Hooking X-Fi Prelude up to Receiver via analogue for surround sound in games?

[hughythomas]

Hi guys

Could I borrow one of the resident sound experts here please?

I hate to ask this as I work in sound but more the audio production side of things rather than the home cinema area!

I have in my studio a pair of Monitor Audio BR-2s which I use for stereo mastering and am thinking of expanding into their range to achieve surround sound.

Have a look here to see what speakers I would be thinking of buying:

http://www.monitoraudio.co.uk/products/bronze-br

Obviously I would need the Center, surround and sub to complete the set. However, I am lacking a home cinema receiver as well.

I was looking at the SONY STRDA2400ES amplifier as it also sports some RCA analogue audio inputs.

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/hcs-home-cinema-receiver/str-da2400es#pageType=Overview

The reason I am saying all of this is because I currently run an X-Fi Prelude as my gaming card and in Windows 7 x64 I find that you have to set the analogue speakers as your main default device so that games properly output surround sound. Or at least this is what happens with my ageing Creative Inspire 5.1 5700 speakers.

I cannot seem to get the games to do surround sound in digital (say for example if I set the SPDIF OUT of the control panel to the main default device) and load into Just Cause 2, GTA4 or TF2. None give me surround sound via digital. However, DVDs, AC3, Blu-Ray etc do!

So, with this in mind - does anyone know how best to connect my X-Fi Prelude to this Sony receiver if I wanted to use both analogue AND digital from the computer?

So, games/general windows use is analogue and then Winamp/VLC are set for digital?

Here is a picture straight from the PDF of the Sony:

And here is a picture straight from the PDF of the Prelude:

Is it possible to get these two connected via analogue so that I can still enjoy surround sound in games or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Many thanks in advance and sorry for the length of the post!

Tom

 

[hughythomas]

Uriel could it be a sample rate issue?

If I output anything above 48Khz 24-bit the Inspire 5700 just produces this sort of distorted farting.

Guys, thank you so much for your posts - I was only looking at that particular Sony receiver due to the wealth of analogue inputs...can I save myself some money by buying a cheaper receiver and using say SPDIF or Optical to receive the full surround experience in games if I get this Dolby Digital Live malarky working?

Again, thank you for your replies!

Tom

P.S Thanks for the posts regarding Dolby Digital Live and setting SPDIF - I thought this must be the way but wasn't sure. It's shocking to think that I spend most of my professional life working in music production and my knowledge of home cinema systems is so basic...the thing is I still work 90% of the time in stereo for the stuff we do so it's not really relevant. Hope to fix that thanks to your posts!