Dolby Digital output via S/PDIF doesn’t work

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nukemeister

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I’m on Win8 64bit.

I got a Turtle Beach XP500 headset with Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound. I wanted to hook it up to my new PC and thought why not try out if I get the surround sound to work?
So I ordered this USB Sound Card: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005M19I0K/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I hooked the XP500 up via S/PDIF to the sound cards with latest drivers installed.
The receiver of the XP500 has a light indicator that turns on when it receives Dolby Digital Surround Sound.
It doesn’t turn on in games or videos though, only when I do the Supported Formats Test of the Digital Output in the Playback Devices control panel. Any other than that the indicator light stays for Dolby ProLogic IIx is on.

This tells me that Dolby Digital Surround Sound works, but I have no clue how to enable it to always run and not only in the Supported Formats Test. From what I read on the web, I should be able to enable Dolby Digital or DTS under S/PDIF output in the sound card software, but it only gives me the option for PCM.

After hours of fiddling around and reading the web dry, my head is spinning and I had to look at my ID to remember my full name and where I was born. I really would appreciate help.

Here are couple of screenies I put together for better visualisation: http://imgur.com/YsbSHjv

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
whooleo


OK let me simplify. Audio on a DVD is encoded in Dolby Digital, if you were to play that on his sound card you would get Dolby Digital coming from the S/PDIF output because that is what the audio on the DVD is. For things not...
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whooleo

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nukemeister

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According to the product description and reviews, that's exactly what that thing does. It's also putting it out, but only in the sound test.

 
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whooleo

whooleo

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What I mean is that yes it can bitstream (meaning it can playback audio ALREADY encoded in AC-3/DTS). But you need the Dolby Digital Live/DTS Connect software pack and a card that supports Dolby Digital Live/DTS Connect for transcoding to work.
 
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nukemeister

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I appreciate your input, but I have to be honest: what you are telling me goes over my head. It can bitstream but not transcode? Whaat?

The thing can put out a proper Dolby signal. That is what I learned when I used the test sound. Now games and such do the same if I'm not mistaken. What I try to achieve is, to have the Dolby signal in games.

Assumption: To get that signal into the receiver, the card needs to output DTS and that's picked up by the receiver, but the only option I have available is PCM.
 
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whooleo

whooleo

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OK let me simplify. Audio on a DVD is encoded in Dolby Digital, if you were to play that on his sound card you would get Dolby Digital coming from the S/PDIF output because that is what the audio on the DVD is. For things not encoded in Dolby Digital (Just about everything else on your PC) there is a "thing" called Dolby Digital Live which takes ANY sound coming out of your PC and encodes (transcode is the proper terminology) on the fly into Dolby Digital for output over S/PDIF. The same goes for DTS.

So for example let's say you have a game (take Mirror's Edge for example). You set your settings to 5.1 wherever you need to and the sound coming from the game gets transcoded into Dolby Digital/DTS by your sound card on the fly for output over S/PDIF.

For more info look up transcode, encode, and bitstreaming.
 
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nukemeister

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Thanks for taking the time to try and explain that stuff. I feel like my parents when they bought an HD Ready TV instead of an HD TV. Bit misleading the entire Dolby thing. Could use some consumer friendly streamlining.
 
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