Could I Get Some Confirmation - Optical Out Only Sending Pcm Stereo Si

[kpop]

hi fellas

 

i just bought a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio soundcard. i have it connected to my pioneer VSX-416 amp via an optical cable.

 

my problem is, the amp is only receiving a pcm stereo signal.

 

when i try do to a creative diagnostic - where it has a picture of all 5 speakers, and outputs to them, eg each speaker will have a voice saying "left, right, centre" etc, i can only hear the front left & front right signals, there is just silence when doing the centre and rear speakers

 

ive done a bit of reading, and apparently my soundcard doesnt decode 5.1 itself? im a bit confused, since if i plug in my 5.1 creative computer speakers, using the male > female plugs, i get 5.1, but im thinking thats more of a forced 5.1 than a true 5.1

 

so my question now is: can i get 5.1 using an optical cable ?

 

heres full product specs

 

http://au.creative.com/products/product.as...770&listby=

Edited February 12, 2009 by kpop

[hardnrg]

you can't send more than 2.0 down a DIGITAL cable from most Soundblaster cards... only the newest models have Dolby Digital Live, to allow multichannel via digital interconnects

[kpop]

you can't send more than 2.0 down a DIGITAL cable from most Soundblaster cards... only the newest models have Dolby Digital Live, to allow multichannel via digital interconnects

 

well that pretty much makes my new soundcard useless to me, as the only reason i upgraded from onboard was to get a true 5.1 experience

 

mind you, the sound quality from the onboard was great, even better then my old augidy

 

guess ill just return the x-fi and go back to onboard

[ir_cow]

why not get the newest one?

[kpop]

why not get the newest one?

 

i would have to spend $160 +

 

i dont want to spend that much on just a sound card right now

[Dr_Frankenstein]

Its a long shot but have you tried using AC3 Filter to bypass the xfi and just passthrough the bit for bit signal to the AMP

 

This looks useful aswell

[kpop]

Its a long shot but have you tried using AC3 Filter to bypass the xfi and just passthrough the bit for bit signal to the AMP

 

This looks useful aswell

 

cool thanks for the link

 

i just went back to use my creative 5.1 computer speakers using the analogue plugs, still sounds ok

 

ill plug the optical cable in later and see if your plan works

[xPETEZx]

As stated, you cant with an X-Fi. Not properly anyways.

 

You need a hardware ENCODER, not decoder.

 

Its not a new thing though, I am pretty sure even an old nForce 2 on board was able to do it.

 

I had a HDA X-Mystique about 3yrs ago that could do it too (Dolby Live) and now have the Barracuda AC-1, which can do DTS interactive (better than Dolby live)

 

but you definitely do not need to drop $160 to get Encoding.

 

Look on eBay for an X-Mystique, X-Plosion. I believe all the new ASUS sound cards do it too.

 

Just gotta move AWAY from Creative, I hear they are too tight to pay the royalties associated with putting an encoder on-board.

[hardnrg]

Just gotta move AWAY from Creative, I hear they are too tight to pay the royalties associated with putting an encoder on-board.

You heard wrong, Creative has DDL (Dolby Digital Live) on the three X-Fi Titanium cards

[T3mpest]

not to take over the thread but does this also hold for the x-fi extreme gamer fatilty pro?