Do pc games have real time encoding to DD 5.1 sound?

dvdbunny

dvdbunny

dvdbunny

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Hey Guys,

I have a bunch of PC games like half life 2, crysis, far cry 2 which I know all support 5.1, 7.1 sound etc

Now this surround sound is PC audio surround sound. The kind of sound where you need one of those PC audio surround sound setups.

Now I play my games connected to a 5.1 home entertainment receiver that I have had for many years now. This only supports 2 channel PCM and 5.1 channel dolby digital ac3 sound.

I was wondering if there is any kind of software which would do realtime encoding to dolby digital 5.1 sound of these games I have.

I hope if there is a solution so when these games are doing real time encoding the dolby digital light will pop up on my receivers LCD display. showing all 5.1 channels active.

Is this possible

Any help much appreciated

Many many thanks in advance
 
As the ATI HD 4850 has an integrated sound controller that support multi channel 7.1 ac3 sound over hdmi I wonder if you can tell me does this mean ati cards can support dolby digital live without needing a soundcard that supports it?
 
I have been looking at the trust 7.1 dolby digital live sound card which is a bargain at £30

Also the Terratec Aureon 7.1 PCI Sound Card which is £12. It does 7.1 channel analogue or 5.1 channel digitally which supports the dolby digital live.

I wonder if anyone knows if this card can do DTS to DD 5.1, AAC 5.1 to DD 5.1?

Really that's what I'm after in a budget soundcard,

DTS 5.1 to DD 5.1
AAC 5.1 to DD 5.1
Any PC 5.1 audio format to DD 5.1

My surround sound receiver can only take max 5 speakers + subwoofer. It can do 2 channel PCM, DD 5.1 and dolby prologic 1

Can anyone recommend me a card in a similar price range from what I have posted above with these sound features?

Many thanks in advance
 
dvdbunny said:
anyone able to give me a reply please?

many thanks in advance
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Get an Asus Xonar from OCUK as they all do realtime Dolby Digital decoding. I have mine connected via optical to my THX 5.1 AV Receiver and the sound quality is incredible. If you buy one of the more expensive models they also do DTS & have optical (cheaper models only have analog you have to use internal spdif connectors).
 
dvdbunny said:
I have a bunch of PC games like half life 2, crysis, far cry 2 which I know all support 5.1, 7.1 sound etc

I hope if there is a solution so when these games are doing real time encoding the dolby digital light will pop up on my receivers LCD display
Click to expand...

You do realize that the games use spatial, directional audio rather than just 5 channels, right? Dolby Digital wasn't, isn't, and never will be for games - it's a completely different beast.

DD is just multiple, pre-defined channels. Games using EAX and the like use positional audio.

Encoding the output of the game's audio to DD wouldn't actually acheive anything. At all.
 
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uvmain said:
Encoding the output of the game's audio to DD wouldn't actually acheive anything. At all.
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Erm... the whole point of DDL is to push 5.1 audio content over S/PDIF, an interface which traditionally only supports stereo PCM. Therefore, if you are using a digital receiver and want to use 5.1 surround sound for gaming, then the game's post-processed audio content *has* to be encoded using an appropriate DDL or DTS plugin. Otherwise, stereo is all you will get.
 
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hohum said:
Erm... the whole point of DDL is to push 5.1 audio content over S/PDIF, an interface which traditionally only supports stereo PCM. Therefore, if you are using a digital receiver and want to use 5.1 surround sound for gaming, then the game's post-processed audio content *has* to be encoded using an appropriate DDL or DTS plugin. Otherwise, stereo is all you will get.
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That's all fine and dandy, but in the Audio subforum he's stated that his Stereo has 5.1 Analogue jacks.. so what would be the point of taking the Game's audio output, converting it to DD, and chucking it to the Stereo, when it can already deal with the native output? It's not going to sound any better, it's not going to do anything.. it's just converting it for conversion's sake.

This argument has already been made in the audio subforum, and he's already received the same sentiment from other users.
 
uvmain said:
That's all fine and dandy, but in the Audio subforum he's stated that his Stereo has 5.1 Analogue jacks.. so what would be the point of taking the Game's audio output, converting it to DD, and chucking it to the Stereo, when it can already deal with the native output? It's not going to sound any better, it's not going to do anything.. it's just converting it for conversion's sake.

This argument has already been made in the audio subforum, and he's already received the same sentiment from other users.
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My surround sound receivers has analogue ports but I believe this is only for movies with 5.1 sound. I want surround sound support for games. Which is why I need a dolby digital live sound card to carry the signal over spdif.
 
uvmain said:
That's all fine and dandy, but in the Audio subforum he's stated that his Stereo has 5.1 Analogue jacks.. so what would be the point of taking the Game's audio output, converting it to DD, and chucking it to the Stereo, when it can already deal with the native output? It's not going to sound any better, it's not going to do anything.. it's just converting it for conversion's sake.

This argument has already been made in the audio subforum, and he's already received the same sentiment from other users.
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In which case you're right, and it is pointless.

Edit: Arguably you could avoid a potential ground loop issue by using optical out instead of analogue connections, but that will open up a whole different can of worms... so I won't discuss that further :p
 
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dvdbunny said:
My surround sound receivers has analogue ports but I believe this is only for movies with 5.1 sound. I want surround sound support for games. Which is why I need a dolby digital live sound card to carry the signal over spdif.
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what speakers?

if your speakers do have analgoeu 5.1 inputs on them, then you can use a 5.1 soundcard with analogue outputs. you do not need DD/DTS encoding.
 
dvdbunny said:
My surround sound receivers has analogue ports but I believe this is only for movies with 5.1 sound. I want surround sound support for games. Which is why I need a dolby digital live sound card to carry the signal over spdif.
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You believe wrong.

All you need are audio jacks going from the analogue out on your soundcard, to the analogue in on your stereo - which you'll already have if you've used the analogue connections for movies.

You need nothing more, job done.
 
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