PC 2 Receiver 2 monitor...looking for advice and tech answers, please. Thank you.

[RhaegarTargaryen]

What I currently have:
- GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
- MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
- BenQ G2400WD Black 24" 5ms, 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20L
- Logitech G51 speakers

What I typically do (relevant to the topic at hand):
- watch Blu-Ray movies
- play games
- play classical music

What I want to do:
A) greatly improve the sound
B) buy components that will do well in my apartment but are sound enough to expand should I move into a house. And that will still be good equipment in 10 years.

What I'm thinking:
- getting a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 70 Cherry Floorstanding loudspeaker
- getting a Polk Audio CS2 Cherry Center Channel Loudspeaker
- getting an ONKYO 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver TX-SR707
...I'm not settled completely on anything yet. I've read hours of threads, several nice one's on these forums. Someone linked to a Denon that inspires me (price) and scares me (complexity and smaller decoder listing): http://www.dakmart.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_9_15&products_id=6511

What I'm worried about:
1) how do I get digital audio to the receiver? I did read that thread that is contemporary to this thread's creation but I'm still a little fuzzy on it. (sorry)

2) I noted an spdif connection on the motherboard's onboard sound plate - but I also read (I think) that while this is digital it is only stereo?

3) The Gigabyte site said "Blu-ray playback outputs supported by high quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio (1)." I don't know if this fulfills the requirements I read (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF) that said "This specification also allows for the coupling of personal computer digital sound (if equipped) via optical or coax to Dolby or DTS capable receivers. This only supports stereo sound, unless the personal computer supports Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect."

4) Worried the sound improvement won't justify the expense.

5) and I'm worried about what I don't know to ask about. So if there are any questions for me regarding the above please ask.

6) Oh, one last: I wouldn't need an add-on sound card with what I'm thinking, right (?), because it'd be redundant with the AV receiver? Or do I still need one...a better one than the onboard Realtek ALC889A?

Thank you (very much),
-Rhaegar


1. http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2916

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

I'm not familiar with your motherboard, but chances are, if it has digital out, it should output 5.1 audio through digital. If it doesn't, you'll need to get a soundcard with digital out. The denon is not missing any decoders you'd need. I'm not sure what you mean by smaller listing. Sound improvement should be easily noticeable, although it doesn't look like you're planning for a sub and you should (although you might be able to reuse the g51 sub and see how that sounds)

 

[DaveSimmons]

All motherboard SPDIFs I've seen will pass through pre-encoded Dobly / DTS 5.1 from DVDs and blu-ray discs. The stereo-only that you read about is for real-time audio, such as games, and for music files (that are pre-encoded as stereo).

To get 5.1 for games you need a motherboard or soundcard that does real-time 5.1 encoding, "Dolby Digital Live"

I have Polk RT55 mains and an Onkyo 705 in my living room and am happy with both for movies and music listening.

 

[RhaegarTargaryen]

I'm not familiar with your motherboard, but chances are, if it has digital out, it should output 5.1 audio through digital. If it doesn't, you'll need to get a soundcard with digital out. The denon is not missing any decoders you'd need. I'm not sure what you mean by smaller listing. Sound improvement should be easily noticeable, although it doesn't look like you're planning for a sub and you should (although you might be able to reuse the g51 sub and see how that sounds)

Thanks for the reply, unfalliblekrutch. Regarding the list of sound modes the Denon supports and that of the Onkyo, my brain sees a larger list and thinks the new sound modes might find their way into Blu-Ray moves in one, two or five years and I don't want to find that I can't take advantage of what's there. Like "TrueHD" - "DTS HD" - I barely know anything other than what a quick wiki search told me. Unfortunately I go to learn one thing and come away with more questions than I entered with, like:

Does my blu-ray player even support DTS HD (I'm researching that right now) or is that a software function that my CyberLink PowerDVD9 handles and it doesn't matter about the blu-ray player?

Man, it's hard to go from ignorant to having (some) knowledge.

Thank you again for your assitance!
-Rhae

 

[RhaegarTargaryen]

All motherboard SPDIFs I've seen will pass through pre-encoded Dobly / DTS 5.1 from DVDs and blu-ray discs. The stereo-only that you read about is for real-time audio, such as games, and for music files (that are pre-encoded as stereo).

To get 5.1 for games you need a motherboard or soundcard that does real-time 5.1 encoding, "Dolby Digital Live"

I have Polk RT55 mains and an Onkyo 705 in my living room and am happy with both for movies and music listening.

Thank you for your input, Dave. When you said "To get 5.1 for games you needa motherboard or soundard that does real-time 5.1 encoding, "Dolby Digital LIve"," I'm wondering if my games like "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Fallout 3" are **not** being done in 5.1. I had just assumed they were since I had 5.1 speakers and the motherboard had a method for hooking up the 5.1 sound.

