I can send a digital 5.1 signal to my home theater receiver? Also, can I play DVD Audio through my home theater system with this? If this is possible, I'm getting this card- only $108 at NewEgg for the bare card in a retail box (no Live! drive- don't need it anyway... or do I?).

 

[Accord99]

You can pass through DD and DTS signals from the soundcard to your receiver over SPDIF. DVD-A can only be played by using the analog connections to your receiver.

 

[chizow]

I bought this card for $100 after MIR at BB a week ago or so. Definitely a huge improvement over SBLive!, you won't be disappointed. I think I saw another site with it for $100 MIR (CompUSA maybe?), and the card comes with 2 nice games (Hitman 2 and SoF2).

As for the Live! drive, theres a bunch of neat features there for inputting and outputting various audio components. I read over the features and figured I wouldn't need them. $99 for sound is a tad pricey as it is, $200 is overkill for my needs. As for the SP/DIF output to receiver, I'm gonna rig it up to my 5.1 DTS receiver today. I was looking at what I needed and it looks like a mini-plug to Toslink/optical converter is necessary. Mini to coax may also work. It sells for $12.99+6 S+H, so I'm gonna stop by BB and see if they have a reasonably priced monster cable converter. The mini-->Toslink should also handle DVD-Audio, but I can't confirm that until I set it up 🙂

Chiz

 

[WebDude]

Originally posted by: chizow
The mini-->Toslink should also handle DVD-Audio, but I can't confirm that until I set it up 🙂

Chiz

Unfortunately that is not the case. As Accord99 said, the output of DVD-A is analog ONLY. This is by design, to prevent digital copying of DVD-Audio discs. Even the stand alone DVD-Audio players have the 6 seperate RCA phono outputs for DVD-A, and you have to make the analog connections to your receiver. If your 5.1 Home Theatre Receiver has separate inputs for each channel, then you should have no problem hooking it up to the Audigy2 to hear DVD-Audio. (The Audigy2 has 3 stereo miniplug outputs for the 6 channels, so you might have to get miniplug to dual RCA phono adpaters or whatever, but that's not a biggie.)

WebDude😎

 

[StattlichPassat]

Rats!! This is what Creative's tech support just got back to me with this afternoon- DVD Audio is only an analog signal, and couldn't be transferred in 5.1 to my receiver. 🙁 Well, I still want this card, but maybe not quite as soon as I had hoped. Dangit, if that signal was digital, they'd be selling these things like hotcakes even more than they are now!

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
Rats!! This is what Creative's tech support just got back to me with this afternoon- DVD Audio is only an analog signal, and couldn't be transferred in 5.1 to my receiver. 🙁 Well, I still want this card, but maybe not quite as soon as I had hoped. Dangit, if that signal was digital, they'd be selling these things like hotcakes even more than they are now!

If the signal was digital, the RIAA would have the courts force Creative to remove the product from the market then they would sue Creative for millions in damages for the cards that made it into customers hands. Digital does not = better. The quality of the recording and the equipment being used to play it are more important than the way the audio is transferred provided you aren't trying to send it through a 200m cable or something.

(The Audigy2 has 3 stereo miniplug outputs for the 6 channels, so you might have to get miniplug to dual RCA phono adpaters or whatever, but that's not a biggie.)

Including the subwoofer there are 7 channels. In order to get all of them you need to use 2 stereo and a mini- triple RCA.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Originally posted by: Pariah

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
Rats!! This is what Creative's tech support just got back to me with this afternoon- DVD Audio is only an analog signal, and couldn't be transferred in 5.1 to my receiver. 🙁 Well, I still want this card, but maybe not quite as soon as I had hoped. Dangit, if that signal was digital, they'd be selling these things like hotcakes even more than they are now!

If the signal was digital, the RIAA would have the courts force Creative to remove the product from the market then they would sue Creative for millions in damages for the cards that made it into customers hands. Digital does not = better. The quality of the recording and the equipment being used to play it are more important than the way the audio is transferred provided you aren't trying to send it through a 200m cable or something.

