PC Surround Sound through Digital Receiver

[Kythlyn]

Hello there. I didn't see a sound forum so I hope this is the right place to be posting this.

My setup is fairly simple. I have a perfectly working 5.1 surround sound receiver that I use with my external DVD player which I connect to with a digital coaxial wire. No complaints there. Since I got that working I figured it wouldn't be hard to setup my computer the same way. I have a SoundMax soundcard that came onboard my ASUS H8V SE Deluxe Motherboard. The card supports 5.1 surround sound. I connected it to my receiver using the coaxial digital cord through the SPDIF Out on the back of the computer. In both the SoundMax Control Panel and the Windows XP Sounds and Devices Control Panel I set the system to 5.1. Unfortunately when it comes time to test the 5 speakers the rear two don't work at all. I hope someone here has a solution.

Thanks,
-Ari

 

[Pariah]

SPDIF out can only transmit a stereo unencoded stereo signal. You didn't do anything wrong, you can't get anything more than stereo using digital. If you want 5.1 you need to use analog.

 

[Kythlyn]

Thanks for the quick reply!! How would I go about setting it up Analog? I'm sort of new to this. :/

 

[Pariah]

Your receiver needs to have 5.1 analog in. Looks like 5 composite connectors. If you don't know whether it supports it or how to cable, read your receiver's manual.

 

[Kythlyn]

D'oh! It just has several stereo inputs, the digital input and the radio receivers. :/ Guess I'm out of luck.

 

[arod]

if you send the receiver a 5.1 signal (IE DVD player) it will use that.

 

[Kythlyn]

That would require my DVD to have audio inputs which it unfortunately does not.

 

[Kythlyn]

What about connecting through an optical connection? Would that be surround sound? I have an optical out card that I could switch into my computer and the receiver supports optical in.

Alternatively, is there a way to convert from analog to digital? For example, could I have 5.1 analog coming out of the computer and into some kind of converter and then into the Digital In on the receiver? The computer has Light Blue, Lime and Pink miniports that are normally Line-In, Line-Out and Mic In, but when switched to Surround Sound mode turn into Bass/Center out, Front Speakers and Rear Speakers. So could that go to a converter and then to digital in?

 

[Pariah]

Optical is still a SPDIF connection, same problem. No, there is no such converter. You're pretty much out of luck.

 

[Kythlyn]

Gah, that's what I get for buying a cheap receiver. Okay, thanks guys.

 

[Raduque]

Check out This bad boy. It'll convert any 5.1 audio source (EAX games, dvd movies, WMA-HD clips, even upsamples 2.0 stereo music to 5.1) into a Dolby Digital signal your reciever will understand using the optical S/PDIF.

 

[BenJeremy]

You need a "Dolby Digital Live" sound card. Except for the two I will mention, most soundcards only do "PCM" digital encoding, which as you discovered, is simply stereo. Even Creative Labs' most expensive cards are incapable of what you need - 5.1 AC3 Dolby Digital Encoding (Now known as "DDL") - Creative half-asses it by sending 3 PCM signals out to get 6 channels of raw PCM digital out to its special speakers.

For true DDL, it is recommended you pick up a Mystique-X from HDA (NewEgg has them for $99), or to save a few bucks (but have to wait for better drivers) you could go with a Montego from Turtle Beach.

Now for a little RANT.... Creative Labs SUCK. They've have over 5 years to introduce DDL in their expensive line of audio cards, but still they have NOT. The Xbox and nVidia brought DDL to the console world, and to the AMD users out there (SoundStorm and nForce2), but even nVidia backed off from Dolby Encoding.

That said, there are now a few more choices out there. They are not perfect, YET, but they do work. Montego still suffers from time lag, while the Mystique-x is quickly improving.