Audigy 2 zs and DTS

[TWC]

Ok fellas, I know im overlooking something simple here. Got the new card yesterday and I must say I am impressed. My question is this, I was under the impression that this card decodes DTS soundtracks, however I get NO sound when I select this option in the DVD menu. I have a 4.1 speaker system using XP pro.DO i need anything other than a DVD player and this card to get DTS? As far as I know I have made all the appropriate setup changes.I have 4.1 selected in the speaker options and it is synced with windows. I am playing my movies on WMP 9 and have Power DVD 3.0.

P4 1.8a @ 2.25, Radeon 9800Pro 380/340, 512mb Corsair xms DDR333,Philips Acoustic Edge on Boston Acoustics B7800 4.1's, Western Digital 7200rpm 80gb SE, Antec True Power 480W

 

[Darfur]

You have to pay to get the version of PowerDVD that supports DTS decoding, I just got the card too and I was also puzzled by this. The version of PowerDVD that I have supports multichannel output, but not DTS, it's like $30 to upgrade it, not sure if it's worth it since I don't watch movies that often. Interwin DVD player also does this, it doesn't matter if your card can do DTS or not, the software won't let you unless you buy the full version.

 

[TWC]

Ok, i figured it was something like that. Thanks

P4 1.8a @ 2.25, Radeon 9800Pro 380/340, 512mb Corsair xms DDR333,Philips Acoustic Edge on Boston Acoustics B7800 4.1's, Western Digital 7200rpm 80gb SE, Antec True Power 480W

 

[riko]

You may be uable to use the board (bus) or you might be able to use a cable to pass the S/PDIF signal to the sound card. Power dvd 3, I think is a give away on some sites, but make sure the option to pass the signal is selected in whatever dvd player you're using.

You don't need the dvd player s/w to decode the sound when the card is supposed to be doing it, otherwise you just wasted you money. I figure I did in buying the audi2 zs anyway because of all the ridiculous problems ...

I got a audi2 zs and it still ins't working after tons of troubleshooting and an ongoing ticket with creative. What a bunch of "poodlefakers" never again.

The 6.1 sound out of the Gigabyte MB is really good by comparison.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by riko on 02/20/04 12:31 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jclw]

Riko is correct.

There are three ways to do DTS decoding on a computer using DVD software.

#1) You can use the DVD playback software to do it (ie: PowerDVD 5). To do this just setup the software to do DTS decoding.

#2) If the DVD software won't do the decoding you can have the soundcard do it (if it supports it). Set your DVD software to pass-through the SPDIF signal to the soundcard. Make sure you have DTX decoding on your soundcard.

#3) If you have an external DTS decoder and want to use it set both the DVD software AND the soundcard to SPDIF pass-through.

So if you want to use your old version of PowerDVD just set it to SPDIF pass-through, and you shoud be good to go. If PowerDVD 3 doesn't let you do SPDIF pass-through then you'll need a newer version. A quick way to tell in PowerDVD is to go to the configuration menu, pick the "Information" tab, and at the bottom of the list it should say something like:

"SPDIF Output Device: SB Audigy Audio [B000] (not in use)"

I find the PowerDVD DTS decoding is just as good as hardware decoding and the only time I'd use hardware decoding is if the computer was too slow to do it.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[TWC]

Actually it says
SPDIF OUTPUT DEVICE- Not Detected
and I dont see any setting in Power DVD letting me pass it through to my card. It was a free version I got with a Graphic card or MB.

P4 1.8a @ 2.25, Radeon 9800Pro 380/340, 512mb Corsair xms DDR333, Audigy 2ZS on Boston Acoustics B7800 4.1's, Western Digital 7200rpm 80gb SE, Antec True Power 480W

 

[jclw]

You'll need an upgrade then.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.7 i815*