How's this? Please explain.

 

[Pariah]

The recording industry forbids digital transmissions of DVD-A and SuperCD streams to prevent perfect copies from being made. This applies to any equipment capable of playing these 2 formats be it standalone players or soundcards. In order for Creative to be able to release a product capable of playing DVD-A it has to disable the digital outputs when the disc is being played.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Ahhh... so you couldn't just plug it into the input on a stereo's CD-R/W component unit. Ok, makes sense. Even though that still sucks- I understand that digital is not always better than analog, but that one feature is going to put off an A2 purchase for me for awhile.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
Ahhh... so you couldn't just plug it into the input on a stereo's CD-R/W component unit. Ok, makes sense. Even though that still sucks- I understand that digital is not always better than analog, but that one feature is going to put off an A2 purchase for me for awhile.

Why would that put off your purchase? If you want DVD-A, analog is your only option even if you buy a $5000 standalone DVD-A player. What exactly are you planning on waiting for?

 

[StattlichPassat]

Well ok, I guess the question is, how do I get DVD Audio from my computer to my home theater system? Because I don't have traditional computer speakers (just a stereo mini --> RCAs into an Aux input on the receiver). Is DVD Audio traditionally stereo or is it 5.1 and beyond? Maybe I don't need a digital connection- I just want to enjoy the sound on my audio system the way it was designed to sound.

 

[sharkeeper]

The quality of the recording and the equipment being used to play it are more important than the way the audio is transferred provided you aren't trying to send it through a 200m cable or something.

That's what balanced feeds are for! 🙂

The analogue output on this card is far better than ANY PC speaker system's limits anyhow.

If you still wanted to make (damn good) copies, you could feed the analogue outputs into a board and make ADAT "masters" that could be used to make DVD-A copies. You could also downsample to 16/44.1 (at a considerable loss in fidelity obviously) for the making of CD's.

Cheers!

 

[WebDude]

Originally posted by: Pariah
Including the subwoofer there are 7 channels. In order to get all of them you need to use 2 stereo and a mini- triple RCA.

Pariah,
I'm confused about whether DVD-audio is 5.1 or 6.1. Stand alone players like this one have 5 channels plus a subwoofer (i.e. 5.1) in the back. Are some DVD-audio disks 6 channel (5.1), and some 7 (6.1)?

WebDude

 

[Lore]

All this talk about analog output only does _not_ affect regular movie DVDs, right? Can I still output DD5.1/DTS via SPDIF out?

 

[WebDude]

Originally posted by: Lore
All this talk about analog output only does _not_ affect regular movie DVDs, right? Can I still output DD5.1/DTS via SPDIF out?

Yes. The Audigy2, like it predecessors, has a digital out that will pass the AC3 or DTS digital signal on DVD movies out to your home theater reciever or whatever.

 

[Pariah]

"Well ok, I guess the question is, how do I get DVD Audio from my computer to my home theater system? Because I don't have traditional computer speakers (just a stereo mini --> RCAs into an Aux input on the receiver)."

That works fine, all you need is analog in on your receiver. For optimal results you'll want a receiver with 5.1 analog in.

"Is DVD Audio traditionally stereo or is it 5.1 and beyond?"

It can be either stereo or 5.1. Stereo can be up to 24bit 192kHz, while 5.1 is up to 24bit 96kHz.

"I'm confused about whether DVD-audio is 5.1 or 6.1."

See above.

"Are some DVD-audio disks 6 channel (5.1), and some 7 (6.1)?"

There are no 6.1 DVD-A discs, but the Audigy is capable of 6.1 for use with Dolby Digital EX or simply expanded other formats using Creative's CMSS. You can use 3 stereo mini-RCA cables for 5.1 analog out and they will fulfill the needs for almost all situations. 6.1 at the moment isn't a very commonly used setup and not many applications take advantage of it. Not to mention you need 6 speakers and a sub to take advantage of it.

