Biostar M7VIG Pro - 6 Channel Audio Question?

[gtd2000]

Well I just put together a system for a friend of mine last night using this motherboard.

It is all up and running with any problem and generally quite impressive apart from the miserable 2D quality of the Savage graphics.

The question that I have is - how to use a 5.1 speaker set up on this motherboard with only one (green) output?
It was my understanding that this motherboard had 6 channel sound output and that translated to 5 speakers and 1 subwoofer in my mind.

We are sitting here with a set of Logitec 5.1 speakers and only 2.1 output.

Is it actually possible to use 5.1 speakers with the M7VIG pro - or is the "6 Channel" only in reference to a possible 6 channels of sounds?

5.1 soundcards can be sourced cheaply enough so it is not a big deal.

 

[Remedy]

I think you need a SPDIF daugher card for it. Which is around 15$.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
I think you need a SPDIF daugher card for it. Which is around 15$.

Thats a pity - I'll just get her to order one of those Aopen 5.1 cards from newegg for $15 shipped in that case then

 

[gtd2000]

Reading the reviews at Newegg it might just be possible to wire the front ports for the use of the 5.1 speakers instead?

VERY easy switching to 6-ch sound (don't have to go to BIOS and change it like some ASUS boards) with "dummy" diagrams so you don't mix up the center ch with the sub ch (You use line-in and Mic for center & sub).

I need to research this further yet though

 

[WetWilly]

I don't have an M7VIG Pro, but generally unless there's an additional audio bracket available/included the rear and center/sub outputs get remapped from the Line-in and Mic-in jacks. Switching between 2.1 and 5.1 is usually done through the drivers. I'd install the audio drivers and check the audio control panel to see if there's an option to enable 6-channel sound.

Good luck.

 

[KF]

Originally posted by: WetWilly
I don't have an M7VIG Pro, but generally unless there's an additional audio bracket available/included the rear and center/sub outputs get remapped from the Line-in and Mic-in jacks. Switching between 2.1 and 5.1 is usually done through the drivers. I'd install the audio drivers and check the audio control panel to see if there's an option to enable 6-channel sound.

Good luck.

Yes. I've set up two mobos that do this. Strange thing is there are no instructions saying what to do. You just wander through audio settings until you find something that sets the mode. Something like "6 channel surround."

 

[WetWilly]

Strange thing is there are no instructions saying what to do

Yes, go figure. You'd think that this would be a candidate for a BIOS option - I can't imagine a whole lot of people are constantly at the back of their cases swapping out their microphone and speaker jacks.

IMHO the jack sharing thing stinks anyways. Why don't they do what Abit does on the NF-7 boards and put all five jacks back there? What are they saving - a buck or so?

 

[tcsenter]

Manufacturer's websites seem to be a source of a lot of good information these days.

>>Technical >FAQ >General FAQ

Q24 : How do I use the 6 channels Audio?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A : Please follow below instruction to adjusted the audio to 6 channel

Install the C-Media driver & application that had been bundle in BIOSTAR Driver CD.
Select "Start" at Windows Screen
Select "Program"
Select "PCI Audio Application"
Select "Audio Rack"
Select "Mixer"
Press the "Hammer tools" icon, at bottom of left-hand side.

You could be able to setup the Audio Channel at here.

By the way when you had switch the Audio to 6 Channel, the "Line-in" Jack will turn to " Real Speaker Out" and "Mic-in" Jack will be turn to "Center/Subwoofer".

 

[bambam]

I was thinking about ordering one but after seeing the post about the medocre Savage video and the sound it makes me think again about the value of this one . I would hate to buy this board then wind up buying an video card and sound card anyway . I might as well buy an M7VIW or a Shuttle AK 32A .

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: bambam
I was thinking about ordering one but after seeing the post about the medocre Savage video and the sound it makes me think again about the value of this one . I would hate to buy this board then wind up buying an video card and sound card anyway . I might as well buy an M7VIW or a Shuttle AK 32A .

Actually - I got to the bottom of the graphics/2D quality.

It was actually a badly adjusted contrast/brightness that was the culprit. The text quality was awful above 800 x 600 but now all is well

Display is now set to 1024 x 768

I'll try re-mapping the outputs now too

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: gtd 2000

Originally posted by: bambam
I was thinking about ordering one but after seeing the post about the medocre Savage video and the sound it makes me think again about the value of this one . I would hate to buy this board then wind up buying an video card and sound card anyway . I might as well buy an M7VIW or a Shuttle AK 32A .

Actually - I got to the bottom of the graphics/2D quality.

It was actually a badly adjusted contrast/brightness that was the culprit. The text quality was awful above 800 x 600 but now all is well

Display is now set to 1024 x 768

I'll try re-mapping the outputs now too

you running SDram or DDR..and size? I've heard DDR is really best for these dual mem mobos...

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon
you running SDram or DDR..and size? I've heard DDR is really best for these dual mem mobos...

Running 256MB of PC2100 DDR RAM (PNY from OD for $5 AR!!)

I read somewhere that once you use a CPU of over 1Ghz then the benefits of DDR are noticeable - how true that is I have no idea though

 

[gtd2000]

Well it turns out that I had set the audio up correctly but never even thought for a second that you would use the other connectors as sound outputs

Thanks for the help guys

 

[KF]

>Manufacturer's websites seem to be a source of a lot of good information these days.

In my case, I was aware there was remapping of the jacks from reading Anandtech reviews over the years. On the manufacturer's site, they claimed 4 or 6 channel sound, but there was no further info. I would have thought it would be in the manual, but the manual with the mobos just said there would be special software availble on their site to enable more channels. No info on how it would be done. On the manufacturers site I didn't see any drivers that were identified that way, or any FAQs about it. In fact there were some drivers on the CD which did it, although I didn't know it. It occured to me to systematically flip through all the menues in the Windows audio set up, and there was something that looked like it might do it. Now I would have needed to figure out which jacks would be the other outputs. In one case, the manual had a dual labeled diagram. In the other (different chipset), I assumed the remapping would be the same.

