Does anyone know of a sound card that can output 5.1 sound on a coaxial or optical digital output? I have a reciever with the right inputs, but the sound card I currently have will only output 2 channel sound on it's optical interface.

Help, I want 5.1 sound!

Im using the Turtle Beach Cataline cards. It has optical out (toslink)
Decodes DTS no problem..
Heres a link to a newer version..
http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/s...producthome.asp

Steveh, you have no idea how much I appreciate your help! Thankyou! I was having fears of having to scrap my reciever and get one with 6 channel analog input!!

Your welcome )
Im a big Yamaha Fan so Im using a Yamaha HTR Reciever
To use the full on DSP effects etc of the Yamaha It has to have an optical input,
Go figure..
Oneproblem I did run into.
I use PowerDVD. Power DVD had at the time what hey called an "Audio Enthusist Pack"
An upgrade in addition to the basic DVD Player. After grumbling about paying another 20 bucks for an upgrade I did it and now have all the DTS 5.1 surround features I need.

I think the newest version has all the bells and whistles. Seems most LL ers are using Zoom Player and FFD show. I dont know how the surround sound plays into it with there players.

You know your surround sounds working good when it scares the cats )

Or the dog, in my case!

I nearly bought a Yamaha reciever but instead I went for a Sony one that seemed better value for money (higher wattage per channel, anyway!).

What kind of soundcard do you use?

I had to use special KX drivers with my Creative Audigy 2 to get it work.
(http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php?skip=1)

Only digital sound like AC3/DTS can be played in 5.1 all other types of sound (like normal Windows sounds or MP3) will be played iin stereo.

Have you not read my first post?

Have you not read yorit's post?
Only sounds that are encoded in DD or DTS will be surround. Just as yorit told you all Window's sounds and games will be 2ch PCM unless you have a card like the XMystique that is able to encode all sounds in realtime to be decoded by your receiver.
Again what soundcard do you currently have? If it has a optical out then maybe with some settings in your software dvd players menu you will be able to pass encoded DD and DTS dvd soundtracks.


peace

XMystique is a good card, but has no EAX 4.0

True, but the main draw is a single wire connection for DD games and WMV 5.1 and not having a rats nest of wires. More good benefits are having the higher quality DAC's that a good receiver has and keeping the digital to analog conversion away from the noisy interferance laden interior of the computer. EAX 4.0 is good but really dosen't bring that much more to the table than EAX 2.0


peace

Another thing to mention is the sad crossover management that Creative offers for the speakers and mainly the subwoofer. This is why many prefer the MAudio Revo series as it is the closest you can get to a good stand alone receiver.


peace

What do you think the best sound card is? Right now, I'm thinking The Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro.

If all you want is to play movies with a digital connection nothing can beat the Chaintech, it's cheap with the added bonus of bit-perfect cd playback.

If you want bit-perfect playback and play games the Revo 5.1 is a great choice as it has the best DAC's for a consumer level soundcard even besting the Revo 7.1 Many report a minor hit in FPS in games, but with the power of cpu's and video cards today it's not even worth worrying about. As mentioned before if you go the analog route the Revo has the best crossover and speaker managment software.

Again if want a 1 wire digital solution the X-Mystique and Montego are 2 good choices.

Creative has just basically re-released the ancient Live! card over and over and has milked it to no end it seems with their latest flavor of the X-Fi. They have no shame.


peace

Hmm. I found no reference to the Revo 5.1

Nvm, I searched M-audio instead and got some hits.

Wow, found it for $75 here. I think I'm going to buy this! I'll have to get a cox to optical converter though.

Wait, I don't want analog..

Ah, I see, I misunderstood you, yorit. I apoligise.

I have a Terratec 5.1 Fun. It has SPDIF in/out, but for some reason I only get "noise" out of the output, and the analog outputs are also seemingly dead.

However, the reciever picks it up as PCM 44.1Khz noise, and no amount of DVD playing will get it to recognise Dolby Digital 5.1 noise.

So I am returning it, Getting a refund, and buying the Montego or the X-Mystique.

Cheers, SIMJEDI.

I'm using the Turtle Beach Riviera card. It has toslink (which is what i was looking for) as well as being a very affordable card. The only weird thing is that you have to set the options in the card setup as headphones for it to output through the optical out. The directions detail the setup quite well.

I am running the card into my Onkyo receiver with fantastic results. It was far better than what I expected. Link to specs below...

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/s...producthome.asp

If you want to experience 5.1 games with a digital connection then you have no choice but to get the X-Mystique, Montego or a motherboard that has DDLive! capability.


peace

Ive seen a few places here where the Chaintech has been mentioned. because of this id love to get one because i have a decoder and all i need is the optical out to the reciever.

Only problem is i dont think it is sold in the UK, i cant find anywhere, even the places the website say, dont have it. Has anyone in the UK got one of these, or has an alternative i could actually purchase.

Thanks

You can purchase the Revo 7.1 from Amazon.co.uk


peace

Hmm. Seems like the Turtle Beach Montego DDL is better than the X-mystique. I think I'm going to buy this. EDIT: X-mystique and the Montego DDL have the same chip. But the X-mystique is better.

I have just purchased the X-mystique for £41 from overclockers.co.uk.

Bargain!

I don't play video games but movies sound superb using the chaintec 710 AV optical output and at ~$25 it's the best bang for the buck you'll find. It's also got a very high quality analogue decoder. I remember there was a forum thread somewhere about some hardware mods for it too.

I'm getting 6.1 (actually, I've only tried 5.1 movies so far) out of my Creative Audigy 2 Platinum via the optical output. At first it was only giving me left and right chanels. I had to go into Control Panel -> AudioHQ and tell it to send the raw signal to the receiver. Then I went to the regular volume control and clicked the red plus sign to tell it to use "Digital Output Only".

Yes the Audigy cards can pass DD/DTS signals from DVD's as they are already encoded, but for games and everything else it will only pass 2ch pcm. Only the X-Mystique and Montego soundcards or a motherboard with DDLive! are able to encode games, wmv5.1 and other sounds into dd 5.1 and output them thu the digital connection.


peace