DD / DTS 5.1 in Games - supported well?

ssmacc

ssmacc

ssmacc

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Hello,

I'm thinking of getting a Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI Sound Card (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-006-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=) so I can play games in Dolby Digital / DTS 5.1 via the optical out and in to my AV receiver.

As I'm new to this (only used on-board) can someone confirm modern games support this feature? I'm more than happy with the pass through of the on-board sound so only getting it for games.

While I'm asking is there any point of spending a little more and getting a more expensive card?

Thanks
 
Dolby Digital Live and the DTS equivalent just encode a standard 5.1 output into a bitstream to be fed to a decoder. They don't actually do anything of benefit to the audio, they're just essentially a transport format for the existing audio data.

As such, games don't need to officially support either as they effectively don't have a clue they're even there; the games will spit out their 5.1 (or whatever) audio and the drivers for the soundcard will then encode for output to your decoder.

Bare in mind that as they don't actually do anything to the audio (other than compress the data, which is usually lossy!), you don't actually benefit in quality using either format unless the path from your PC to decoder is particularly noisy, or the DACs in your decoder are substantially better than those on the soundcard.

If you're only using the digital out it's debatable whether it'd be worth spending any more on a soundcard as it's usually the analogue stages that are better with the more expensive cards.
 
Yep, not much to do with game support. If your game supports 5.1 and your soundcard supports DDL / DTS Connect, it should work.

It's worth having a card with legacy directsound3d support for Vista / w7 though. Creative X-Fi and Audigy series, plus Asus Xonar series do it pretty well.
 
As i understand it at the moment i only get 2.1 in games, one of the Xonar cards will give me 5.1 via the optical if the game supports it, is that correct?

My AV amp will decode and output 5.1, I'll hear people behind me etc?
 
Yes, but the DS only supports DTS Connect. It doesn't support Dolby Digital Live. This will be fine so long as your AV amp handles DTS.
 
OK, anks for the responses,

Last questions before i hit buy

Is 5.1 well supported in games and i assume the Xonar card will work fine with Windows 7 64bit? (read some horror stories about Creative cards and Vista)
 
I've heard that beta drivers or a patch is needed for W7 but it works. Bledd posted about it here I think. I'm sure that full W7 drivers will turn up soon that don't need patching. Having said that, Asus don't tend to update their Xonar drivers very frequently.
 
As far as EAX is concerned, the DS is as good as any Xonar. If you want it perfect then an X-Fi is the only way to go (assuming you don't get any driver bother). Having said that to get better EAX compatibility than a Xonar with DDL or DTS connect you'll need to get at least a Titanium, which is twice the price of a DS.
 
Uriel said:
As far as EAX is concerned, the DS is as good as any Xonar. If you want it perfect then an X-Fi is the only way to go (assuming you don't get any driver bother). Having said that to get better EAX compatibility than a Xonar with DDL or DTS connect you'll need to get at least a Titanium, which is twice the price of a DS.
Click to expand...


The plot thickens...here's me thinking I'll get a sound card and enjoy 5.1 in games...
 
EAX is additional environmental effects and nothing to do with 5.1. It's things like echo, reverb and occlusion. These are supported natively on Xonar up to EAX 2. Until recently only creative (and other manufacturers using Creative tech under licence) cards have supported EAX 3 to 5. Asus have now implemented EAX 3-5 emulation in their drivers. It mostly works for newer EAX games but with some older EAX 3 and 4 games you'll be stuck with EAX 2. If it doesn't work you will still get 5.1 sound. EAX 3-5 just sounds a bit more realistic if well implemented.
 
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Uriel said:
I've heard that beta drivers or a patch is needed for W7 but it works. Bledd posted about it here I think. I'm sure that full W7 drivers will turn up soon that don't need patching. Having said that, Asus don't tend to update their Xonar drivers very frequently.
Click to expand...

I've just hit buy, can anyone send/post me a link to the patched drivers?

I went for the cheapist Xonar card OC sell (£36)

Cheers

Edit

Did a search and found them, cheers

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17985893&highlight=Xonar+driver
 
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I have a question. My 5.1 box has optical and coaxial at the back im using optical for my onboard the DS does not have an optical port so how can i set my card up with my 5.1 set up?
 
The DS does have an optical port. It's the grey jack on the back. There should have been an adaptor bundled with the card to link to a standard optical cable.
 
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