Optical out quality variable on sound cards?

[Smackey]

I tried the sweep and it didn't do too much. I used another off a CD through my other DVD player, and it really shook the room, so it just reaffirmed that the output is not what it should be.

The reciever has 5.1 inputs on it, but I would need to buy more of the headphone/rca cords to use it and by the time i did that then it was the same price as a chainteck. I went ahead and got one and will see if that fixes my problem once it gets here. If that doesn't then i will have to try other ways to get it done.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Smackey

Hrmm, I haven't changed any settings in Power DVD specifically, but I will check that when I get home as well.

I might be wrong, but I thought subwoofers are made so people don't actually need Giant speakers, and you actually lose quality with a sub+front setup.

PowerDVD or other software should simply pass the stream unless they are doing the decoding and thus sending either digital PCM or analog. But you say the receiver is detecting DD and in any case is not changed from the input of the DVD player vs PC? Perhaps the DVD player was itself altering output. All I can suggest at this point is breaking out the receiver manual as it may sport various LFE mixing modes.

If a receiver lacked options such as LFE mixing or dynamic range control then software decoding may be desirable. However that would apply more to PC kits. Ditto the sub thing since they are not truly subwoofers, but woofers to make up for the fact that the other speakers in the kit lack a set of full range drivers. As good as a music set may be (with a number of drivers including big woofers), a seperate true subwoofer is still the only way to get the full LFE which as said is just the rumble.

 

[Auric]

I wonder if you have found the DVD player is altering the output, perhaps via some bass management feature?

 

[Smackey]

Well I installed the Chaintech soundcard and it seemed to fix all of my problems. The only thing i can come up with is the cheapo sound card was in fact downgrading my sound through the optical out. I left all the settings the same and everything works as it did before with the chainteck.

So there must be some sort of difference in optical out quality through these soundcards, perhaps due to the software that comes with them...

 

[PurdueRy]

Make sure dynamic range compression is not enabled on your receiver or in your sound card settings or in the DVD player program