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SB Live/Audigy Multichannel output?

P

Pluto

Senior member
I'm wondering if I can use my HT receiver's coax digital in along with the SPDIF digital out on the SB Live or Audigy (along with the mono-mini-plug to rca converter cable) and get all the benefits of the multichannel sound, in games, etc, or will it only enable passthru of compressed multichannel sound such as DD or DTS ?

My HT receiver does not have discrete multi-channel input.
And as far as I know the other method is the Creative Digital DIN which obviously only creative's own speaker systems support.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.
 
Hmm I thought one of the abilities of the SB Live 5.1 and Audigy was that it could compress multi-channel audio into DD 5.1 channel output over SPDIF? Or is it another sound card/chipset that can do this?
 
Originally posted by: Pluto
Hmm I thought one of the abilities of the SB Live 5.1 and Audigy was that it could compress multi-channel audio into DD 5.1 channel output over SPDIF? Or is it another sound card/chipset that can do this?
Click to expand...

The only DSP that can do this is the audio integrated in the nForce south bridge.
 
OK thanks.

The other application I am interested in is DVD-Audio. I see that Creative is advertising this for the Audigy 2, is there some reason that the Audigy 1 can not do DVD-Audio? I thought they both supported 24 bit audio, and that the only difference was the addition of the 7th channel output. Also do you need to have discrete multiple channel output for DVD-Audio or can it use SPDIF? Are there any other sound cards that support DVD-Audio (I couldn't see any mention of it on the Nvidia webpage talking about nForce)
 
DVD-A is 24bit 192KHz for stereo streams, 24bit 96KHz for multichannel. Audigy 1 doesn't support 192KHz, nor does it truly support 96KHz. The DVD-A standard forbids digital transmissions of the stream so you have to use the analog outs on the card. Currently the Audigy2 is the only card that supports DVD-A. It is important to note that the player is as important as the hardware for DVD-A support. Currently Creative is the only company with a PC based full spec DVD-A capable player.
 
I don't think you need to worry too much about DVD-A on the computer platform for quite a while, since there aren't even any DVD-ROMs that support DVD-A as of yet. Creative's really just digging dig into its barrel for new things to include in their hardware so they have something to print in their brochures...
 
All you need is a 6x or faster DVD-ROM drive to read DVD-A discs which is every drive currently being sold.
 
Originally posted by: Goi
I don't think you need to worry too much about DVD-A on the computer platform for quite a while, since there aren't even any DVD-ROMs that support DVD-A as of yet.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean by that. As far as the PC goes, I have played DVD-A on my PC, using the 16x Lite-On DVD-Rom on my machine. Don't have a 6.1 speaker setup yet, but it does sound quite good on my 5.1 speakers (even they're it's far from being audiophile level). Now stand-alone DVD players is another matter. You have to get one that says it's capable of DVD-A, as well as DVD-video. I put the DVD-A disc in my Pioneer DVD player just to see what would happen, and it just sits there. Can't handle the format. Even if it could, it would probably just pipe the 96/24 digital signal to my Home Theatre receiver, which couldn't handle it either, because it's not 96/24 capale. But there are 96/24 capable receivers available on the market now. Haven't looked a lot, but I haven't seen a stand-alone DVD player that has a DVD-A logo on it either.

WebDude

 
DVD-A in only 5.1 capable, so adding a 6th channel wouldn't make any difference.

I put the DVD-A disc in my Pioneer DVD player just to see what would happen, and it just sits there. Can't handle the format. Even if it could, it would probably just pipe the 96/24 digital signal to my Home Theatre receiver, which couldn't handle it either, because it's not 96/24 capale.
Click to expand...

Digital out's are disabled on all players when using a DVD-A disc. You have to use analog out on the DVD player to get any sound. If you do get audio using digital connectors, then the disc is playing the lower fidelity AC3 stream which isn't DVD-A. There are quite a few standalone DVD-A players out there now and they don't carry much of a price premium over standard DVD-video players.
 
When you play a DVD-A disc on a computer DVD-ROM drive, or any other DVD-Video player, you're not getting the MLP DVD-A 5.1 sound, but what you're getting is actually DD sound. You see, DVD-A discs are made so that they can be played in regular DVD players as well, but you're not getting the full fidelity of the format. Get it?
 
Pariah,
Thanks for the replies. Still trying to understand this new world of DVD-A.

"There are quite a few standalone DVD-A players out there now and they don't carry much of a price premium over standard DVD-video players. "

Would the standalone DVD-A players then have your 6 channel analog audio outputs, to hear DVD-A in 5.1? I guess that would mean 3 stereo phono jacks on the rear, or is there some other configuration they use? I guess the standalone DVD-A player would do the decoding of the 96/24 stream too.

WebDude
 
"When you play a DVD-A disc on a computer DVD-ROM drive, or any other DVD-Video player, you're not getting the MLP DVD-A 5.1 sound, but what you're getting is actually DD sound."

That's the whole point of getting the Audigy 2. It is capable of playing the high fidelity track of DVD-A using the incuded DVD-A software player, the only one currently available. Any DVD-video player that has a DVD-A logo on it can play the high fidelity track as well provided you use the analog out on the player.

"Would the standalone DVD-A players then have your 6 channel analog audio outputs, to hear DVD-A in 5.1?"

yes

"I guess that would mean 3 stereo phono jacks on the rear, or is there some other configuration they use"

3 stereo RCA sets.

Panasonic DVD-XP50

The 6 plugs on the left are the 5.1 analog out.

"I guess the standalone DVD-A player would do the decoding of the 96/24 stream too."

DVD-A is basically a higher resolution CD so there is no decoding of the audio like a dolby digital stream. What the DVD-A player does it decrypt the audio stream of the encryption that doesn't allow digital transfers then like a CD the internal DAC converts the signal to analog and sends it to the receiver.
 
Originally posted by: Goi
When you play a DVD-A disc on a computer DVD-ROM drive, or any other DVD-Video player, you're not getting the MLP DVD-A 5.1 sound, but what you're getting is actually DD sound. You see, DVD-A discs are made so that they can be played in regular DVD players as well, but you're not getting the full fidelity of the format. Get it?
Click to expand...
Don't think that's entirely true. Some DVD-A discs have more than one audio format on them, to allow them to be played in DVD-video players:
"Most DVD-audio discs are compatible with DVD-Video players. To provide compatibility, most DVD-Audio discs are including Dolby Digital (some also include DTS) audio tracks that satisfy the DVD-Video specification. These tracks are playable on DVD-Video players. A DVD album which includes these features will carry the DVD-Audio and DVD-Video logo." (From: Link)
However, there are DVD-A discs without these formats. Like the DVD-A sampler disc you get with the Audgy2. It does not play in my standalone DVD-video player, not at all. It has no AC3 or DTS tracks on it. When I play it on my PC, there is no digital spdif output, only analog output.

WebDude
 
You just reiterated what I said...when you play DVD-A discs on DVD-Video only players, you're playing the non MLP portion of the DVD-A disc, and hence its not stereo 24/96, 24/192 or multichannel 24/96, but at some lower rate. Compatibility is maintained, you can hear the sound, but it ain't at the max resolution or sample rate. To be able to hear that you need a DVD player capable of playing DVD-A discs, and those, as you and many others mention, carry the DVD-A logo.
 
"You just reiterated what I said...when you play DVD-A discs on DVD-Video only players,"

No, what you said was any DVD-ROM drive or DVD-video player. Any DVD-ROM drive that is second generation or newer is capable of playing the high fidelity track provided you have the proper software.
 
In the case of settop DVD-A capable players, the DAC is done internally and output on 6 discrete analog channels, so as long as your receiver has 6(+) channel analog (rca) inputs you should be able to hook it up and hear the high fidelity 24/96? You don't need to purchase a new receiver.. is this correct?

It would seem then that SB Audigy 2 has the only system in place for digitally delivering 5.1 channels of DVD-Audio to a receiver/speakers through a single cable, by way of use of their proprietary digital DIN connector combined with a set of Creative digital DIN equipped speakers?? Or do you still need to use the 6 channel analog output (3 cables)...?
 
Originally posted by: Pluto
It would seem then that SB Audigy 2 has the only system in place for digitally delivering 5.1 channels of DVD-Audio to a receiver/speakers through a single cable, by way of use of their proprietary digital DIN connector combined with a set of Creative digital DIN equipped speakers?? Or do you still need to use the 6 channel analog output (3 cables)...?
Click to expand...
You need to use the 6 channel analog output on the Audigy2 (3 stereo miniplugs). There is no proprietary digital DIN on the Audigy2, unfortunately IMHO. (I have the Cambridge Soundworks DesktopTheatre 5.1, which has a digital DIN in. I used it with my SB Live card via the digital DIN, but now that I've upgraded to Audigy2 I have to feed it with analog inputs. Bummer. There may be a converter cable that goes from the stereo miniplugs to a digital DIN. Some of Creative's literature seems to show a picture of such a cable, but I can't find info on it anywhere.)

WebDude
 
Originally posted by: WebDude
You need to use the 6 channel analog output on the Audigy2 (3 stereo miniplugs). There is no proprietary digital DIN on the Audigy2, unfortunately IMHO. (I have the Cambridge Soundworks DesktopTheatre 5.1, which has a digital DIN in. I used it with my SB Live card via the digital DIN, but now that I've upgraded to Audigy2 I have to feed it with analog inputs. Bummer. There may be a converter cable that goes from the stereo miniplugs to a digital DIN. Some of Creative's literature seems to show a picture of such a cable, but I can't find info on it anywhere.)

WebDude
Click to expand...

What you need is the Digital Jack to Digital DIN cable. If it didn't come with your speakers, you should be able to call up Creative and request one. It should be free, other than for shipping.

Despite this, playing DVD-A on the Audigy 2 will disable the Digital Jack so you will still not get digital output using this method.
 
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