Need help setting up 5.1 Digital from onboard Asus a8n-sli coax output

[FireStormX86]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone else has had experience with setting up 5.1 surround sound through coax on the asus a8n-sli motherboard. I'm currently using the up to date AC97 audio driver and it only plays through the front two speakers when I do the speaker test. My DVD player can play 5.1 Dolby Digital from just the coax output, so shouldn't my motherboard be able to too?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

For music, games, and speaker tests, you're only going to get stereo output from your computer.

The only thing that's going to come out in surround sound is stuff that's Dolby Digitally encoded. (or DTS etc.) So, movies should play in surround sound, but you're limited to stereo otherwise.

The exceptions to this are there are a couple of cards that do real time Dolby Digital encoding so you'll get surround sound from games and speaker tests too. The cards are the HDA X-Mystique and the Turtle Beach Montego.

 

[imported_rod]

I hooked my A8N-SLI delexue up to my 5.1 DVD player with an optical cable, and it works fine.

I'm pretty sure most games these days have 5.1, or even 7.1, sound.

Have you tried a native 5.1 source, like a DVD?... See if that does 5.1. If not, you might need to change the settings on the PC/DVD player.

RoD

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: rod
I hooked my A8N-SLI delexue up to my 5.1 DVD player with an optical cable, and it works fine.

I'm pretty sure most games these days have 5.1, or even 7.1, sound.

Have you tried a native 5.1 source, like a DVD?... See if that does 5.1. If not, you might need to change the settings on the PC/DVD player.

RoD

You hooked up your DVD player to a digital input on your computer?

Games that are 5.1 and over will not play in surround sound if you're outputting through a digital cable unless the games have software that encodes itself for DD or you have a card that does it. I have no idea which games can do this on their own.

 

[FireStormX86]

I just tried to watch Donnie Darko, and the disc says it has 5.1 dolby digital, and I set the options in power dvd to 6 channel, however I only get the two side channels. All the main audio isn't there because I can't hear the center channel or rear. Also, my reciever still does not recongize it as a dolby digital signal.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Do you have everything set up to do passthrough of the signal?

 

[FireStormX86]

[audio noob voice] Erm, I'm not entirely sure? [/audio noob voice]

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Does your sound utility program that installed from your motherboard CD allow you to select AC3 or PCM for the audio output? You want AC3.
I don't play DVDs on my computer so I'm not sure what other settings you'd want to select for the DVD program... just that you want it to pass through the DD signal and not process it along the way.