HOW TO - Set up SPDIF output

[saber001]

Hi.

I have a sound blaster live which has a 3.5mm spdif out as well as the P4P800 E DELUX mother board with coax SPDIF out.
I have tried both of these and can't seem to get 5.1 out of either.

My understanding was you should be able to simply hook up an RCA lead to the mother board (assuming i use this over my Sound Blaster live) and run it to a my Denon Amp's digital coax in port.
The problem is that when I try and play something in say Power DVD that I know has AC3 i can't get DD to play on my denon, i get sound but no 5.1.

I have made sure that powerdvd is set to SPDIF out and the the ASUS REALTEK sound manager is set to Digital out.

As a point of intrest even when i run the test patten on the REALTEK sound manager all i get is left channel and right channel no center, rears or sub.

What am i doing wrong, is there a guide out there that will help.
Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[tmlim]

I don't think the SB Live! has a digital out on the card, which is what you need if you want a receiver to play 5.1

The SB Live! decodes the 5.1 and sends it to a 5.1 speaker set, but unless the receiver has some bypass connectors, the receiver is waiting for a 5.1 signal to decode on it's own. The best you might be able to do is have a stereo signal from the computer.

IF you're really serious about sending a 5.1 signal from your computer to your receiver, you might want to check out the Audigy 2 <A HREF="http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2ZS_platinum_pro/" target="_new">http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2ZS_platinum_pro/</A>

Hope I made sense.

"A delayed game will eventually come out, a bad game is bad forever."
-Shigeru Miyamoto

 

[Crashman]

If you're using the onboard sound, you'll probably have to change the output settings in the sound application. You know, the one that ask which outputs you're using? Also, not all coaxial cables are up to standard for digital audio, I believe Composite Video cables follow a very similar standard and should work.

Since you have the SB Live installed, I don't know where to go from there. If you want to use the onboard SPDIF you should probably pull the soundcard.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Aidanoridania]

I don't think the SB Live! has a digital out on the card, which is what you need if you want a receiver to play 5.1

it has though the low end version has it only as an accessory so it needs to be bought separedly the live 5.1 platinum does have it in the bay and for the live player version you can buy it as a bracket slot

not sure if they produce those still though maybe have a look at creative?

<font color=purple><i> Enosi and I.... </i></font color=purple>

 

[tmlim]

You're right. I forgot about the platinum edition.

"A delayed game will eventually come out, a bad game is bad forever."
-Shigeru Miyamoto

 

[Codesmith]

The ONLY solution for realtime 5.1 Dolby Digital encoding is the nVidia SoundStorm and its only available on the NF2 motherboards.

All other soundcards can passthrough an existing DD/DTS signal, but they can only generate 2 channel digital output.

When you watch movies the sound simply passes through the card to the reciever without any modification giving you perfect Dolby Digital and DTS audio.

When you play games using SPDIF the sound card has downmiz to 2 channels before encoding to AC3.

So except for all but one sound card you will only hear left and right when doing a speaker test!

A better test is to play the THX Sound test from a DVD.

To test your AC3 Filter settings (for 5.1 DivX movies) you will need to run the DivX version of the same sound test.

Don't test with .ac3 file. For some reason windows media player won't pass them to AC3 filter so they end up being decoded and reencoded.

---
The soundblaster Live 5.1 has SPDIF out via the center/sub jack. All you need is an 3.5mm to dual RCA adapter, the SPDIF will be on one of the two channels.

You need to install creative's drivers, not XP's. Then you need to open Creative's mixer and disable AC3 decoding and enable digital output only.

If you forget to deselect AC3 decode then the 5.1 Ac3 gets decoded by the soundcard, then it gets rencoded to 2 channel AC3!

BTW Creative Soundcards have the WORST SPDIF output. Read the SPDIF FAQ's at Doom9 for details. Obviously the results are 100% perfect when it works, but getting it to work is easier on other cards.

If you are not a gamer the best SPDIF you can get would be a $20 C-Media card. All the card does is pass through a digital signal with zero processing, so quality doesn't play a factor.

Personally I use a SB Live 5.1. I use headphones to play games and for DVD's and DivX I output via SPDIF to my Home Theater system.

When I used a C-Media I could have more programs running in the background wihtout it causing stutterins in the AC3 sound. Other than that the SB Live 5.1 handles SPDIF well.

If my settings don't fix your problem then read visit Doom9's forum and look for their AC3 sound FAQ.

 

[Worf101]

Saber is absolutely right. You have to jump through so many hoops with SB cards to get a 5.1 DD signal to a home theatre receiver. I prefer you to be stuck using their lame a** speaker sets. Getting 5.1 is easier with the Audigy 2S Platinum I run but it still ain't a walk in the park.

Da Worfster

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

 

[666alberto]

this last post has 5 years old but if there is somebody i'll explain my problem about optical signal , that do the red light and win system display the sound on the options BUT i don't hear anything from the speakers! ( instead with normal red/white jack joined on couple with the normal green jack , all works! why this problem with the optical cable' ? ? it's about ASUS?)

 

[gamerk316]

...You couldn't just make a new thread?

In your case, make sure the optical output is the default sound output device from the Windows Control Panel.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey