Midiland s4 8200 and other questions

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Q

qmac

Member
May 27, 2000
56
0
0
few questions. I just ordered the midiland speakers, and i read a couple reviews, and i think they were the best buy. I plan on watching dvd's and listening to music primarily. I have a soundblaster live value. it has an output labeled "digital out". and i also have a real magic hollywood plus dvd decoder with an out "spdif out". can i run the sound out through my sound blaster? also, does anyone know if i'll be able to run my tv to the midiland speakers. do the midiland speakers have a headphone jack? and what mounting options did it come with. and does anyone who has these speakers have any regrets about buying them?

thanks
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http://www.rugindustries.com
 
J

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
Dude, I have the speakers and they are AWESOME! I had the choice of going with the Klipsch or the 8200s and I chose the 8200s mainly because I wanted 5.1 surround (AC-3). And looking back on it now, I could never go back to anything less. If you get a 4 point speaker setup, the decoder (sound card) is just basically faking a stereo signal to output to four speakers. It does a pretty good job but you have to realize that the rear speakers are MONO (same sound out of both speakers). With AC-3, you have 6 independent channels and it is coded that way on the DVD. Anyway, I also have a SB Live! and a Hollywood decoder. You have to choose which card you want to output the digital signal from. If you use the digital out on the Hollywood decoder, that is where you are going to output your digital signal to get AC-3 surround. Basically you have to play your DVDs using the software they provided with the Hollywood decoder. Now you hook up the analog signal using the regular jacks on your Live! card so you can play your games and all. BUT, the way I have it setup is that I have the minijacks plugged into the Live! AND the (coax to minijack) converter plugged into the Live!'s digital out. I prefer using DVD software like PowerDVD and WinDVD 2000 instead of the Hollywood decoder to give me the AC-3 surround. I use the Hollywood decoder for my DVD games but it will output an analog signal through the Live! card.

***Make sure you get a coax to minijack converter if you want to hook up the speakers straight the digital out on the Live! You can get it for like $3 at RadioShack.

I know this sounds kind of confusing, but when you get your speakers, post again and I'll talk you through the setup. ;)
 
Q

qmac

Member
May 27, 2000
56
0
0
wow, thanks for the quick reply, i'm gonna definitly post when i get them. i'm expecting a lot from these. do they have a headphone jack? and do you know about the tv situation?
 
J

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
No they don't have a headphone jack. :| However, that is not that big of a deal because I'm going to get a Live!Drive to take care of that. It would have been nice to have that included but that is not a big deal for me. I don't think a Live! Drive is compatible with your card though. I think you are going to need a newer version of the Value or an X-Gamer, MP3+ or of course a Platinum.

As far as the TV, I have this: http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10214999&loc=101 but it is the USB version. I watch TV on my monitor (it's pretty big), but you can output it to your TV (if you have a video card with video out, or you can use your Hollywood to output it to your TV). If you just want to output your DVD movies to your TV, all you need it an S-Video cable and a TV that has an S-Video jack. If you want to do something a little more fancy I'm sure you can though. Just got to put your mind to it a little more. ;)
 
Q

qmac

Member
May 27, 2000
56
0
0
"Now you hook up the analog signal using the regular jacks on your Live! card so you can play your games and all"

ok, do the rear speakers have a seperate input , so you can get rear sound in eax? or what do you mean? :) hehe, i should just wait till they get here, hopefully wednesday
 
J

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
No you don't even use the rear jacks on the Live! You just use the front jacks and the receiver will split them up, front and rear. For digital, your receiver will do all the work. The Live! just outputs the signal through the digital out. Once you get your speakers I can talk you through and it will make more sense. ;)
 
M

MoSuaveA

Member
Jul 18, 2000
136
0
0
Where did you guys order your speakers form and what was the total cost? I am in the market to buy some nice digital speakers, and I like what I hear about these.
 
D

dszd0g

Golden Member
Jun 14, 2000
1,226
0
0
I hear distinct left and right rear on my Klipsch just fine thank you very much using software AC-3 decoding. There is the phantom center channel but with how close the front two speakers are in a computer set-up I don't think it makes much difference.
 
J

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
OK, faking a center is one thing but your NOT going to get seperate channels off your rear speakers. Klipsch speakers are ONE channel doubled (MONO) in the rear, but that goes for ANY speaker system that doesn't have an AC-3 or DTS reciever. If you listen to the Matrix in AC-3, WITH an AC-3 reciever and a 5.1 speaker set up, you can DEFINITELY tell the difference.

Secondly, what kind of AC-3 decoding software are you talking about? I hope your not talking about software DVD players because that just outputs a signal but it DOESN'T decode it for you speakers. I'm just curious because I've never heard of AC-3 decoding software.

Oh and there is a big difference between faking a center and actually having a center. I sometime fake a center on my HomeTheatre system (even though I have a center) and there is a BIG difference. I definitely need a center speaker for my movies. ;)
 
J

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
You know, I just thought of something. There is NO way the Klipsch can produce true AC-3 because it doesn't have (I don't think) a digital (S/P DIF or optical) input for it. You NEED that for true AC-3 or DTS. If you are plugging you speakers into the minijacks of your sound card, you are getting a glorified stereo signal.
 
D

dszd0g

Golden Member
Jun 14, 2000
1,226
0
0
I am using the registry hack for the Real Magic Hollywood Plus to enable software AC-3. I am using both sets of jacks on the SB Live! Platinum. So I have stereo to the front and stereo to the back. From talking to RealMagic the software actually decodes it to 6 channels, but I'm not exactly sure how it adds up. However, I do now that running demos and such I can get "Front left, Front right, rear left, rear right." In the matrix I can definitely hear whether something is comming out of the rear left versus the rear right if I put my head between the two. If its mono I'm really wondering how I'm managing to get sound out of each of the rear speakers independently.

It fakes the center, it actually also fakes sub too come to think of it. In real Dolby Digital the sub and center each have their own channel.

<Edit>Typo.</Edit>
 
D

dszd0g

Golden Member
Jun 14, 2000
1,226
0
0
I dug up the registry hack for those that want it:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sigma Designs\REALmagic\13]
&quot;EnableDac&quot;=dword:00000000
&quot;EnableSpdif&quot;=dword:00000000
&quot;PcmOutputSpdif&quot;=dword:00000000
&quot;EnableSixchannelWave&quot;=dword:00000000
&quot;EnableWaveSpdif&quot;=dword:00000000
&quot;EnableDS3D&quot;=dword:00000000
&quot;EnableMultiChannelWave&quot;=dword:00000001
 
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