Surround Sound, SPDIF and Games.

[nath]

Does anyone have any idea about the above? So far I've only been able to get 2 channel PCM out of my SPDIF for games. In DVD's/divxs/xvids with DTS or DD5.1 I can do a pass through so I actually get surround from them but with games, it seems the on-board sound would need to encode 5.1 then pipe it down the digital link. From what I've seen, not many cards/mobos do this. I'm on an Realtek ALC650 onboard sound chipset - anyone have any ideas if what I want to do is possible? It is a 5.1 chipset in that it can do surround sound through the analog connections but that's not really suitable.

Any help muchly appreciated

 

[inactionman]

As you say, you need a DD encoder on the soundcard to output 5.1 in realtime, as your soundcard will only output PCM otherwise. There are a few cards that can do it, just not the onboard stuff or mainstream (e.g. SoundBlaster) cards.

The old nForce2 mobo's sound used to do this by default, but I don't think it really caught on.

 

[nath]

So basically, for surround PC gaming I have to do it via analog lameness?

That's poo :\

 

[old.user4556]

Soundstorm for the win, that has 5.1 DD encoding which is smashing for games. Connect to your favourite amp via optical/coax and voila - Doom 3 was absolutely fantastic.

Also worth looking at this range of cards, I understand they will encode a digital stream over SPDIF http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/HDA_Sound_Cards.html

 

[TdC]

egads! I SO need a dedicated pootah room that I can rig with speakers and stuffs

 

[Yaka]

if you have a creative card, creativelab do cables for them than plugs front, rear sounds from the sound card to amp. its 3.5 to "somat" cable not sure wot the end that connects to amp is called tho. but it aint phono or coxail/toslink

and i agree, with Big G nvidia soundstorm was uber, nforce2 only i think unless some one at nividia has decided to implement it on a new boards

 

[nath]

Well if it's not phono/coax/toslink then I doubt I'd be able to plug it in to my amp

I've sorta given up on the idea for now, when I upgrade my PC for Crysis (in 10-15 years time) I'll get something that can cope with surround. Cheers though.

 

[Yaka]

had jack shit to do for 5 misn so found the cable i was talking about

http://uk.europe.creative.com/shop/product.asp?category=12&subcategory=0&product=179&

its a 3.5 to din cable and most 5/6/7/8.1 amps have din connections as far i know