5.1 Questions

[BorisTheSpider]

I've got a few questions about 5.1 speakers and Soundstorm sound that has been bugging me for a while now.

I've got an Asus A7N8X Deluxe and Videologic ZXR-500 5.1 speakers and somehow I find it hard to get 5.1 working properly. I've got a version of WinDVD that came with my other mobo which states that it's the proper 5.1 enabled version. Problem is I can't seem to get sound out of my rear speakers, also the same sound effects are coming out of all the same speakers(front ones and centre) so it's like 5.1 isn't actually enabled properly if you know what I mean(it happens with 5.1 games aswell). All the speakers work fine when I do the Soundstorm speaker test though, so there can't be a problem with the rears if they work in the soundstorm control panel. Do any of you guys/gals have any idea why this is? Are the Videologic ZXR-500s proper 5.1 speakers? Or more the Soundstorm? Would I be better with better speakers or even a better soundcard or am I being stupid as this problem can easily be fixed?

I don't even know if I have them set up properly, I just need some tips/help on how to get the most out of 5.1.

Any help will be well appreciated .

[Daymonkey]

have you done the usual by going into control panel going into sounds and audio devices , speaker settings advanced and changing it into 5.1 surround sound , and if you have the soundmax asus driver changing it in that to.

[BorisTheSpider]

Yeah I've done all that. What's the soundmax driver? never heard of it before .

[Daymonkey]

dont worry just seen it isnt on that board im outta ideas

[Lee H]

have you tried swapping the coloured connections around as some nforce motherboards we're labelled incorrectly.

Have you tried using the Nvswap utility as this usually helps.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvswap_1.0.html

Try that and see if that fixes the 5.1 surround issues

[BorisTheSpider]

Tried it and it seems to be correct.

[Spud1]

aww theres only 1 question was expecting 5 and a bit

anyway are you using analogue or digital? i could never get it to work properly with analogue, so just bought a digital optical cable and it worked first time plus the quality was tonnes better

[BorisTheSpider]

I only have analogue.

[Spud1]

well get some better speakers then

or since you probably cant afford them else you would have them [thats logical think...its late dont question me on it ]

Have you tried different drivers? I have found that I prefer the older soundstorm drivers to the new one, the control panel was easier to configure imho and might be more compatable with your setup.

Also try some different dvd player software - windvd is infamous for being ..well..rubbish really. Does the same problem happen with Windows Media player? or BS player?

Check your soundstorm control panel options, is there an option to mix in the channels to create virtual surround sound??

Check windows sound settings [not the soundstorm ones] Does windows think you have 5.1?

lots of ideas here just come to my head, let me know how you get on I will investigate more for you