5.1 for X-Fi Music

[theuncharmed]

Rightio lads.

Getting ticked off with my present card. Bought a set of 5.1 surround sound speakers today (thanku Scan) and like my last set the crap ass card that is the X-Fi does jack all with them.

I want to watch Star Wars with some surround sound damnit.

Do I need to get a decoder? A new sound card? A book on PC sound systems?

Basically I can't even get any sound from the rear speakers - just a bit of crackle. tried them at the front and they work so it's not the speakers.

I'm told that the X-fi series was crap for not having 5.1 intergrated ... now I curse my purchase

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[dave87]

As far as I know only Soundstorm 2 & some Auzentech (not sure if thats spelt correctly) have the ability to create 5.1 on the fly from non-5.1 channel sources.

I think if you are using something like Winamp, there may be a plugin, but I wouldn't know what that one would be, I'm afraid.

Sorry I couldn't be of much help,

Dave

[BUFF]

does your DVD player support 5.1 e.g. some of the older/oem versions of PowerDVD didn't iirc?

[theuncharmed]

Did wonder whether PowerDVD supported it. May buy the Nvidia Decoder inthe near future.

But what about games? Surely I should be able to get something from my rear speakers for them?

[teachmech]

Have you checked that windows is set to a 5.1 speaker system?

sound and audio devices in control panel

adavnced and chose 5.1
Have you set up the x-fi to use a set of 5.1 speakers?

I can recommend the nvidia decoder if you have a 7 series its excellent. Make sure you buy the Gold or Plat versions for 5.1 sound.

[BUFF]

But what about games? Surely I should be able to get something from my rear speakers for them?

are the games 5.1 already?
I don't think that the X-Fi can encode an unencoded signal to 5.1 can it?
You may have an option to clone the outputs though.

[pmanington]

hmmm, i was planning to get a xifi fairly soon, i was under the impression they dealt with 5.1 fairly well!

[theuncharmed]

I was looking for a clone output and the instructions and details that come with the X-fi are crap.

Everything is set to 5.1

I'm sure BF2 has 5.1 support and jack all comes out of the rears on that.

I've read that the drivers are pretty kak and that sometimes a re-install (or 7 in one case) is all thats needed. Will try it tonight once i've built the PC into a new case

pmanigton, you can have my X-Fi if I can't get this sorted!

[pmanington]

Are you sure it's not the speakers? Which set did you buy?

I was gonna go for the high end logitech 5500 speakers which i believe should do the 5.1 conversion themselves if the source doesn't have it in the first place.

[finlay666]

my headphones (a decent set of 5.1 surround sound ones) have a clear difference usign an X-fi or not, and you may need to use the equaliser

sounds like it isnt set up properly or the speakers suck a bit unfortunately

[theuncharmed]

Been using 2 sets of speakers and both work fine with DVD player and Xbox. The x-Fi will make a difference with headphones it's the 3mss thing they do. for 5.1 speakers it's a different process I believe ...

Even if the speakers were crap they would still get a signal.

Nah, will get the Nvidia decoder and make sure it's not software related then if that doesn't work I'll go back to onboard as it has a built in 5.1 output

[pak000]

I was planning on buying some 5.1 speakers and i was doing some reading around.

How are you linking up the speakers? If its via optical, the x-fi should work - but ONLY with a dts source and maybe with ac3 under certain circumstances, only top of the line cards have a 5.1->dts converter. Games don't output dts

If its via analog, it should work fine if you have it wired correctly

[MadduckUK]

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106539

fifteen quid for a card that does dolby digital encoding. an x-fi cant..

"According to Creative, Dolby Digital Live support would make the X-Fi more expensive due to both licensing costs and the need for additional tank RAM on the chip."

Tank RAM?



"Perhaps more notably, Creative says that Dolby Digital Live encoding can't handle DRM-protected content since it passes unprotected data through a digital output. That's an interesting limitation, although PC enthusiasts have never really been enthusiastic about DRM-encrusted content."

no. We havent

Well done Creative. you havent made a descent move in the right direction since the AWE32. but you dont need to when youv got anough wonga to simply buy the competition eh?

[theuncharmed]

will be putting my X-Fi up for sale and purchasing that el-cheapo card as soon as I can

[Chunkers]

I currently also have issues with my X-fi music, I cannot get the flexijack to recognise the microphone.

Not strictly relevant to this thread but I would certainly agree that, if I were purchasing again I would probably go for an alternative (Terratec?)

Chunks

[Silent Shark]

I have an X-Fi XtremeMusic, and I have everything in 5.1. It's all fine.

My advice is to reset the card to default (using the Creative Audio Console), and then re-do all your 5.1 settings EXCEPT the THX settings. When I go into the THX settings, the whole setup falls to pieces. I loose sound out of most speakers. Fortunatly, I've not had the need to go into that since, and hopefully I won't!

And why would you want a Dolby Digital encoder?? Unless you're using it to make home movies or something then I don't see the need. The CMSS feature for upmixing stereo to surround works well for me.