5.1 Digital Optical Out

[MurphmanL]

Ok right ive fiddled with my new speakers and have switched them to optical out, and they sound lovely. Problem is, my (now crappy) soundcard Terratec Aureon 5.1 Fun only supports Optical Out with 2 speakers, if i even attempt to switch them via windows control panel to 5.1 then sound just stops completely

So is there a soundcard out there amoungst the millions that supports Optical out with 5.1 Channels enabled, not STEREO. Admittedly, this does sound nice even with just the back channels mirroring the front two. Anyways any ideas on an Optical soundcard for 5.1 would be much appreciated!

BTW does anyone here on hexus use Logic 3 5.1 Soundstation speakers?

[TeePee]

You could just use the analogue out channels on the soundcard direct to your speakers and bypass your decoder.

[Zathras]

Only thing that can do this at the moment AFAIK is the soundcard built into the Abit NF7S.

Basically, optical only supports two channel raw sound information (think WAV files). However, by encoding the sound (think mp3) using either Dolby Digital or DTS, you can fit more than two channels down the link, but only if your speaker set/amp supports it - yours does.

Now DVDs come with soundtracks already encoded as DD or DTS so the optical cable transports this from your player to your speakers for decoding into surround sound. However soundcards tend only to create raw sound information, so you're only ever going to get two channel sound output from them over the optical link. The Abit NF7S otoh encodes the surround sound information into Dolby Digital, which is then transferred through the optical cable to your speakers which decodes it into full discrete surround sound.

Most 5.1 sound cards output their 5.1 as three pairs of 2-channel cables, one for front left/right, one for surround left/right and one for centre/subwoofer. However your speakers don't support this input type, so you're stuck with stereo or pro-logic at best.

[Rythmic]

Only thing that supports 5.1 via optical or coax digital is the Nforce and Nforce2 chipsets - and then it's compressed...

[Zathras]

You could just use the analogue out channels on the soundcard direct to your speakers and bypass your decoder.

Only the Logic 3 doesn't have the necessary 6-channel analogue input afaict.

[BlackSheep]

I'm using optical out on an Abit NF7-S and it works a treat - will output in Dolby Digital format where available and will encode on the fly. With DVDs it passes the DD or DTS stream directly to the amp (via optical out).

This is probably your best solution.

However, AFAIK, you can also get a breakout box for your Audigy 2 (or the new Audigy) and use optical out from that - that would work for DVDs, and should work for EAX titles (but don't quote me).

[Rythmic]

Unfortunately the Audigys won't give you surround sound for games via the optical or coax out As with all sound cards with digital outs, DVDs work fine.

[MurphmanL]

hmm there has to be some sort of solution...
So there are no cards that support 5 channel Digital Out?

[MurphmanL]

There may be time for me to return these logic 3 speakers if they are not well suited for pc audio (which by the sounds they are not ) but what speakers are the next best thing?

[Zathras]

They're designed for DVDs, for which they're fine. Make sure your next set has a 6-channel analogue input. I can't recommend any speakers as I'm using an AV-receiver and an NF7S. 5-channel digital out through normal coax/optical cable won't happen at all apart from using DTS/DD.

[MurphmanL]

Even if i was to return these speakers for cash i couldnt as they aint broken...

[directhex]

there are no sound cards on the market that support multi-channel digital-out. only the nforce2 SoundStorm does it, technology used on the XBox.

[MurphmanL]

Ok well now the speakers seem to be f*cked.. al my dvd's are skipping and scratchy!
Ok guys lets pull together and give murphman a hand, i MUST buy the right speakers this time, ones that are compatible and pack a punch. Look retail, places like Dixons, currys, Comet and even Pc World, all are within my reach. Limit is £100.
I will decide on the speakers with the most power and the most in favour, im thinking creative labs...

[directhex]

make your EXACT requirements known.

[directhex]

and dixons, currys & pc world are all different branches of the same company

[MurphmanL]

OK well we are thinking retail prices here folks, speakers must be reliable, 5.1 obviously, must connect straight to the soundcard and even as an added bonus connect to other devices, but im not bothered about that particularly as these Logic 3 seems screwed and ive only used them 2 days!

Needs to have a strong woofer, 15+ W
And roughly 5+W per satellite, basically the more power the better.

Places within my reach are: Argos, Dixons, Currys, Comet, PC World and I DO NOT shop online.
Any suggestions much appreciated as well as a linky to the speakers