No center channel on mp3's?

[cryogenic666]

I have an Abit NF7-S with the Soundstorm audio... I have an Onkyo home theater system connected via optical-digital out. The only time I actually get a center channel is when I'm playing DVD's in Power DVD! My guess is that this is normal since mp3's are stereo (2 channels only) but oddly, I get sound out of every other speaker on my system. Both fronts work fine, both surround, even my CENTER SURROUND? Yet my regular center channel is just plain dead. It's not a huge deal and I've been dealing with it for a good bit of time, but is there some way to create a center channel when there isn't one when using the optical-digital out? For what it's worth, I've tried winamp, WMP10, itunes, Yahoo Music Engine and foobar2000... none of which would create a center channel. 🙁 Am I just screwed?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Prologic II on your receiver?

 

[cryogenic666]

well, holy crap... I just fixed my own problem! I found a winamp plugin that does 5.1 channels
http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=129453 works like a charm. You have to set up the plugin quite a bit, but it's worth it... now I have center channel sound!

and yes, I tried prologic II but that didn't seem to create the center channel for whatever reason. Either way, the plugin fixed it. So I'm happy for now. I'd still like to get the center channel working in EVERYTHING because I have Rhapsody and wouldn't mind getting some center channel goodness out of that too

 

[Jeff7]

Didn't even need that plugin. In Winamp:
- Ctrl+P, and bring up Preferences.
- Go to Plug-ins -> Output
- Select Directsound Output, and click Configure
- Check Allow Hardware Acceleration
- Click Apply/OK, and start playback. 5.1 sound.
🙂

 

[cryogenic666]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Didn't even need that plugin. In Winamp:
- Ctrl+P, and bring up Preferences.
- Go to Plug-ins -> Output
- Select Directsound Output, and click Configure
- Check Allow Hardware Acceleration
- Click Apply/OK, and start playback. 5.1 sound.
🙂

strangely enough, winamp is already configured that way and I still don't get a center channel... I get a center back, but no center front. I get 5.1, just not 6.1! And I'm getting the wrong 5.1, basically. make sense? With the plugin, I get all the channels I want but unfortunately none of my other apps will send sound through the center channel

 

[Jeff7]

What speakers do you have?
BTW, your rig link in your sig doesn't work.

 

[cryogenic666]

I have an Onkyo HTS-770 home theater system connected via optical-digital out.... and I guess they've changed the system rig URL's or something. Oops.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

warning: really dumb question....

Are you sure you have your front center and rear center hooked up to the right places on the reciever?

(I'm sure it would be obvious in movies if the voices were coming from behind you, but just want to make sure)

 

[cryogenic666]

Haha... everything's hooked up properly. DTS-ES movies render perfectly fine and whatnot. The ONLY thing that doesn't work is regular sound in Windows. 🙁 It's more of a minor annoyance than anything. Obviously I can deal with it, but I'd rather have full sound out of all my speakers, ya know? Like I said, I got it working in winamp due to the plugin but I still don't get center channel sound out of Rhapsody or Yahoo Music Unlimited.