Outputting 5.1 sound from PC to home cinema amp but only gettin 2.1 :(

KiNETiK

KiNETiK

KiNETiK

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Edinburgh
Hey guys,
Can anyone help me out? I recently got a nice home cinema system - the yamaha AV59 which works great. I bought an optical TOS cable to connect it to my PC for best possible sound but for some reason I can't get it to output 5.1 sound to it. It is as if it is set to 2.1 - i get sound from the sub, front left and front right speakers, even though in the speaker options in control panel (and in the creative app) I have it set to a 5.1 speaker setup. I'm only using the onboard creative soundblaster live which came with my MSI K8N diamond but still, it should output 5.1 to my speakers fine! Any ideas?
Thanks
 
Yea i've tried AC3 divx files, and DVDs, it just comes up on the amp as "STEREO" but when there is a DVD playing through my DVD player it coulds up as DOLBY PRO LOGIC etc.. When you do the speaker test in the creative control panel you can only hear sound out of front left and front right.. :(
Bit confused really..
 
not sure if this is right or not but i'm sure that creative sound cards don't do 5.1 through the digital output when connected to an av recieiver, do you have 5.1 phono inputs on the back, if so then I think the only why to do it is to use them instead, also have you looked in the creative control panel, I think there is a digital pass through button, I guess you have that selected, also I think there is a simular option in most dvd software players.
 
lowrider007 said:
not sure if this is right or not but i'm sure that creative sound cards don't do 5.1 through the digital output when connected to an av recieiver, do you have 5.1 phono inputs on the back, if so then I think the only why to do it is to use them instead, also have you looked in the creative control panel, I think there is a digital pass through button, I guess you have that selected, also I think there is a simular option in most dvd software players.
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I had the digital pass through button selected, it won;t output through the optical otherwise. I have used a standard phono cable, connected to the standard speaker out on the soundcard and going to red and black on the amp which outputs to all 5.1 speakers but i didn't think you could get proper dolby through that? Didn't let me select dolby on the amp when I had it connected like this anyway.. Am i right?
 
KiNETiK said:
I had the digital pass through button selected, it won;t output through the optical otherwise. I have used a standard phono cable, connected to the standard speaker out on the soundcard and going to red and black on the amp which outputs to all 5.1 speakers but i didn't think you could get proper dolby through that? Didn't let me select dolby on the amp when I had it connected like this anyway.. Am i right?
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I've been looking around the net and connecting an av reciever to your soundcard to get 5.1 looks more problematic than I first thought, I did find this thread tho from another forum that was very intresting,

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/2098.html

if you read through that you'll find many people looking to do exactly the same thing as your trying to do and also there seem to be many helpfull suggestions on there, couple of other things tho, did you disable eax ? has your amp got a coaxial input, if so try that instead as I've read that your motherbaord has a coaxial output as well so it may work better,


Edit - I've just found this on a tech help site,

"Can I connect to a Dolby Digital or DTS AV receiver with a digital (optical or coaxial cable)?

You will need to use 3 pairs of analog stereo mini-jack to RCA cables to connect the Live! 5.1 or Audigy to an AV (Dolby Digital or DTS) receiver.

In addition, you need to check that your AV receiver has 6 analog RCA input connectors, to take in each of the 6 channels (in a 5.1 configuration).

Non-5.1 Live! cards do not have the center and woofer channels, but you can still obtain 4.0 sound if you connect the front and rear line outs to the AV receiver with analog cables.

Connecting digitally using coaxial or optical will only give you 2 channels (left & right) because the Live! and Audigy does not output in 5.1 (Dolby Digital or DTS) unless you are playing back audio from DVDs with a software that supports S/PDIF passthrough."

Well going on what this guy say's it looks like my initial thoughts may be correct and the only way to connect it is through the analogue then, looking at the back of your motherboard it looks like you need 3 sets of 3.5 stereo jack to left & right rca's (phono) cables, connect one to the green socket and the 2 rca's to the front left and right input on your amp, then connect another to the black socket and then connect the rca's to the rear left and right input on your amp, and finially connect the last cable to the yellow socket and the rca's to the sub and centre inputs on the amp, I'm guessing this is the way to do it (I'm also guessing you have a 5.1 analogue phono input on your amp), somebody correct me if I'm wrong, be aware if it works this i.e sound comes from all the speakers in the speaker test the amp will not display the Dolby Digital logo as it is using anologue but it should still be fine.
 
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blimey, loadrider you have been very kind to go to the trouble you have to look this out! thanks mate. I can't believe its so complicated to get it all working! Would have thought Creative might have thought of this and made it a bit easier. I'm not entirely sure I understand everything your saying atm but i'll reread when i get home and give it a go. If I bought an X-Fi soundcard with the front panel for the optical inputs would I still have the same problem?
Thanks again loadrider in particular, great help
 
KiNETiK said:
blimey, loadrider you have been very kind to go to the trouble you have to look this out! thanks mate. I can't believe its so complicated to get it all working! Would have thought Creative might have thought of this and made it a bit easier. I'm not entirely sure I understand everything your saying atm but i'll reread when i get home and give it a go. If I bought an X-Fi soundcard with the front panel for the optical inputs would I still have the same problem?
Thanks again loadrider in particular, great help
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no problem, yes if you buy an x-Fi you will most proberbly still have the same problem,

been reading through this thread also

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-377573.html

many seem to suggest the analogue way is the best as I've described in my previous post, good luck :)
 
You would still only get stereo sound unless playing a DD/DTS source with an X-Fi. You'll need the SPDIF passthrough setting enabled in the control panel of the DVD player for surround. The speaker test window will only give stereo sound.
 
Hey,
Been a while since I started this thread but just to let you know (mainly lowrider), I have just got back from the states and tried the cable I ordered from creative and it works fine :) Now I am finally getting 5.1 from my computer woohoo!
Thanks for all the help..
 
sounds to me like creative deliberately make you buy a special cable to get 5.1 from your card :(
out of interest how much did they sting you?
 
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