Mitch needs a *SOUNDCARD*! :O

[Colonel Mitch]

Yes.... After all my bitching about pointlessness for general use etc i now need a soundcard of my own....

Let it be known i have no intention of spending £lol needlessly.

Yesterday i bought a new surround system for myself... 1000W RMS = LOLOLOLOLOLOL SOUND

Connected it to PC via co-axial Digital connection to my motehrboards onboard S/P DIF output.

After much time of fiddling and setting up FFDShow Audio, managed to get proper 5.1 out of it when watching video with AC3 format audio, however as windows deals with the device in a very strange way, unless you are playing using FFDshow to Override windows and Force-out 5.1 throught he S/P DIF you cant get the computer to do it, other than pressing the test button on the windows setup.

The reason for this seems to be as an inbuilt unit it cant encode standard output to either AC3 or DTS (or any other format, for that matter).

This means I have my glorious surrond sound system with Blu ray player, and full HD movies on my Pc that I CAN watch and hear in awsomeglory, but music or more importantly GAMING will not output in 5.1 no matter how the games are set.

For brief research I have concluded that I require a card capable of real time encoding to AC3(dolby digital) or DTS. I dont care about the "Crystal Clear" technology or "Di-phonic sound VII", i jsut want something that will output AC3 or DTS from any source. Also,

Also if you were thinking ill have to find a card with Co-axial digital out, not optical - either is fine, the home cinema unit has both, ideally co-axial would be better as i need optical for the xbox and would rather not have to keep switching but meh :P

So.... GO VOX - FLY FLY! ^^

started looking on ebay and quickly came across this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Asus-Xonar-D2-...item1e59dd51b2

Bit more than id like to pay, especially if im going to have to wait to recieve. From what i gather thats a very god card and i really dont need anything like that.

I will continue to browse and update this post but I would like useful feedback please

UPDATES:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Trust-SC-7600-...item3358b06de2

Not sure if that does teh encoding stuff i need, tho it says things about the formats i need. EDIT: Looking at the manual it appears it does.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...tid=11&subcat=

In the description this one specifically states it does, but is tehre any reason that the cheaper one wouldnt?

[Isphera]

Yes.... After all my bitching about pointlessness for general use etc i now need a soundcard of my own....

Let it be known i have no intention of spending £lol needlessly.

Hahaha.

On a helpful note - how much money is not £lol?

[Colonel Mitch]

Hahaha.

On a helpful note - how much money is not £lol?

I would consider anything over £50 too much money really online. Might be willing to stretch to a little more to buy from a local shop so i can play today.

[Target]

lol soundcard noob...although i want to hear lol sound system

[VoX]

Xonar DS can't do Dolby 3D, so therefore wouldn't exactly be the best for a surround system, although Dolby 3D is meant for use with Headphones.


Xonar DX/D1 (Based on if you need PCI or PCI-E x1, other than that they the same card) should do nicely. The Xonar D2(X) is pretty shiny and a very nice card, hell the outputs are colour coded with LEDs , but it might be surplus to requirement.



Music can be forced into 5.1 somehow without a soundcard, DE managed it but that was using the analogue connections on the speaker as opposed to a digital connection.

In terms of why games aren't working, beats me. I take it you're using the add-on audio card for your mobo? Is it possible to use the analogue connections instead or is the surround system digital only?


Edit: Just realised you're using the port on your mobo, can you try the add-in card you've got?

[Colonel Mitch]

The system is digital only and windows only uses it as. A 2 channel device unless you play content with ac3 or dts. This is why games won't work as they only see 2 channels.

[VoX]

Fair does.

Just found out Xonar DX doesn't have DTS, so that rules out the DX and the DS.

It's looking like the Xonar D2 is the only option. Just get it from a place you can return it to if it doesn't work. The D2 requires a floppy power connector btw (To do with cleaner signal etc etc)



Don't expect an increase in sound quality over on board though as you will still be using the DAC on the Surround system and not the sound card, basically you'll just be using the card to get the digital throughput and to enable DTS, no audio processing will be done other than DTS.

[Colonel Mitch]

Ordered the Xonar DX

PCI-Express Interface
- Vista Gaming with DirectSound & EAX support
- Hi-Fi class audio quality with SNR up to 118dB
- Dolby HomeTheater Technologies & DTS Connect
- Unprecedented SSNR NR Up to 116db reaching the limit of PC audio sound quality clarity
- Full duplex High-definition audio processing at 192KHz/24Bit for all Input and outputs and Inputs
- Versatile Dolby/DTS Audio Technologies for Game, Music, and Video
- Accurate 3D sound positioning and hardware acceleration for PC gaming
- Legally backup your digital music into non-protected MP3/WMA files with even better quality and Dolby Headphone and Virtual Speaker effects
- Real-time DDL and DTS Connect encoders for amazing gaming and surround sounds over your Home Theater System
- Requires floppy power-connector
- Low Profile Bracket Included
- Vista Ready

DOES include DTS.

[VoX]

Fair does, was a bad bit of info I got from a review.

[Colonel Mitch]

Xonar DX installed and working =]

When listening to mucis have to specify 2 channel input and change to 6 channel hwen gaming/watching HD movies, but otherwise all is well.

About the "HUGE" difference in sound quality....... It sounds exactly the same(which is good ), just can output 5.1 properly. I know it wouldnt make any difference in noise reduction etc as im using the digital out and only analogue is in my surround sound amp but i like to complain :P

[Vicious Horizon]

Who said there would be a big difference in sound quality? I've said all along in life - sound cards make no difference.

(Unless ofc the soundcard has a game port like back in the old days)

[VoX]

Who said there would be a big difference in sound quality? I've said all along in life - sound cards make no difference.

Fail.


Read Mitch's post, he said it exactly like it is, there's a difference in quality providing you use the analogue ports. It's not noticeable unless you have decent gear and have an alright ear.

[Vicious Horizon]

Fail.


Read Mitch's post, he said it exactly like it is, there's a difference in quality providing you use the analogue ports. It's not noticeable unless you have decent gear and have an alright ear.

I've never found a whole lot of difference with analogue ports, I used to have some old Creative sound card back when it was brand new. And my hearing is probably my best sense, too, maybe I just don't see (or hear) the big difference in quality.

[Colonel Mitch]

fail.

It's not noticeable unless you have have an alright ear.

vh has fail ears :d

[Colonel Mitch]

Got fed up of switching my TOSLINK cable between soundcard and xbox already so bought a splitter with 2 more toslink cables.

Anyone got any ideas what will happen if both pc and xbox are plugged in and on at the same time?

As its digital i would expect garbled nonsense or nothing personally - i would say the chance of the two combining is slim.

Anyone know for sure or have any other ideas?