Surround sound through Optical cable

[capri435]

Hi,

My motherboard is Gigabyte P35 DS3R and spekers are logitech Z5500.Am unable to get surround sound through optical cable.Sound comes from only the front left and front right speakers.I get 5.1 from direct coaxial cables but not optical.

I have tried different content ....DVDs,5.1 AC3 files.Tried different players Window media player,VLC,PowerDVD but am not able to get true 5.1 through OPtical out.

In the Realtek HD audio manager also when i test for the speaker setup,Sound comes from only the Front left n right speakers.I have been looking for a solution for quite some time.I have read on some forums that the optical out provides only 2 channels and not 5.1.If thats true it is pretty lame to use the optical out.

Will buying a coaxial digital (S/PDIF) out cable solve the problem.
What are my opther otions in terms of sound cards.Whats the cheapest option???

cheers

 

[gamerk316]

SPDIF can only carry a 5.1 signal via passing through a Dolby/DTS stream. Otherwise, the best the medium can transport (regardless of which cable is used; they all send the same exact signal) is 2.0 (2.1?). The reason that DD/DTS streams can carry 5.1 is because they are compressed signals. The Problem is that DD/DTS signals need to be uncompressed (decoded) for speaker systems to play back the sound.

Convienently, the Z5500's have built in DD/DTS decoders, so playback is not an issue. All you need to do is encode the audio as DD/DTS, using either Dolby Digital Live or DTS-Connect, which are avaliable on most sound cards. (Both do the same thing; DD Live converts to a DD stream, and DTS-C converts to a DTS stream).

The best options for soundcards are:
Auzentech Prelude
Auzentech Forte
ASUS Xonar DX
ASUS Xonar D2/D2X

The choice comes down to what you do most; Auzentech gets a edge in gaming, ASUS gets the edge for music listening.

 

[rexter]

Hi,

My motherboard is Gigabyte P35 DS3R and spekers are logitech Z5500.Am unable to get surround sound through optical cable.Sound comes from only the front left and front right speakers.I get 5.1 from direct coaxial cables but not optical.

I have tried different content ....DVDs,5.1 AC3 files.Tried different players Window media player,VLC,PowerDVD but am not able to get true 5.1 through OPtical out.

In the Realtek HD audio manager also when i test for the speaker setup,Sound comes from only the Front left n right speakers.I have been looking for a solution for quite some time.I have read on some forums that the optical out provides only 2 channels and not 5.1.If thats true it is pretty lame to use the optical out.

Will buying a coaxial digital (S/PDIF) out cable solve the problem.
What are my opther otions in terms of sound cards.Whats the cheapest option???

cheers

Optical connetion is digital signal that will carry compress audio up to 7.1 or 8 channels. You need to set you player like PowerDVD audio output to SPDIF, Then you need to your audio console to output SPDIF and not speakers. However Realtek can output digital and anlog at the same time but make sure you sellected spdif digital.