DIGITAL INPUT

[the-donkey]

can anyone sugest a sound card that is good and has digital input? im looking to run my xbox through my 5.1 on the pc. the onboard i have has spid and optical but not input. or if anyone has any sugestions of any other way i could hook it up cheers

 

[the-donkey]

46 people read this but not one answer or opinion???????? whats the point of posting questions

 

[gamerk316]

I'm assuimg you want to take a digital signal IN, and output to analog out? If so, its doable, with a minor caveat:

No soundcard will decode a 5.1 DD/DTS signal from Digital IN to Analog OUT. Technically, Creatives cards has a DD/DTS decoder on board, but apparently, it won't decode a Digital->Analog signal (according to a few people I've talked to, you can do this in XP, although I haven't tested yet...). And since Optical Digital can only carry a 5.1 signal encoded in DD/DTS (due to DRM issues), unless you have a seperate decoder to route through, the best you can get is 2 channel uncompressed PCM.

Most soundcards will take a digital signal (most of Creatives and ASUS's; even the Razer Barracuda can do this), its just only Creative has a decoder for DD/DTS signals, and that won't work going from digital to analog.

In short, unless you go through a decoder first, the best you can get is 2.0 sound over optical digital.

 

[the-donkey]

so i would b as well just getting a seperate suround system that takes optical cheers m8 thanks for taking the time toi answer

 

[gamerk316]

so i would b as well just getting a seperate suround system that takes optical cheers m8 thanks for taking the time toi answer

NP, I just went through the same exact thing with my PS3. Besides, it stinks having to have a PC on to play a PS3, and a seperate system takes care of that. The best option I found was a pair of wireless headphones that come with a wired decoder module (that takes the optical digital signal).

Also note (not sure if this applies to you), my setups does HDMI to my moniter for video (with a switch to select the proper signal), and Optical to my headphone/decoder (with another switch to handle to optical signal). I tried doing both Audio and Video over HMDI, and using the optical out on my moniter to output the HDMI audio signal to my headphone/decoder, but the signal wouldn't go through if it was DTS/DD (2 channel PCM works though). I'm assuming that moniter can't pass a DD/DTS signal correctly, but that might also be worth looking into if thats how you wanted to set everything up. Figured this could save you another headache, if you were trying to avoid endless wirng...

 

[the-donkey]

i have the white xbox 360 no hdmi. i use the component conection. i have a xbox surround sound system that takes the optical i was just hoping there was a nice easy way to get rid of that and just have 1 set of speakers and less boxes. its handy though as i can have the pc playing music while im using the xbox. thanks again for taking the time to answer m8

 

[gamerk316]

No prob.

For those interested, here's the thread I use a refernce on this issue:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15846010#post15846010