Slav

Hi i wanted some advice, i have 5.1 speaker set and a winfast k7 ncr18d pro motherboard (nforce2 chipset)it says that it supports 6 channel AC97 codec.

I assume the 6 stands for 6.1 ? Anyway it says that if oyu dont have a soundcard you can use the 3 pins the line in and mic and line out to support 6 speakersaudio- output. Anyway no matter what i do after adjusting the setting in the control panel for a 5.1 speaker system and ticking the both to say that i am using the mic entry for bass and centre speaker and rear speakers in the line in function. I can only get 2 things working eg the bass and centre speaker and the rear speakers and no front . Does that mean i cannot achieve that with a 5.1 speaker set and or the only option is to get a 5.1 card(sound) eg a SOUND BLASTER DE 5.1?
And does it all mean that 5.1 will not work on such a setup only 6.1 will?


Thanks Slav

BWX

If you want an inexpensive 7.1 sound card, get a Hercules fortissimo III 7.1, under 50 bucks. More money? Get an Audigy II-Nice card but the drivers suck. The Hercules drivers are great. Unless it's soundstorm on an Nforce2 the on board sound isn't going to be very good.

edit- I have a Fort III 7.1 and it sounds great.

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Slav

oh okay so that means that the 5.1 spekers will not work on my current set up?

Slav

Are soundblaster live cards capable of 5.1?

Matth

There are 5.1 models

Not quite sure what's what though - I assume 6 channels would be 5.1, am I right in thinking:

2.1 = Stereo + subwoofer (most likely derived fron a stereo feed)
4.1 = Front L/R, Rear L/R + SUB (again, the sub may be driven by a mixer in the amplifier)
5.1 = Front Left/Right/Centre, Rear L/R, SUB (this time, the soundcard definitely handles the sub)

So what the hell is 7.1.

There are variants - I've seen "5.1 with virtual centre" - where the Centre is mixed back to Left/Right and there is no centre.
Virtual surround, where the "rear" pair are actually at the front and angle out to provide reflection.

Call me aurally unambitious, but it'd take a lot to convince me to stick speakers all over the place.

MasterBaiter

It should work just fine... as a matter of fact buying an addon sound-card would probably be a step backwards as Nvidias SoundStorm audio is quite good.

I found this review @ Bjorn3D which reviewed the board you have (or something very similar to it)

"The only real problem we found with the board was figuring out the sound hook up for our Klipsch 4.1 speakers. The metal I/O shield labeling is backwards. It took us a good 10 minutes of messing around and moving speaker connections until we got it working with NVIDIA’s SoundStorm Speaker setup program. "

I would go here for additional info if can't get any farther: http://www.nforcershq.com/

Make sure your drivers are up to date (I think Leadtek's are ancient..). Nvidia's Nforce drivers are @ ver. 2.45

Once you've made the physical connections, you need to setup the rest within the Nvidia SoundStorm control panel. You can also try this Nvidia app to configure your sound as well. Typically your jacks should be configured this way:
MIC: Center & LFE (low frequency effects)/subwoofer channel.
LINE IN: Rear Speakers
LINE OUT: Front Speakers

Hope this helps you out!

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BWX

not all Nforce 2 motherboards have soundstorm chips- I just bought an Nforce2 that is just 5.1 AC97- not soundstorm at all. But that's true- if you have a soundstorm, no need to get an add-on soundcard, soundstorm is better than most.

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Slav

Thanks you all so far for the input... the chipset i have the nforce2 it says the following on the motherboard desription ----

"Built-in hardware Dolby Digital (AC3) Encoder for providing 6-channel surround sound via a SPDIF interface and generally analogy 6-channel output "

So i sassume it has not got the soundstorm thing...
So then my question goes back to , can that support 5.1 (which is 5 speakers and a subwoffer)
Or only support 6 speakers and subwoffer.

This is the motherbaord from their website with the specifics..

http://www.leadtek.com/motherboard/w...r18dpro_1.html

BWX

It should support 5.1 (with subwoofer)- It just won't be as good as the soundstorm and will use more CPU cycles.

