Home cinema kit to PC using SPDIF

G

Guest

Guest
Ok, so my 5.1 surround sound kit has been wired up in the living room for a while now. . . and has hardly been used!
I got an idea when I changed my old soundcard (audigy 1 - years old!) to the realtek 7.1 card that came with the motherboard, and i noticed it has an SPDIF port on the back.
If you haven't guessed, I quickly moved the big fat surround system into the bedroom and rigged it up with the computer :D. This works fine and sounds awesome although I've a couple of problems I was wanting to ask you all about.
I've connected up using a digi optical cable, SPDIF out on computer to SPDIF IN on the surround kit. I've noticed a slightly delay when gaming, which can be rather annoying. Usually in quick gunfights the gunfire is completely out of sync with the action ingame, but once the game moves back to a 'normal' pace it goes back to being synced up. Is there any way to stop this? The other thing was, when I run the realtek 'surround' test, which is basically a bee buzzing around the user, supposedly coming out of ALL the surround speakers after each other, to simulate a real bee buzzing around the room, I only get sound from the front left/front right speakers, nothing from the centre or surrounds. When I play music tho I get it from everywhere! Bit confused here, If anyone has any insight I'd be really grateful. Thanks a lot. D
 

rexter

Distinguished
Mar 17, 2006
1,074
0
19,310
Most games that uses surround application have different coding and Audigy cards using EAX technology design further increases your sorround gaming experience.

Using the optical SPDIF on your system may result undesirable sound quality, like what you are experiencing right now. because the decoder uses for Home Theatre system is geared for gaming. For your gaming use; you'll have to use the analog signal and digital for anything else, but it’s not the same as using an Audigy card.
 
G

Guest

Guest
right cheers for the advice. Recently discovered also SPDIF only carries two channels, where I thought it could carry the full 5.1. Thanks for the posts. D
 

cjl

Distinguished
Jun 18, 2008
432
0
18,940
SPDIF can carry 5.1, but you need a sound card capable of dolby digital live encoding (like the X-fi titanium series).