Need some help w/ htpc & sound output

[soulrider4ever]

i decided to hook up my pc (sig) to my tv today via dvi cable..

ran purevideo platinum, etc. picture quality was off the hook.

However, I did have an issue with sound. I have a xfi xtrememusic, and i bought a digital i/o as seen here

well, my receiver was playing everything in pro logic instead of dolby digital, and whenever i ran speaker tests, the rear left/right sounds were coming from the front left/right.

I wasn't sure if theirs a setting I can adjust or what. I had it set to digital out in the purevideo etc. to receiver via spdif (w/e) and still no go.

Should I set dolby digital to internal decoder or external in the settings? I tried both to no avail btw, but was wondering which is better.

 

[Malpine Walis]

Um, bad new my friend. Those things don't work. At least not the way that a salesman at some electronics store may have told you they did. If I were you, I would return it while you still can. If you wait until after the holiday and you lose your receipt, most stores will only refund you the current sale price, which may be pretty low next week.

Here is the deal. You see that thing that looks like a headphone plug on the end of the wire? It is a headphone plug and it can only carry two channels. If you look at the product page, you will see that while it does say that it can record from s/pdif, it in no way can transmit in s/pdif.

What happened is that when you put your sound card into s/pdif mode, it only saw a regular stereo interface connected and it merged the front and rear channels. Hence the reason that your speaker test went the way that it did.

Also, it bears noting that while it technically can record from s/pdif, it must by definition down convert the sound into regular stereo. If you are feeling adventurous go ahead and try it. There is simply no way that you can get that thing to do anything that is not regular stereo. Sorry dude.

 

[Maviryk]

you need to read this Digital Sound FAQ.

And then you want to buy one of the soundcards listed in that sticky.

 

[soulrider4ever]

Ugh... Would this work any better? Those ******** at creative...why would they make that...

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=16&product=14659

 

[Maviryk]

Why don't you just get an Auzentech Mystique and sell your XiFi?

Would cost less and prolly sound better. Less cords too.

 

[Burdman27911]

I'd agree with Maviryk. I've only heard good things about the Auzentech, and I'm probably going to go with one of those for my next build.

Also as a side note... soulrider, IIRC, you aren't supposed to have external links in your sig. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

 

[soulrider4ever]

My Rig is Primarily a gaming rig, then a HTPC 2nd. The X-fi is much better for gaming than the others. Would that item I posted work? If not, how much of a problem would it be to have two sound cards, 1 enabled for gaming and the other for surround sound?

 

[Malpine Walis]

Ugh... Would this work any better? Those ******** at creative...why would they make that...

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=16&product=14659

OK, that should work. I do not want to say that it 100% will because after all Creative does sell the other one for no reason that I can fathom. However, I do have a reservation in that your cabling would be coming out of the front of your rig. First off, it would be sort of ugly to do that and second, it might just expose the cable and connectors to a bit more day to day abuse.

Alternatively, Creative also makes this product:

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=16&product=14711

You would need a special cable that AFAIK only Creative makes (and how much would that cost?). But you might get the same effect with the cabling coming out of the back of your system for a cleaner look and a bit more stability to your connectors.

 

[soulrider4ever]

LOL. yea except that piece you showed me costs $180...

 

[Pinky]

lol @ MW's new avatar

"Everybody DANCE!"

 

[Maviryk]

Dude that's like chump change compared to the 8800gtx you have.

I'm not sure if the Creative cards are that much better for gaming than the Auzentech ones. Surround is surround, with a Conroe processor usage won't matter. I'd love to get my hands on an Auzentech... but that's just me.

But that box would work.

 

[soulrider4ever]

Ok, I know you guys are going to laugh at this, but I just realized my mobo has an optical / coaxial output for sound in it...I never noticed due to the fact that I've always used my xfi.

Is it cool if I use the onboard sound for movies if it's digital? any noticable quality losses? Oh, and where do I decode, on the mobo side or the receiver side? any difference?

 

[Malpine Walis]

Actually we are not going to laugh at you. Every one of us here remembers what it was like to not know stuff and how good it gets as you pick stuff up. Sure, other places on the 'net may not have the ethic that we do but we certainly do not do that stuff here.

Now, that being said, you mobo has the Realtek ALC888DD audio processor chip on it and the relevant specs are as follows:

All DACs supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz sample rate
16/20/24-bit S/PDIF-OUT supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz sample rate
DACs with 97dB SNR (A-Weighting)

Now I do not know how much of that you know how to read but even if you do not follow any of it, I can assure you that you should be capable of getting fine sound at up to 7.1 speakers. Just do me one favor and do not go out and buy the most expensive cable on the grounds that you will get better sound that way. Trust me on this one and get the cheapie cable at rat shack. You may be nicely surprised at how good they can sound. Certainly it will be plenty good enough to do your speaker tests with. And last but not least, if you do decide that it is not as good as the analog lines that you had been using (which I would have serious doubts about) you are only out like $4.99 should you decide to upgrade.

 

[soulrider4ever]

Cool, it worked! LOL, all this time I had digital out right on my mobo

 

[shard]

I have yet to see any discernable proof that the Xifi. And considering what you can do with the Auzentech cards, they are amazing for HTPC, especialy in terms of gaming, they are the only cards that can do full digital surround sound via Dolby Digital Live! and DTS output. Very very good cards. Realy no loss in frames that I have ever seen. Mainly just a heads up