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Slav

According to the motherboard manual it states that the configuration is this,.. I will write it word for word.



Winfast k7ncr18d/ pro also can support 6 speakers audio-output, but Mic and Line In have different functions here as below ...

MIC-- The output of surround mode and bass
Line In The output of the front speakers
Line Out The output of center speaker


The it says i need ot change some settings in the windoes which i have.

The speakersi have have 3 plugs they are front , rear and c/sub

So if i fiollow what they say in the manual i cant do what they tell me. Cause centre and sub are on one line acording to their thinking they are seperate and then front speakers plug in and thus no where to plug the rear speakers. I jsut tried every combination and everytime i only get 2 things to work. Not all 3.
Hope this is making sense. So does the 6.1 speakers have different setup from the sub?

Slav

MasterBaiter

I took a look @ the online manual over @ Leadtek and the settings I specified in my above post should be correct. Have you tried these settings and have you tried configuring your software yet? If you haven't then this conversation isn't going to go very far. There is more than likely an option to change some of those settings in the software for a situation where the MIC may be supporting the surround speakers and the subwoofer. Regarding 6.1 and any additional questions, I would recommend you check out this forum and FAQ

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Slav

I have done all that said in the mauall of the motherbaord to enable the 6 channel sound, even gone ot the windows setup and ticked the stuff to recoginse what the mic and line in were used for..
Now maybe this is what i need ot ask.
If the ssytem is setup as a 5.1 and i am just listening to mp3 music or yother things should the rear and cfront and centre speakers work or one set does not work until you a listening to something to that effect?
So in normal day to day setup should all 5 speakers and subwoffer be giving me sounds?

MasterBaiter

No, mp3 should not give you 5.1 surround. You might have an option for non-discrete surround while playing MP3's though.. If you have a game that supports 3d surround like Battlefield 1942, that would be a good test. If you have a dvd player on your system, that would be a good test as well. The Nforce audio control panel should be all you need to determine if your speakers are set up proper (via channel test) You also need to determine if you have a Soundstorm supported board, if it isn't... I wouldn't bother with it.

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Slav

Great i actually get it now.. Man such a simple thing turned out so hard.....
I never knew about the nvidia media centre thing. As i ran the motherboard drivers. I have now seen the setup and it tests oyur speakers. I have set it up and when i press the setup it says left speaker tinght speaker and so on on the proper ones all the way tot he end and when it gets to the subwoffer it just makes a noise not actually words are said. So i can safely assume that its all okay now...

Sorry for the hassles....

As for the " Soundstorm supported board" I never saw that word anywhere so i assume not as this is what is sayds about the specs.

"built in nvidia nforce2 mcp-t hardware provides dolby digital SPDIF 6 channel output interface." "NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 + NVIDIA nForce2 MCP"


Thats the chipset.
Where do i find out about the soundstorm? If its not then i bum out, do i then go and get myself one of those creative or other soundcards and run it off that?

MasterBaiter

Yaaaayyy (whew, I was about to give up on you...)!!!! Okay I can tell you right now that you do have a SoundStorm board because of the fact that you have the mcp-t southbridge chip on your motherboard. The -t designates SoundStorm. You will not hear any "sound" out of your subwoofer so to speak. Maybe some muffled sound, but remember, it's there to to rumble the ground and loosen up junk in your colen, not really to make sound per se.

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Slav

Great... Thank you for all your work. You were going to give up? I would of at the first post lol...

No seriously great to know that fact about the soundstorm as i just could not find any info on leadteks site to say so. So basically i dont need a sound card my setup is just going to be good not great of course but reasonable. Thats actually nice to hear.. I was starting to think i dion't know what i was about.. I will testt he dvd part to make sure. Thanks again ..

BWX

NO. the soundstorm is GREAT- not just ok, it's great because it uses very little CPU cycles and sounds really good. It doesn't support the latest EAX- but nothing but an Audigy (II) does anyway- and any game using that form of EAX (HD or EAXIII) usually runs slower anyway. So no need to get a soundcard unless you want EAX hd- You're set.

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Slav

Great thanks