Does anybody use a DTS soundcard in thier HTPC? If so what are you running.
Im trying to decide what sound card to get to run my Logitech z680 DTS speakers.

Turtle beach Riviera 5.1

M-Audio Revoulution 5.1



If you have/know of any other good cards I'd like to hear about them.

Audigy platinum.. thats the best on the market I believe.

I like the TurtleBeach stuff. Awesome DACs and great sound. Just remember you'll have to have a software DVD soloution that supports DTS in order to take advantage of your soundcard. PowerDVD has a plugin pack that includes a DTS decoder, and I've been told that WinDVD also has a similar pack, though I couldn't find it myself. I'm currently using ZoomPlayer/SonicCraftDVD/FFDshow/AVISynth to handle my DVDs and it works exceedingly well for me.

Im using the Turtle Beach with excellent results.
I went with it because it has optical (toslink) out to my reciever.

really! thats Exactly what i wanted to hear! The Turtle beach is $50 less then the M-Audio so im stolked to hear something good about the Turtle Beach card.

Lemme put it this way. I had the "originator" the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1, then I had the Soundblaster Audigy. I could never get the dam drivers to cooperate with anything, and when I finally got it all working properly it sounded like poop compared to the Turtle Beach. After that I swore off creative labs and haven't looked back. The new Audigy 2 ZS Platinum intrigues me, but not enough to warrant the $250 price tag.

I checked MAYA 5.1 at Tiger direct for $55.00 CND not bad for the price if this can do the job Check the specs @ AudioTrak website

I was running a Sound Blaster 5.1 for the Dolby Digital it "supported", but I couldn't get it to run correctly either. The turtle beach is only $50 CND from ncix.com so im stolked you guys like it.

Stay far away from anything Creative.
Use the M-Audio products as they do not resample music from 44.1khz to 44khz.
For more info on this visit the HTPC thread at AVSFORUM.COM


peace

hi.

Turtle Beach Riviera vs Santa Cruz please guys ? riviera is the only digital?

cheers

Santa cruz is Digital as well, the difference is that the Santa Cruz uses coax cable instead of Fiber optic, plus a couple other features.Comparisions

thanks regulator, appreciated

I have the SB 5.1 Audigy and have never liked it . the Drivers and support SUCK!

think ill try the Turtle beach Catalina Since my Pioneer has 7.1 inputs

I have a TB SantaCruz hooked up via the versajack (coaxial) to my reciever outputting digital, works great.

(Using Windows XP SP2 and WinDVD 6.0 Plat)

I have the Turtle Creek Catalina I believe. Its been a while now but Turtle Creek for sure.
It was the only one I found with the toslink Optical output. The DSP stuff on my Yamaha Reciever needs the optical input . Cant remember why I just does ).
Then I setup Power DVD that came packaged with ?? something..
Had to pay to upgrade to PowerDVD5 then Pay again for "Audio Enthusist Pack" upgrade.
To get all the DTS stuff.

Short version, Turtle Creek and Power DVD

I have the same setup except I am using SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition) mother board this has a SPDIF Audio Connector using optical cable connection.

Problam I have is when I play DVD receiver is not detecting DTS signal or WinDVD 6.0 Plat is not sending signal, every time I place a new DVD in my DVD drive I have to press stop and play 2 times and then I see the DTS red flag shows on my receiver.

I dont know if its a audio driver problem or problem in my WinDVD 6.0 Plat player never got time to reserch on this anyone ells had this problem?

other than that I am enjoying DTS

Audigy 2 ZS Platinum THX Certified to go with the Logitech z-680's which are also THX certified

If you're looking to use a receiver, just go and spend $25-$30 on a Chieftech (sp?) 710, or something like that. HTPCNEWS.com has a lot of info on it. It will PASS-THRU the digital sound. that way your receiver/pre amp will do all the decoding - you should get everything that way.

im getting the new audiotrak prodigy 7.1LT

I'm using the Turtle Beach Riviera for the toslink-

I'm very happy with the card and the price. I bought mine on e-bay for $13.00. Works great with my Onkyo receiver.

I have the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz as well and the Logitech z-680 speakers. DTS can be also be passed through directly to those speakers via a SPDIF connection. The 680s have a built in decoder for DTS.

Just a friendly heads up, the Turtle Beach Riviera has just a plain vanilla C-Media 8738 chipset onboard. I'd recommend an Audiotrak, M-audio Or chaintech AV710 over it any day.

Not trying to knock riviera owners as i have several cmedia 8738 soundcards i won in a bulk auction. They all sound decent and have spdif digital but Cmedia cannot compare with the Via Envy chipset.

For those on a tight budget, and only care about music quality (as opposed to games), the choice is real easy, Chaintech AV710 coupled with drivers from Viaarena. My personal basis of comparison is: Soundstorm, Live! 5.1, cmedia 8738 digital, TB Santa Cruz, AV710 (a friends).

-AV710 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-120-103&depa=0
-Drivers http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2 (migrate to winXP/Audio/Via Envy 24)
-Support forum http://forums.viaarena.com/categories.cfm?catid=17&forumid=1

I got an Audigy 2 ZS, not thinking I'd need optical out to connect from my HTPC to my receiver. Instead I'm using the optical out on my Intel D925XCV mobo and it works great... going to look at sending the Audigy back and switching for something else...

My ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe has built-in Digital coax out. Have no idea if it's any good or not. I don't have my 7.1 reciever (yet) with any digital inputs to use it.

Still using an old analog reciever.

Hi all,

Can't help but jump in here as audio is a big concern of mine, too. I think the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is the best sound card I ever bought. Simjedi was right about not upsampling: if you want to listen to dts-CD this card will pass it through with no problem.

After I finalize my pj plans, I may well get another one for my HTPC. I got the first one almost new off E-Bay for $69.

D

did anybody try this sound card?
http://www.audiotrak.net/prodigy7.1LT.htm