Gaming Card via AV AMP? (optical/coaxial)

ssmacc · 27 Apr 2011 at 10:34

Hello,

I’ve got no experience with sound cards as I’ve always used on-board sound, I’ve recently bought a new AV amp and have connected my old one to my gaming PC, I’ve now got a 5.1 AV amp and speakers (a little over kill but not worth selling). I’ve had on-board as the amp was connected to my HTPC via optical and outputted DD/DTS perfectly (movies). However, now I’m going to use it for gaming I’d like to hear “things” creeping up from behind me etc. in games, what’s the best way of achieving this over an optical / coaxial connection? (the amp does not have 5 separate inputs).

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

Auraomega · 27 Apr 2011 at 11:26

You'll need a sound card that can encode into DD or DTS on the fly as S/PDIF only has the bandwidth for stereo.

Alternatively you could buy an AVR with HDMI connections and send LPCM via the sound card, probably works out more expensive it just depends on if you'll find a HDMI port a major advantage.

ssmacc · 27 Apr 2011 at 14:08

Hello,

Thanks for the response, what card would you recommend for outputting DD/DTS for games? This is my old AV, I've just bought one with HDMI and don't want to buy another.

Thanks

Marsman · 27 Apr 2011 at 14:56

Xonar DS is the cheapest that can encode DTS, but it can't do Dolby. Xonar D1/DX has Dolby encoding, but not DTS. D2/D2X can do both. X-Fi Titanium also has both DTS and Dolby real time encoding.

ssmacc · 27 Apr 2011 at 17:18

Thanks all, i take it this will work in most games and give me true 5.1?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-006-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

Don't suppose it matters that it can do DTS and not DD? Am i right in assuming I’ll still get DD/DTS pass through from films?

Auraomega · 27 Apr 2011 at 23:11

You need to make sure your AVR can decode DTS otherwise that card won't be much use. Bitstreaming is still possible, yes.

ssmacc · 27 Apr 2011 at 23:19

Auraomega said:
You need to make sure your AVR can decode DTS otherwise that card won't be much use. Bitstreaming is still possible, yes.

Amp can do DD and DTS, cheers

Marsman · 28 Apr 2011 at 00:39

Xonar DS will be fine then. It will still be able to pass on Dolby and DTS from DVD's etc. The fact that it can't encode to Dolby Digital in real time, would only matter, if your AV receiver was Dolby only, or if you preferred to use Dolby instead of DTS for gaming.