 

[MasterHoss]

To add to what Pariah stated, you can't even rig together 2 speaker systems to make a 6.1 speaker solution as the Audigy2 does not feature the mini jacks to physically do this (apparently, you'd get some special miniplug adapter if you purchase Creative's own 6.1 speaker system <-- only way to get 6.1 surround sound with multimedia speakers and the Audigy2).

Here are my observations after using my Audigy2 Platinum for a few days...
1.) DVD-A support is a big plus... music never sounded so nice.
2.) 5.1/6.1 expansion (aka CMSS 3D) is much, much, much improved over CMSS. Moreover, I believe it rivals ProLogicII decoding--better than any other sound card's 5.1 expansion technique in my opinion.
3.) NO sound quality improvement from the Audigy... I'm not sure if you'd notice one going from a Live! to and Audigy2.
4.) Took 2 attempts to successfully install the Audigy2 drivers (1st attempt left things a little funny). So no nVidia-quality drivers just yet.

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: MasterHoss
To add to what Pariah stated, you can't even rig together 2 speaker systems to make a 6.1 speaker solution as the Audigy2 does not feature the mini jacks to physically do this (apparently, you'd get some special miniplug adapter if you purchase Creative's own 6.1 speaker system <-- only way to get 6.1 surround sound with multimedia speakers and the Audigy2).

You need a minijack to 3 RCA cable, the most commonly available is probably a camcorder cable.

 

[Pariah]

That works fine for a receiver. Unfortunately, after a brief bit of research I found that none of the higher end PC speakers have RCA connectors on them, they all use mini 1/8th. So basically you're going to need a 4pole 1/8th to 3 mono 1/8th cable, which I'm not sure is available. You could probably do it with a bunch of adapters, but I don't think it's worth the effort considering the limited uses for 6.1 on a PC.

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
I'm thinking about upgrading my Live! value card for one of these- the DVD Audio feature sounds awesome! I have no traditional computer speakers to hook up to the card- is there an SPDIF output that I can send a digital 5.1 signal to my home theater receiver? Also, can I play DVD Audio through my home theater system with this? If this is possible, I'm getting this card- only $108 at NewEgg for the bare card in a retail box (no Live! drive- don't need it anyway... or do I?).

please post some more roommate rants 🙂

 

[StattlichPassat]

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
I'm thinking about upgrading my Live! value card for one of these- the DVD Audio feature sounds awesome! I have no traditional computer speakers to hook up to the card- is there an SPDIF output that I can send a digital 5.1 signal to my home theater receiver? Also, can I play DVD Audio through my home theater system with this? If this is possible, I'm getting this card- only $108 at NewEgg for the bare card in a retail box (no Live! drive- don't need it anyway... or do I?).

please post some more roommate rants 🙂

Lol, hey ndee... I'm back, but not in OT anymore. 🙂

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
I'm thinking about upgrading my Live! value card for one of these- the DVD Audio feature sounds awesome! I have no traditional computer speakers to hook up to the card- is there an SPDIF output that I can send a digital 5.1 signal to my home theater receiver? Also, can I play DVD Audio through my home theater system with this? If this is possible, I'm getting this card- only $108 at NewEgg for the bare card in a retail box (no Live! drive- don't need it anyway... or do I?).

please post some more roommate rants 🙂

Lol, hey ndee... I'm back, but not in OT anymore. 🙂

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwww, but it was so much fun 🙂 Do you promise to rant again sooner or later? (in OT that is 🙂)

 

[StattlichPassat]

Nah, I'm done with Off Topic. I've spent too many hours of my life in there this year as it is. 100 posts per day this summer was not out of the ordinary...

I'm restricting myself to actual 'constructive' forums like General Hardware, Networking, Operating Systems, etc. 😉