CDLuck

Alright, here's the deal: I'm running Win2k and have an Audigy 1, PC-DVD 12x with Dxr3 decoder card, and Yamaha TSS-1 speakers. The speaker receiver has 2 analog in's and 2 digital in's, one of which is Coax. After reading various articles, I connected the coax in on my speakers to the digital out on the Audigy card with a mono 1/8th to RCA connector. Now here are my problems:

1) Audigy's digital out has 3 channels, and if you use a mono converter, you only get the front channel (the other two are: rear lef t and rear right on one, and center and sub on the other). So when I perform speaker tests, only the front right and front left output anything.

2) When I try to "passthrough" a digital stream from the Dxr3 card by hacking the registry and specifying passthrough, my computer crashes after a few minutes of playing a movie.

So basically, I would like to

1) Figure out how to send all three channels to my speakers and have them recognized as such (I don't want to use the analog out's as I only have two analog in's on the speakers and because I'd like to just run one cable from computer to speakers)

2) Pass the Dolby Digital or DTS stream from the Creative DVD player (PC-DVD) to the Audigy to the Receiver for decoding. I've tried using RealMagic's player and Eugene's, but I get the same problem.

Does anybody out there have any suggestions or ideas? I've also tried the kX drivers, and mixed the Front R and L, Rear R and L, and Center\Sub down to two channels, but the speakers still recognize that as only two channels, which kinda defeats the whole surround sound thing. Thanks for any help

-Chris

Necrosis

Um..I hate to be the messenger of death. You might want to take a look at this thread for a "possible" answer.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...&threadid=6464

CDLuck

I read that thread, and DallasStar said:

"wrong. what your friend said only applies to sbLive. audigy CAN afaik have 5.1 digital with other brands."

The only brand(s) that I'm aware of that support Creative's 3 channel miniplug design are Creative and Cambridge (pretty much the same thing anymore).

How is everyone else doing surround sound with Audigy cards? Through the analog outputs? How is audio coded for surround sound if it were being sent over one digital channel? I'm not that good at programming, but I've got time on my hands in this economy, and I'd like to try combining Creative's 3 channel into one with the proper coding to be recognized as surround on my speakers. Thank you Necrosis, though, for the fast reply and effort

Any thoughts on AC-3\DTS passthrough that doesn't crash the machine? BTW, has anybody had that problem (passthrough crashes) on WinXP? If that's the quick and dirty way of fixing it, I might give it a go.

-Chris

Necrosis

Does your speakers have a built in decoder? You also might think about making your own cable to get those signals where they need to be. I could tell you more if I seen how your speakers hook up.

CDLuck

Necrosis,

Yes, the speakers come with a decoder\receiver. Here's the setup (i'm also looking for a picture of it)

4 Inputs:
2 Digital - One Optical and One Coax (RCA)

2 Analog - One Front and One Rear

6 Outputs
Front Right and Left, Rear Right and Left, Center and Sub

There is a switch on the back to toggle between 5.1, 4, and 2 channel sound (even though there's a button on the front to do the same...I don't know what the difference is)

When I connect the coax input directly to my dxr3 card (which outputs AC-3 or DTS, depending on what I select in the movie), the decoder detects what type of signal it is, and selects the proper mode (Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby Prologic). When I hook it up to my Audigy and send it a regular stereo stream through the digital out, the decoder gives me the option of "translating" the stereo mix into 5 channels. This sounds good sometimes, and flat out odd at others.

Here's a picture of the back:


I hope that showed up.

About making the cable, I had thought about that, but when I use a stereo 1/8" to RCA converter, and plug the coax cable into the right channel and then the left, and perform a speaker test, all sound comes from the front speakers (even though one test says "rear left, rear right") So I need to somehow tell the decoder that it is receiving a rear signal....and I'd also need access to the third channel, and I don't know if Radio Shack has a 3 channel 1/8" jack...but I might go look for one today.

Thanks again
-Chris

Necrosis

Hmm..

I'm at work right now so I don't have long to reply. I think you might have to go the internal route and tap into the card itself. Doesn't the Audigy have this same output on the card itself? It's been awhile since I've owned one of these cards and never really looked. If so there might be a solution for you but it will take some work.

CDLuck

There are digital outputs on the interior of the card...there's a connector designed for use with the audigy drive, and for expansion boards that provide extra digital outs (and adds digital ins for those without an audigy drive). I'm not sure what I'd have to do to get proper digital out (maybe optical out?)

Necrosis

You might try something like this and rewire it so it will work with your Audigy

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage....131-203-01.JPG

There is also this little bugger from Hoontech which Dallastar also recommended in the previous thread.



http://www.hoontech.com/english/index.html

I honestly don't see any other options open to you unless you can find one of those Sony Toslink cables for connecting a NetMD player and seeing how that would work. The NetMD players/recorders have a similar digital jack to the Audigy.

CDLuck

How would I go about using one of those to do what I need? Do the coax outputs provide all three channels, or would I have to use the separate Front and Rear coax outs and combine them into one and then send it to my speakers?

Necrosis

It looks to me one of those does so does one of the fiber optic outputs. I wish I still had my Cambridge FPS2200 (???) so I could take a look at the mini plug and find out how everything is routed. You might have to end up going fiber but those cables honestly do not cost that much if you shop around.

CDLuck

Well, after much time spent extracting knowledge from Creative support, I've learned that the Audigy digital outs are incapable of sending out more than one channel (front left\right, rear right\left, center\sub) at a time. Therefore, in order to have surround sound for games, you need to use analog outs. For DVD's, however, the audio is encoded in to Dolby Digital or DTS or what have you, and can then be sent down the single digital path to be decoded by your receiver. So if you want digital surround sound out of your audigy you have to either

1) Buy speakers that accept their digital din plug (Creative 5700 digital, etc)
2) Find some program that can encode your audio into Dolby Digital realtime (i have no idea if this exists)

As for the little add on card with the coax and optical ins and outs, this is PERFECT for bypassing the Creative Dxr3's inability to pass digital audio over the motherboard to the Audgiy. Simply go from the Dxr3 SPDIF out on the back of the card to the coax Input on the add on card. Now both system sounds and dvd audio will come out through the Audigy's digital out(s).

Thank you very much Necrosis for your help in all of this.

-Chris

Necrosis

I honestly don't deserve that much credit for doing anything. Thank Dallastar for he is the one that first turned me onto that card. Glad you was able to make some head way.