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Soundcard and Digital Device Connectivity help

Temps_Riising

Temps_Riising

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Hi all,

I have just upgraded my home Cinema system so have a very nice High power Sony AV 5.1 Amplifiier with built in Dolby/DTS digital decoders with a nice set of 5.1 speakers to go with it and was thinking of linking it up to me Soundblaster Audigy 4 soundcard.

Being a bit of a noob on digital connectiviity, would I be right in saying that to get full digital surround sound from say a DVD source when watching a movie (assuming most games dont support full digital sound?) all I need to do is to connect a digital coaxial cable between the SPDIF socket on the audigy to the Digital I/O on my AV Amp?........grateful for any advice!
 
L

Luke

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the sound card needs to be able to encode to Dolby digital or you will be locked to 2 channel
or you will have to use software encoder like AC3 codec
not sure if that card can encode
 
Temps_Riising

Temps_Riising

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Luke said:
the sound card needs to be able to encode to Dolby digital or you will be locked to 2 channel
or you will have to use software encoder like AC3 codec
not sure if that card can encode
Click to expand...

Apparently it can according to the product documentation, it was their top model before the XiFi came along.
 
Temps_Riising

Temps_Riising

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Bump!
 
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Luke

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yeah you should be able to get full digital from dvd even if your card can't encode
also just plug the SPDIF out on your card into the SPDIF in and set your amp to use it and it should work also set it in windows
 
Temps_Riising

Temps_Riising

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Luke said:
yeah you should be able to get full digital from dvd even if your card can't encode
also just plug the SPDIF out on your card into the SPDIF in and set your amp to use it and it should work also set it in windows
Click to expand...

When you say "set in windows" I am guessing you mean enabling SPDIF in my creative control panel and if an option...within Windows audio properties.
 
Mussels

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lukes got this a bit confused.

digital PASSTHROUGH is possible - as long as you have a digital connection (coax or optical) you will get 2.0 sound from games and such, and 5.1 from movies (or downloaded material with AC3 audio)

summary: 5.1 audio only if pre-encoded. if you set the media player to play only over that soundcard, and use a codec such as AC3 filter you can lock it to SPDIF (passthrough) meaning the PC doesnt see or touch the audio.

how about this: are you even going to use analogue at all, or purely the digital connection?
 
Temps_Riising

Temps_Riising

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Cooling TRUE and lots of 120mm fans
Memory 2GB OCZ DDR3 1600mhz 7-7-7-18
Video Card(s) Inno3D 512MB 8800GTS G92 @ 835/2087/1075
Storage Western Digital 500gb 32MB cache SATA II
Display(s) Samsung SyncMaster 205BW 20" TFT on DVi
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Audio Device(s) XiFi Xtreme Gamer/Audigy 4
Power Supply Tagan 800W U33 2ForceLL
Software XP Home SP3 and Vista 32bit Home Premium dual boot
Benchmark Scores Don't Bench....too busy gaming!
Mussels said:
lukes got this a bit confused.

digital PASSTHROUGH is possible - as long as you have a digital connection (coax or optical) you will get 2.0 sound from games and such, and 5.1 from movies (or downloaded material with AC3 audio)

summary: 5.1 audio only if pre-encoded. if you set the media player to play only over that soundcard, and use a codec such as AC3 filter you can lock it to SPDIF (passthrough) meaning the PC doesnt see or touch the audio.

how about this: are you even going to use analogue at all, or purely the digital connection?
Click to expand...

Thanks, strange as it sounds.....I dont know really, I just want the best possible audio for my movies AND games, I have as I said, an excellent digital AV Amp, some good and powerful yamaha 5.1 speakers so really just wanted to know the best I could hope to acheive, the amp has a single digital aux coaxial connection that would slot into the Audigy 4's SPDIF.....what do you advise and is it worth messing with this in reality over my reasonabily decent Logitech 5.1 PC speaker analogue system?
 
Mussels

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Temps_Riising said:
Thanks, strange as it sounds.....I dont know really, I just want the best possible audio for my movies AND games, I have as I said, an excellent digital AV Amp, some good and powerful yamaha 5.1 speakers so really just wanted to know the best I could hope to acheive, the amp has a single digital aux coaxial connection that would slot into the Audigy 4's SPDIF.....what do you advise and is it worth messing with this in reality over my reasonabily decent Logitech 5.1 PC speaker analogue system?
Click to expand...

The best solution would be an auzentech card or the asus xonar - these can turn analogue signals (games for example) into digital (they encode into dolby digital on the fly)

The other option is to only use analogue for 5.1 on everything (wasting the receiver)

The last (more complex) option, is to set your media programs to use the SPDIF/digital sound out. That way, default programs (games) will use analogue and the media will use digital. This of course, wont work if you dont have analogue inputs.
 
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