SPDIF/Optical connectors: Not for surround sound?!

[Ichinisan]

My friend says that the SPDIF and optical connectors on and nForce2 or any board will not support surround sound options because they were made for older stereo-only equipment (Like optical used for Sony MiniDiscs).

This can't be so! Why do I have to use my nForce2's analog outputs for true surround sound?!

Please confirm! I obviously don't know much about sound solutions... My last card was an SB Live! Value with analog 4.1 outputs only, no Dolby, DTS, 5.1 surround, or whatever connectors.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Ichinisan
My friend says that the SPDIF and optical connectors on and nForce2 or any board will not support surround sound options because they were made for older stereo-only equipment (Like optical used for Sony MiniDiscs).

This can't be so! Why do I have to use my nForce2's analog outputs for true surround sound?!

Please confirm! I obviously don't know much about sound solutions... My last card was an SB Live! Value with analog 4.1 outputs only, no Dolby, DTS, 5.1 surround, or whatever connectors.

Your friend is somewhat correct. s/pdif stands for Sony/Phillips digital interface or something similar to that and was developed similar to when they developed the CD. It carries the original digital signal which then needs to be decoded and output through the speakers using digital to analog converters. He would've been correct about 10 years ago, but now that DD 5.1 is pretty mainstream, s/pdif is typically used in reference to home theater set-ups to output the digital AC-3 stream needed for DD/DTS 5.1 sound. The most common use of DD 5.1 was in DVD movies, but the nForce 2 encodes original source (mono, stereo, quadraphonic, etc.) to Dolby Digital in real-time. You will however need an external Dolby Digital decoder for DD 5.1 surround sound. If you use the analog outputs on your nForce2, you'll still be getting DD 5.1, but the decoding will be done onboard using whatever CODEC chip found on your board. Typically, the quality of this decoder won't be as good as what you would find on a good quality amplifier or decoder.

Chiz

 

[Ichinisan]

Enter the awesome Logitech Z-680.

 

[Boogak]

If you enable real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding for the nForce or nForce2 chipset, it will output a DD5.1 signal through your SPDIF connection. In order to take advantage of this, you would then need a DD5.1 decoder on the other end of your SPDIF connection, be it a Dolby Digital receiver or speakers with builtin decoders.

For instance, my HTPC consists of a nForce1 board w/ DD5.1 encoding enable and passed thru via digital coaxial to my Denon receiver, which decodes it and outputs true DD5.1 surround sound to my Energy Take5 surround speakers.

 

[Ichinisan]

Originally posted by: Ichinisan
Enter the awesome Logitech Z-680...

...because it has built-in DTS and DD5.1 decoders.

Awesome!

 

[T9D]

..

 

[Ichinisan]

I thought that my new nForce2 was supposed to be the perfect mate for these speakers(?). How should I configure this?