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- 24 Jan 2010
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I'm looking to replace my logitech 7.1 speakers with a reciever and speakers setup, and was wondering what the best way to connect to my PC would be.
I can see 3 possiblities. HDMI via my graphics card, Coaxial digital via my xfi extreme music soundcard, or the coaxial digital on the motherboard.
http://ask.europe.creative.com/SRVS...om,VARSET=ws:http://uk.creative.com,case=5764
Reading this, it seems like connecting via the coaxial on the soundcard isn't very good as it only outputs 5.1/7.1 using a few sources. Most sources will only get outputted in stereo. I'm not sure what this means, because surely the reciever is going to process everything into surround sound anyway? The soundcard has an option whether you want to use an external decoder, so presumably this would be disabled and the card wouldn't be doing much itself. It seems like the card doesn't do much anyway, since Directsound is now sofware based since windows vista.
Now theres the HDMI on the gpu. I've read that this is capable of outputting 7.1 "lossless" audio. Would this be the best way to connect? The third option would be the co-axial on the mobo's built in sound, but I'm guessing that's the worst way to do it.
So.... the main question.
Am I going to lose sound quality plugging into the HDMI on my GPU compared to using the soundcard? Will my soundcard effectively be pointless, since the directsound is handled by windows, and the decoding will be handled by the receiver?
Any help is much appreciated.
I can see 3 possiblities. HDMI via my graphics card, Coaxial digital via my xfi extreme music soundcard, or the coaxial digital on the motherboard.
http://ask.europe.creative.com/SRVS...om,VARSET=ws:http://uk.creative.com,case=5764
Reading this, it seems like connecting via the coaxial on the soundcard isn't very good as it only outputs 5.1/7.1 using a few sources. Most sources will only get outputted in stereo. I'm not sure what this means, because surely the reciever is going to process everything into surround sound anyway? The soundcard has an option whether you want to use an external decoder, so presumably this would be disabled and the card wouldn't be doing much itself. It seems like the card doesn't do much anyway, since Directsound is now sofware based since windows vista.
Now theres the HDMI on the gpu. I've read that this is capable of outputting 7.1 "lossless" audio. Would this be the best way to connect? The third option would be the co-axial on the mobo's built in sound, but I'm guessing that's the worst way to do it.
So.... the main question.
Am I going to lose sound quality plugging into the HDMI on my GPU compared to using the soundcard? Will my soundcard effectively be pointless, since the directsound is handled by windows, and the decoding will be handled by the receiver?
Any help is much appreciated.
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