I want to make sure I am right about this. I have a Asus P5E-VM HDMI motherboard with Realtek audio going into a Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver using digital coax. Only DVDs are flipping DTS or DD on. All other Windows output (including games) seems to be stereo (even when I toggle 5.1 on). Is this the way it is (I kind of understand why), or am I missing something. No way to get Windows to send multichannel PCM to the receiver, is there? Would a better soundcard do it differently and if so which one?
SPDIF output on HTPC limited to stereo except for DVDs?
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YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
- Aug 6, 2001
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http://forums.anandtech.com/me...1=digital+audio+thread
For games, you'll need a card that can encode DD or DTS.
I wrote that thread quite a while ago and now there are better cards out there for that.
afaik there isn't a way to do multichannel PCM from a soundcard to a receiver yet, but a DD / DTS stream for gaming should be adequate.
For games, you'll need a card that can encode DD or DTS.
I wrote that thread quite a while ago and now there are better cards out there for that.
afaik there isn't a way to do multichannel PCM from a soundcard to a receiver yet, but a DD / DTS stream for gaming should be adequate.
All the sound cards that do DD and DTS just create multichannel from stereo and pipe them over digital out or do they just send stereo and let the receiver hash it out? Seems I am SOL unless I want to run analog cables for each channel or live with PLII or DTS Neo:6 off of the stereo stream.
I have HDMI on my mobo but I think I can't just use it for audio plus I think it's gimped to two channel as well.
I have HDMI on my mobo but I think I can't just use it for audio plus I think it's gimped to two channel as well.
Shawn
Lifer
- Apr 20, 2003
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All the sound card does is pass through. Everything will be stereo unless the source is DD or DTS, like on a DVD. It just passes it to the receiver.
For me this is great because I can use cheap onboard audio and it sounds as good as my receiver is capable of. I don't play games so stereo sound is not an issue for me. Also, since I use my computer as a media center pc, recorded OTA HDTV also includes DD 5.1 so that gets passed to my receiver as well.
No.
A DD or DTS encoding card will give you true surround sound from games and other non-encoded multichannel sources. However, if you leave them on the DD/DTS encoding setting and play stereo they do convert that to 5.1 which I don't like. However, you can change this setting depending on what you are doing.
Any recommendations on a card? I haven't bought a sound card in ages. I'll ask in peripherals too.
HT OMEGA Striker
Bluegears b-enspirer(slightly higher)
Sondigo Inferno
These are your best bet IMO, but I would go with the striker if I was making the choice.
Bluegears b-enspirer(slightly higher)
Sondigo Inferno
These are your best bet IMO, but I would go with the striker if I was making the choice.
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
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nothing to do with that... besides, hdmi is just a conduit, if your source can't encode dd or dts, which is his problem, hdmi can't help you.
op needs a dd live or dts live card. I wouldn't bother though, since games don't sound all that much better in surround.
I would look into the HDMI angle since you've already got it and that is the ultimate solution. If not gimped it should handle both uncompressed multichannel and all encoded formats.
Otherwise, analog would be a good choice if the mobo DAC's are acceptable.
If HD formats are not important then real-time AC3 encoding for S/PDIF can be had with any Creative X-Fi DSP ($40-50) and the free software redocneXk.
Otherwise, analog would be a good choice if the mobo DAC's are acceptable.
If HD formats are not important then real-time AC3 encoding for S/PDIF can be had with any Creative X-Fi DSP ($40-50) and the free software redocneXk.
HDMI may not be an option as I am maxed out on ports right now. Anything else going into my receiver is going to require a 5x1 switch and those are not without their problems. $80 for the HT OMEGA Striker vs $50 for a switch, end result is probably better sound from the dedicated card than the Realtek on the mobo.
The new Auzentech looks sweet but for $189 we're looking at half the cost of my receiver just so I feel good about the DD or DTS light being on
Is there really much difference between true DD/DTS multichannel vs PLII or Neo:6 for gaming?
The new Auzentech looks sweet but for $189 we're looking at half the cost of my receiver just so I feel good about the DD or DTS light being on
Is there really much difference between true DD/DTS multichannel vs PLII or Neo:6 for gaming?
Originally posted by: Chris
HDMI may not be an option as I am maxed out on ports right now. Anything else going into my receiver is going to require a 5x1 switch and those are not without their problems. $80 for the HT OMEGA Striker vs $50 for a switch, end result is probably better sound from the dedicated card than the Realtek on the mobo.
The new Auzentech looks sweet but for $189 we're looking at half the cost of my receiver just so I feel good about the DD or DTS light being on
Is there really much difference between true DD/DTS multichannel vs PLII or Neo:6 for gaming?
One is surround sound...one is not. So yes, there is a dramatic difference.
The auzentech card would be a waste for you. Much of what you are paying for in that card is its analog output ability...which you won't be utilizing. Hence why I asked in my previous post.
Well PLII and Neo:6 has "fake" surround. Screw it, just pulled the trigger on the Striker. Thanks for the help man.
The only impressive implementation of "fake" surround sound I have seen is Gamecube games which are designed for PLII. Any other material that isn't optimized for it really just adds some slight ambiance and moves the voices to the center channel. That's about it.
Go with the striker, its cheap and does what its supposed to do.
I read on that azuretech page that the newer card supports TrueHD and DTS-HD. Is it the only one that does? I thought I read someplace that BR and HD-DVD were "crippled" to DTS/DD on PCs for some reason. (Or is it that they won't do that audio over HDMI? It's possible I'm confused)
If software decodes the audio, any sound card with appropriate bit rate/sampling rate capability is capable of outputting "HD" audio.
Somewhat offtopic... but that Omega Stryker card has optical audio in... does that mean I could connect my HD DVR to that input and have surround sound through my Promedia 4.1s? Right now I've got the basic left/right audio cables going into a Hauppauge TV card for audio (stereo only) while the video goes straight to my projector.
i have both the turtle beach montego and bluegears enspire. both have encoding dts/ddl and passthrough. i love them both, the enspire more so as the drivers have been updated more frequently and mature. i can tell you that i went with onboard sound when i bought my gigabyte ds4 as i lost a pci channel moving from the ds3 and have 2 hauppauge tv tuner cards. even though the onboard 889a is considered a fairly high end onboard solution with dts encoding, it is milessss apart in quality (in a bad way) from my tbeach and bluegears. i ended up after days of playing with the sound, eq etc buying a pci-e tv tuner card so i had a free slot again for my bluegears..was it worth the 100 bucks for the tv tuner card so i could use my add on soundcard..bigtime!
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