Now it's time to review my MoBo manual...which I'm doing...and I cannot remember if I followed this "Before installing the audio driver, make sure the "Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio" has been installed from the motherboard driver disk and your operating system has been updated iwth the latest Service Pack for Windows." My task now: determine if I did that...not sure how I'll know...guess I'll research how I'd know if I'd done it first...

...everything seems to take 51 steps. Curse my ignorance!
-Rhae

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

OP, you're right that the Denon doesn't appear to support blu-ray specific formats, but chances are, you won't notice the difference with that setup. There's nothing wrong with getting the onkyo over the denon if you want the extra decoding abilities.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> "I'm wondering if my games like "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Fallout 3" are **not** being done in 5.1. I had just assumed they were since I had 5.1 speakers and the motherboard had a method for hooking up the 5.1 sound."

That's analog 5.1 sound, any soundcard or motherboard can do that through the analog jacks. It's encoding a compressed Dolby 5.1 digital signal in real-time that isn't supported by most soundcards and motherboards.

 

[RhaegarTargaryen]

> "I'm wondering if my games like "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Fallout 3" are **not** being done in 5.1. I had just assumed they were since I had 5.1 speakers and the motherboard had a method for hooking up the 5.1 sound."

That's analog 5.1 sound, any soundcard or motherboard can do that through the analog jacks. It's encoding a compressed Dolby 5.1 digital signal in real-time that isn't supported by most soundcards and motherboards.

Okay, I think I'm there with you, Dave. If it were digital then it would hook up with something like the SPDIF, not through all those independent speaker connections. No, that's muddy thinking on my part because at some point the speakers have to hook up to something that sends them a signal.

I'm in the process of downloading my MoBo audio drivers that have both the Realtek and Microsoft UAA thing with them (12/29/09 release) (1). The realtek site says:

"Support for 16/20/24-bit SPDIF input and output with up to 192kHz sample rate offers easy connection of PCs to consumer electronic products such as digital decoders and speakers. The ALC889 also features secondary SPDIF-OUT output and converter to transport digital audio output to a High Definition Media Interface (HDMI) transmitter.

The ALC889 supports host audio from the Intel chipsets, and also from any other HDA compatible audio controller. With various software utilities like environment sound emulation, multiple-band and independent software equalizer, dynamic range compressor and expander, optional Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® PCEE program and DTS® CONNECT™, the ALC889 provides the highest sound quality, providing an excellent entertainment package and game experience for PC users.(2)"

Not sure what "optional Dobly Digital Live" means, probably 'option' = 'you don't have it'. But, if I sent that SPDIF signal to the Onkyo receiver would that be able to do the real-time/live encoding?

If not, and to cut to the chase, should I be buying a sound card to output the real-time/live signal to the receiver?

BTW, thanks for all the help. Hopefully we're creating a resrouce thread for someone else as you guys help me work through this.

-Rhae


1. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/...3013&ost=windows+vista+x64+(64-bit)#anchor_os
2. http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=28&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=173

 

[alcoholbob]

What about a pair of bookshelves instead of floorstanders? A floorstander may go a little too deep for the convenience of neighbors.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> "Not sure what "optional Dobly Digital Live" means, probably 'option' = 'you don't have it'. But, if I sent that SPDIF signal to the Onkyo receiver would that be able to do the real-time/live encoding?"

The sound chip supports it, but the motherboard manufacturer may not have paid the license fee to Dolby Labs to use it. Check the box / manual / website for your motherboard.

Without Dolby Digital Live your movies will be 5.1 but games will be stereo if using a SPDIF connection.

If you use an analog connection to the receiver (3 miniplug jacks, get miniplug to 2-RCA adapters from Radio Shack, Monoprice etc.) into the 6 analog in jacks, that will allow a 5.1 signal for both games and movies. With that setup your DVD / blu-ray playback software will do the Dolby / DTS decoding before sending analog audio to the receiver.

 

[RhaegarTargaryen]

Thanks, Dave, that makes sense about if Gigabyte bought the rights.

Astrallite, I am nearly seduced by the $175 price of the Polk M70's on Newegg. And I was thinking I could go without a subwoofer (for now) since my current subwoofer on the Logitech G51's has a range of 36 Hz - 20 KHz (1) and the Polks have 30 Hz - 25 Khz (2).

Or, am I not thinking correctly, that even though the Polks "go lower" that they simply can't do what the subwoofer on the G51 does? Your thoughts?

Thanks a bunch,
-Rhae




1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121012
2. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882290016

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

You can always connect computer to receiver BOTH analog and digital. Then, if you are gaming, you can switch to analog for 5.1 and when you are watching movies, you can use digital and let your receiver do the decoding.

Getting a sub will always help. Even if the polks -are- capable of producing those low notes (which they may not if the frequency response was exaggerated by polk), you can take some of the burden off of the receiver by letting a sub handle the lows. This will give the receiver more breathing room to power the mids and highs at high volumes.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you're in an apartment you might want to just get the Polks, my RT55's give good if not couch-shaking bass, without getting me in trouble with the neighbors.