Trying to get surround working

DarkUranium · Feb 9, 2011, 02:52 PM

Hey there, I've got this old Sound Blaster Live! and what I'm trying to do is to get surround sound working with it.

First things first, I should say that I've searched all over the forums (and the internet) trying to resolve the issues, but to no avail... The official drivers didn't seem to work, so I'm trying out these.

What I need to do is two things:

1) Get surround sound working properly... I've been playing with the kX DSP, but I can't find any channels other than left/right for the S/PDIF - tests and actual playing only show that front left and front right channels receive any sound.
Furthermore, the speaker set (Aiwa UZ-US501) has a display which shows exactly what kind of input it is receiving - it is a stereo PCM input.

2) VLC supports "A/52 over S/PDIF" output, which, with the old drivers, bypassed the actual processing and outputted actual surround audio (reported as DTS 3/2.1 audio by the speaker set) - it used to work, but now it doesn't with actual drivers (I get complete silence, with the driver reporting doing some sort of conversion -- one which apparently never gets to the receiving speakers).

Because DTS works, it would be ideal for me if I could get the sound card to output DTS... As a last resort, even if it meant software-generating DTS and then passing the output directly to S/PDIF, though there isn't much point in using a sound card in such a case.

One last thing - I did set the speaker configuration to 5.1 in Windows and the OS I'm using is (32-bit) Windows XP.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Russ · Feb 9, 2011, 10:07 PM

SPDIF is stereo only unless it is compressed (e.g. AC3).
Digital Connections, SPDIF and Dolby Digital Info
kX does not support AC3 passthru on 10k1 (Live!) models.

If you want more than 2 channels (not including upmixing) with that speaker system, than it seems your only options are (using AC3 passthru):
Use the Creative Labs driver.
Use the driver and software (and USB connection) for your speaker system instead of the Live!

Note: (As far as I can tell) even with the above, you will only get more than 2 channels with multi-channel AC3 content (anything else will just be stereo upmixed to 5.1 (depending on what speaker mode your speaker system is set to use)).

DarkUranium · Feb 10, 2011, 10:21 AM

Well, I have tried the Creative Labs driver and it didn't work (except when passthrough is used), that's why I've tried the kx drivers.

The speaker set does support Dolby Digital (apart from DTS) though... I take it there's no way to convert whatever surround sound the sound card gets into Dolby Digital or DTS, is there?

Russ · Feb 10, 2011, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkUranium

Well, I have tried the Creative Labs driver and it didn't work (except when passthrough is used), that's why I've tried the kx drivers.

What specifically didn't work with the Creative Labs driver? Passthrough is what you want (if you want more than 2 channels). Again (as far as I can tell), with that speaker system, you will never get more than stereo from anything other than AC3/Dolby Digital, etc, except as the result of upmixing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkUranium

The speaker set does support Dolby Digital (apart from DTS) though... I take it there's no way to convert whatever surround sound the sound card gets into Dolby Digital or DTS, is there?

No, not that I know of with that card...

Out of curiosity, why are you using the Live! card with that speaker system instead of it's own (USB) driver.

DarkUranium · Feb 10, 2011, 11:20 AM

Well, I've never gotten the speakers to play surround, ever, with the USB (which is rather interesting, I'd imagine that USB would enable surround)...

Furthermore, there were some problems - I can't recall what exactly (it was years ago that I've tried), but I think there were some problems with headphones and in Linux.

I have tried it yesterday, just to see if I could get surround working - nope, I couldn't =/

Russ · Feb 10, 2011, 12:34 PM

I think the closest thing you can get (with that speaker system and the Live! card) to surround sound (without AC3/DTS, etc) would be something like ProLogic.

i.e. (with kX)
Set Surrounder to 2.0 Surround Mix (or try another similar plugin that downmixes to 2.0), and set your speaker system to DPLII mode (using kX Wave 0/1 for playback).

Feb 9, 2011, 02:52 PM	#1
DarkUranium HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Trying to get surround working Hey there, I've got this old Sound Blaster Live! and what I'm trying to do is to get surround sound working with it. First things first, I should say that I've searched all over the forums (and the internet) trying to resolve the issues, but to no avail... The official drivers didn't seem to work, so I'm trying out these. What I need to do is two things: 1) Get surround sound working properly... I've been playing with the kX DSP, but I can't find any channels other than left/right for the S/PDIF - tests and actual playing only show that front left and front right channels receive any sound. Furthermore, the speaker set (Aiwa UZ-US501) has a display which shows exactly what kind of input it is receiving - it is a stereo PCM input. 2) VLC supports "A/52 over S/PDIF" output, which, with the old drivers, bypassed the actual processing and outputted actual surround audio (reported as DTS 3/2.1 audio by the speaker set) - it used to work, but now it doesn't with actual drivers (I get complete silence, with the driver reporting doing some sort of conversion -- one which apparently never gets to the receiving speakers). Because DTS works, it would be ideal for me if I could get the sound card to output DTS... As a last resort, even if it meant software-generating DTS and then passing the output directly to S/PDIF, though there isn't much point in using a sound card in such a case. One last thing - I did set the speaker configuration to 5.1 in Windows and the OS I'm using is (32-bit) Windows XP. Thanks in advance for your help!

Feb 9, 2011, 10:07 PM	#2
Russ HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 5,561 Rep Power: 62	Re: Trying to get surround working SPDIF is stereo only unless it is compressed (e.g. AC3). Digital Connections, SPDIF and Dolby Digital Info kX does not support AC3 passthru on 10k1 (Live!) models. If you want more than 2 channels (not including upmixing) with that speaker system, than it seems your only options are (using AC3 passthru): Use the Creative Labs driver. Use the driver and software (and USB connection) for your speaker system instead of the Live! Note: (As far as I can tell) even with the above, you will only get more than 2 channels with multi-channel AC3 content (anything else will just be stereo upmixed to 5.1 (depending on what speaker mode your speaker system is set to use)). Last edited by Russ; Feb 9, 2011 at 10:36 PM.

Feb 10, 2011, 10:21 AM	Thread Starter #3
DarkUranium HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Re: Trying to get surround working Well, I have tried the Creative Labs driver and it didn't work (except when passthrough is used), that's why I've tried the kx drivers. The speaker set does support Dolby Digital (apart from DTS) though... I take it there's no way to convert whatever surround sound the sound card gets into Dolby Digital or DTS, is there?

Feb 10, 2011, 11:20 AM	Thread Starter #5
DarkUranium HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Re: Trying to get surround working Well, I've never gotten the speakers to play surround, ever, with the USB (which is rather interesting, I'd imagine that USB would enable surround)... Furthermore, there were some problems - I can't recall what exactly (it was years ago that I've tried), but I think there were some problems with headphones and in Linux. I have tried it yesterday, just to see if I could get surround working - nope, I couldn't =/

Feb 10, 2011, 12:34 PM	#6
Russ HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 5,561 Rep Power: 62	Re: Trying to get surround working I think the closest thing you can get (with that speaker system and the Live! card) to surround sound (without AC3/DTS, etc) would be something like ProLogic. i.e. (with kX) Set Surrounder to 2.0 Surround Mix (or try another similar plugin that downmixes to 2.0), and set your speaker system to DPLII mode (using kX Wave 0/1 for playback).