I have been having this problem for a while but I just now thought about posting it for some reason.
A while ago I purchased Logitech's Z5500's and ran them off of my Realtech 5.1 optical on my Gigabyte motherboard and it sounded pretty good! So, I figure I needed a soundcard upgrade from onboard to an Audigy 2, so i got the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro (the one with the front panel). To use the optical on the Audigy2 (which sounds much much better) I have to use the front panel because there is no optical port in the back :disgust: But it ended up basically working ok.
The problem is, I still don't have a center channel in games. It really pissed me off since I spent all that money on a nice sound setup and I get 1\2 rate audio. It was tempting to go back to my onboard (which did use the center channel), but I got used to it. It happens in both optical (digital) and analog modes with no apparent difference, and when I do the speaker check (front left, front center, front right, etc...) the front center channel never makes any noise.
It ends up being most noticeable in FPS games where 95% of the gunshot sound comes from the center channel. So you click to shoot, watch the gun fire, and hear only the echo. The game where this is most noticeable is MaxPayne, but I hardly play that anymore. You can also tell in Warcraft III when you select something in front of you, move to the R or L and when you move you can hear it out of the R and L speakers respectively. It also is apparent in WoW, but not so much as the others.
Creative tech support was NO help on this (side not - Creative has some of the worst tech support I have ever used). They told me to change a few settings here and there but it did nothing. I believe the issue comes down to a conflict in the decoding.
The speakers have built in DD and DTS decoding along with some emulation, and I am wondering if this is conflicting with the Creative decoding that is done in the games. For DVD's and such I have to do a "bypass" setting to let the speakers decode the DD and DTS otherwise I don?t get any sound.
I have the latest drivers, and have done a reformat since then. Any help would be great, especially if any of you have a similar setup. I can't imagine Creative would not support speakers like the Z5500, so I must be doing something wrong.
Thanks again!
A while ago I purchased Logitech's Z5500's and ran them off of my Realtech 5.1 optical on my Gigabyte motherboard and it sounded pretty good! So, I figure I needed a soundcard upgrade from onboard to an Audigy 2, so i got the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro (the one with the front panel). To use the optical on the Audigy2 (which sounds much much better) I have to use the front panel because there is no optical port in the back :disgust: But it ended up basically working ok.
The problem is, I still don't have a center channel in games. It really pissed me off since I spent all that money on a nice sound setup and I get 1\2 rate audio. It was tempting to go back to my onboard (which did use the center channel), but I got used to it. It happens in both optical (digital) and analog modes with no apparent difference, and when I do the speaker check (front left, front center, front right, etc...) the front center channel never makes any noise.
It ends up being most noticeable in FPS games where 95% of the gunshot sound comes from the center channel. So you click to shoot, watch the gun fire, and hear only the echo. The game where this is most noticeable is MaxPayne, but I hardly play that anymore. You can also tell in Warcraft III when you select something in front of you, move to the R or L and when you move you can hear it out of the R and L speakers respectively. It also is apparent in WoW, but not so much as the others.
Creative tech support was NO help on this (side not - Creative has some of the worst tech support I have ever used). They told me to change a few settings here and there but it did nothing. I believe the issue comes down to a conflict in the decoding.
The speakers have built in DD and DTS decoding along with some emulation, and I am wondering if this is conflicting with the Creative decoding that is done in the games. For DVD's and such I have to do a "bypass" setting to let the speakers decode the DD and DTS otherwise I don?t get any sound.
I have the latest drivers, and have done a reformat since then. Any help would be great, especially if any of you have a similar setup. I can't imagine Creative would not support speakers like the Z5500, so I must be doing something wrong.
Thanks again!
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