digital + surrounder confusion

buttmonkey

hello everyone

ive spent some time poking with all the settings and think i may have been confused all along.. in surrounder+ is the speaker modes (5.1 etc) only applicable to computer speakers and not to digital ports? i can play movies (in my case Terminator 3) in DTS, and my stereo shows it as using DTS and it works

but if i put the speakers to 5.1 (which is what i have) only the front two speakers work in the sound test.. if i put the speakers to 2.1 i get sound out of all (if i do the two rear speakers it comes out loud on the rear and you can hear a little from the front too) and if i set the use subwoofer output no sound comes from subwoofer

i dont actually use the laser SPDIF just one of the same cords as the red/white/yellow cords used for tv inputs with a.. umm.. not quite sure what its called but its basically a mono headphone port convertor to them red/white/yellow ports.. as my soundcard only has that kind of input (without a addon at least)

could this also have something to do with redocneXk not working? if i have it on, the stereo changes to dolby digital and it shows all speakers being used, but i dont hear any sound


----Hardware / Software configuration---------------
Driver Name:kX Audio Driver (Debug)
Driver Date: Jul 14 2005 17:03:16
Driver Version: 5.10.00.3538 - debug
DB Name:none
SB0350 10k2 [e000]
PCI Information:
Device: 41102 Subsys: 20021102 ChipRev: 4
Card is '10k2'
Card has MPU device
Card model is '5.1'
Card is Audigy2-compatible
Card HAS AC97 codec
Codec name: Unk AC97-codec [83847650]
3D Extension: SigmaTel 3D Enhancement
Codec is 2.0 compliant
Capabilities[6a90] : -headphone out-
DAC resolutions : -16-bit- -20-bit-
ADC resolutions : -16-bit- -20-bit-
Ext Capabilities [605]: -var rate PCM audio- -slot/DAC mappings-
Port: e000 Irq: 0x8(8)
Playback buffer: 20a0
Record buffer: 4000
Number of AC3 buffers: 4
Tank memory: 256 kb
GSIF buffer: 256 samples
OS version: [2 5 1 Service Pack 2; 2 5 1 Service Pack 2; 156 148]
----------------------------------------------------

the stereo is a "SHARP 1-BIT Digital home theather"

hope this isnt all confusing 8)

Adam

dj_stick

you don't need the ac3 encoder if you use the 3 RCA plugs for sound - disable it and you should get sound working

Tril

I can't answer all your questions but I can at least answer partially. I have a little trouble understanding your english so I'm not sure understood you totally.

How many of those are you using? Are you using them in digital or analog mode?


You have an home theater system connected to the computer. I'll assume you are using a digital connection between the soundcard and the receiver.

This connection is called SPDIF. It's a stereo cable. Since it's stereo, it can only send two audio channels when you don't use passthru.

Look in the DSP, the front left and front right ouputs of the Surrounder+ are connected to timbre which is connected to the SPDIF outputs. That means that what the Surrounder+ routes to the front left and front right speakers is sent to the home theater.

When the Surrounder+ is in 2.1 mode with Surround on and without "use subwoofer output" checked, all the six audio inputs to the Surrounder+ are routed to the front left and front right speakers. All the six audio channels are sent to your receiver but they are in a two channel mix from the six channel input. Without using passthru, your receiver can only receive two digital audio channels.

If you use passthru, up to 6 channels can be sent via the stereo SPDIF cable. When that is used, the DSP is bypassed and the Surrounder+ settings are obviously not used. How it works is that six channels audio is encoded in a digital form that can be sent over a stereo SPDIF cable.

Now, I'll explain redocneXk a little. What it does is encode the audio so that passthru can be used so that you get all the six channels to your receiver instead of only two. To use it, I suggest you use the preset "5.1 - Movie Mode" of Surrounder+ and connect the first six ouputs of Surrounder+ to asio0, asio1, asio2, asio3, asio4, asio5.

I don't know your card model but many, if not all, emu10k2 cards have six analog outputs. You could connect those six analog ouputs to the six analog inputs of the receiver of your home theater system. That way, you could use all the six channels without having to use passthru.

Could you be more specific if you really want to tell us. It should have a model number. Something like [color=#0000ff]SD-AS10 [/color], [color=#0000ff]SD-HX600 [/color], [color=#0000ff]SD-HX500 [/color]or [color=#0000ff]SD-PX2 [/color].

buttmonkey

[color=black]ok, this time ive got more info [/color]
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[color=black]the stereo is this[/color]
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[color=blue]http://www.sharp.ae/products/proddisplay.phtml?id=101112000010[/color]
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[color=black]it says on the info: Dolby® Digital, DTS and Dolby® Pro Logic II Decoders[/color]
[color=black]so passthrough should be fine.. i used that in creative to get DTS (however im not really sure what that is in KX?.. is that SPDIF in AC3 decode mode? ive never had that on and it does DTS in DVDs.. or am i thinking wrong?)[/color]
[color=black] [/color]
[color=black]and the soundcard is a Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS[/color]
[color=black] [/color]
[color=black]now for the connector[/color]
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[color=blue]http://i19.ebayimg.com/01/i/05/83/18/d9_1.JPG[/color]
[color=black] [/color]
[color=black]thats exactly what i have.. now the digital is the last (or the first) hole.. since my stereo dosnt have the 5 (or so) seperate inputs for each speaker i figure id do digital.. outside of buying a little addon card (which has the laser kind of digital) i had a little poke around the net.. and a post suggested buying something that for the life of me i cant remember the name.. but basically one end is the same kind of connector you find at the end of headphones (that end goes into the soundcard) the other end iof the headphone bit is a single one of.. (well its the same kind of port that is used with red/white/yellow).. thats a single one.. then connecting that to the stereo is one of your standard red/yellow/white cords, straight into the Coaxial digital input (i presume the optical output is the laser one?) [/color]
[color=black][/color]
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[color=black]i hope that clears up a lot of things [/color]
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[color=black]sorry im not a big audiophile so most of this tends to fly right over my head.. im really just trying to get the most use out of my system, the best way i can (especially quality as i happen to be partially deaf)[/color]