Why don't they have extra jacks, so the remapping is unnecessary? Non-standard stuff costs more. Remember, these combo mobo's selling point is mainly that they are cheaper. The 3 jacks, 2 channels is a standard arrangement which goes back years. Back plates for it are common. The have to do a complete revision of the ATX connector section to accomodate new arrangements. It isn't just more connectors, it is how all the connectors will be mounted to the mobo. If you take a look, they have some very peculiar stacked combos to do it all.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: KF
> On the manufacturer's site, they claimed 4 or 6 channel sound, but there was no further info. I would have thought it would be in the manual, but the manual with the mobos just said there would be special software availble on their site to enable more channels. No info on how it would be done. On the manufacturers site I didn't see any drivers that were identified that way, or any FAQs about it.

Well I read the manual and noticed the connectors for the front ports of the case that I used and set that up - I actually assumed that I needed to use the front ports

The manual is definitely the low point of the Biostar motherboard bundle. They could easily have put a sentence into the manual to advise how the ports are remapped for 5.1 speakers when describing the original function of the sound input/ouput connectors.
Why they didn't do that beats me - then again I'm an Engineer (Civils) and I know that logic and common sense are not found in large quantities

 

[bambam]

I just looked and agree that the manual is not much . If I decide to go for one of these KM266 integreated boards , I am looking at the MSI- 6738 ( KM2M-combo-L) mainly because of the manual .

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: bambam
I just looked and agree that the manual is not much . If I decide to go for one of these KM266 integreated boards , I am looking at the MSI- 6738 ( KM2M-combo-L) mainly because of the manual .

To be honest there is not really much to know about setting up the board other than the 5.1 speaker outputs.

All the drivers are on one of the CD's that come with the board. The actual setup is straightforward enough.

Don't let the speaker and video problem I mentioned dishearten you.

You probably know more than enough after reading this thread than a good manual could offer anyway

 

[WetWilly]

Why don't they have extra jacks, so the remapping is unnecessary? Non-standard stuff costs more

It doesn't cost that much more at all. Look at the closest example off the top of my head - the Abit NF7 vs the Epox 8RDA (the non MCP-T nForce2 boards). Both boards have similar specs, but Abit includes the five mini-jacks for analog 5.1, optical digital out, a custom ATX shield and a 10/100 NIC; Epox only includes the three mini-jacks that have to be remapped. If you check out PriceWatch, both boards cost roughly the same even with the Abit's NIC. Cost becomes a much different animal when you're buying quantity 100,000 instead of quantity 1.

In the alternative, they could offer a header on the board that supports an optional bracket with the extra outputs. That would cost next to nothing and would give the user an option to pay $15-20 for the extra ports if they want them.

 

[KF]

>It doesn't cost that much more at all.

Well, let's put it this way. If EPOX could have saved money by doing it ABITs way, I believe they would have.

However, neither ABIT nor EPOX are mass marketers, and these mobos are not pure economy mobos, so their feature selection would be heavily based on what might appeal to some group of enthusiasts.

Correct me if I'm wrong: ABIT is huge in comparison to EPOX. EPOX is directed to a small niche. But ABIT is still a tiny company.

Here is the way I understand big companies do things: Once they have decided on their target market, and have to meet a price point, they skimp a little on a lot of things. Maybe EPOX figures their target market doesn't mind dual use of two jacks, so maybe they saved $2 on the connector and backplate. OTOH maybe ABIT could buy over some minimum, and found a vendor that would supply the jacks and plate for 50 cents increment;and they figured their target customer would respond to "Soundstorm" qualification.

 

[WetWilly]

Well, let's put it this way. If EPOX could have saved money by doing it ABITs way, I believe they would have
...
Maybe EPOX figures their target market doesn't mind dual use of two jacks, so maybe they saved $2 on the connector and backplate. OTOH maybe ABIT could buy over some minimum, and found a vendor that would supply the jacks and plate for 50 cents increment

I'm don't believe not installing the jacks is an issue with saving money - I believe it's your second point - Epox thinks they can get away with it. There's several problems with your Epox points:

1) If you want optical digital out, it'll cost you $18 shipped from Epox for the bracket. The 8RDA+ plus the bracket costs $7-8 less than the Abit NF7-S that also includes SerialATA and a SATA-to-PATA adapter. The telling thing is that Epox is constantly sold out of that bracket, which indicates there's a fairly high demand for digital out. The digital out header is there; again it wouldn't cost very much at all to remove the header and just put the connector on the board.

2) The volume argument doesn't cut it with Epox at the moment because they're codeveloping their boards with FIC (who isn't an ECS or Asus volume-wise either); the 8RDA+ is identical to FIC's AU11 with the exception of the debug LEDs - identical to the point the FIC can be flashed with the Epox's BIOS. There's a lot more sales volume to that board than just what Epox sells.

3) Here's the kicker - FIC's successor to the AU11, the AU13 has a header for the rear, center/sub and SPDIF in/out. The bracket is optional. Price? $79+shipping which makes it the absolute cheapest nForce2+MCP-T board on the market; in fact it's cheaper than ANY regular MCP board on the market. The FireWire version of the AU13 which is comparable to the 8RDA+ is about $1 cheaper than the 8RDA+.

In short, it's not a cost issue - it's a "we can get away with it because no one complains" issue. Epox lost a sale on 40 boards from me precisely because of those jacks. It's a major PITA to either keep switching the mic jack or having to fabricate 40 of those mic-in connectors to hook up to the front panel audio header.