New Home Theatre Setup

Sam Dennis · 3 Oct 2018 at 23:33

First of all! Hi! I'm new on here so be kind!

I'll explain a few things first to make it easier for you guys to help! I have had a gaming pc I built nearly 3 years ago. I have purchased a Sony HT-RT3 5.1 Soundbar Set to accompany my games, I have used headsets and just don't get on with them. I'm weird like that. Anyway my questions are about to come. My soundbar inputs are analog, optical and HDMIarc. My monitor (LG34UM67) Doesn't support HDMI arc so I have to use optical audio. The soundbar supports Dolby Digital compression but not DTS. When I have the soundbar set to DD only the centre 3 speakers and the subwoofer work. I have changed the settings in the audio settings to output Dolby Digital but it isn't working. My motherboard is Asus Crosshair V Formula Z that has a built in sound card so it should work, right? Wrong! I've tried installing dolby digital drivers which didn't work, the sound sounded way off. I've tried using the HDMI out of my r9 290x but the only port on the receiver is HDMI out Arc so its not picking that up either. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to make it work?

Cheers!

ToTheMax · 4 Oct 2018 at 18:23

In order to send 5.1 over optical you need dolby digital live capable hardware and the appropriate licenses, which I don't think you will have given your hardware. You can get it to work with some of the older sound cards like Soundblaster Z etc.

Sam Dennis · 4 Oct 2018 at 18:52

Hi ToTheMax,

Is there anywhere I can acquire the license for that? Say to purchase it! The motherboard has built In Supreme FX 3 and has the option for DTS but no dolby equivalent. Is my only option to buy a PCI Soundcard?

ToTheMax · 4 Oct 2018 at 19:13

Sam Dennis said:
Hi ToTheMax,

Is there anywhere I can acquire the license for that? Say to purchase it! The motherboard has built In Supreme FX 3 and has the option for DTS but no dolby equivalent. Is my only option to buy a PCI Soundcard?

Potentially there are hacked drivers floating about but your mileage may vary in whether they actually work. Best solution would be a PCI sound card with dolby digital live, but make sure you get the right one eg SB AE5 dropped this support.

Sam Dennis · 4 Oct 2018 at 20:45

ToTheMax said:
Potentially there are hacked drivers floating about but your mileage may vary in whether they actually work. Best solution would be a PCI sound card with dolby digital live, but make sure you get the right one eg SB AE5 dropped this support.

Are there any sound cards you'd recommend, like from personal experience, I've never had a problem like this before and never had the need for a sound card because or my old setup.. If only my monitor HAD HDMI arc! Thanks for your help by the way!

EsaT · 4 Oct 2018 at 21:05

Sound Blaster Z is cheapest sound card with Dolby Digital encoding.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150000001-sc-087-cl.html
Because of license cost budget sound cards don't have encoders.

Also if you have good (most gaming stuff is crappy trinkets) headphones Creative has very good binaural sound simulation.

ToTheMax · 5 Oct 2018 at 08:45

EsaT said:
Sound Blaster Z is cheapest sound card with Dolby Digital encoding.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150000001-sc-087-cl.html
Because of license cost budget sound cards don't have encoders.

Also if you have good (most gaming stuff is crappy trinkets) headphones Creative has very good binaural sound simulation.

As EsaT said, SB Z is going to be your cheapest option, and good binaural sound simulation for both games and movies is really an eye opening experience.

Your best option is probably going to be the new SB G6, I just tested it and you can feed it with USB PC connection and output DD 5.1 over optical. This will give you an excellent headphone amp, excellent binaural sound, and latest drivers/tech which may be a concern with SB Z since it's legacy now.

EsaT · 5 Oct 2018 at 09:16

ToTheMax said:
Your best option is probably going to be the new SB G6, I just tested it and you can feed it with USB PC connection and output DD 5.1 over optical. This will give you an excellent headphone amp, excellent binaural sound, and latest drivers/tech which may be a concern with SB Z since it's legacy now.

So it has Dolby Digital encoding in some settings?
Haven't seen any official word except for Dolby Digital decoding.

ToTheMax · 5 Oct 2018 at 09:39

EsaT said:
So it has Dolby Digital encoding in some settings?
Haven't seen any official word except for Dolby Digital decoding.

Can't see anything specific except selecting optical as the output and setting 5.1 in the sound options. Marketing blurb suggests it's only optical pass through but that clearly isn't the case.

Tested using Netflix Test Patterns which has a sound channel test through to my AV amp.

ToTheMax · 5 Oct 2018 at 09:48

ToTheMax said:
Can't see anything specific except selecting optical as the output and setting 5.1 in the sound options. Marketing blurb suggests it's only optical pass through but that clearly isn't the case.

Tested using Netflix Test Patterns which has a sound channel test through to my AV amp.

Another test just did while having optical in/out plugged in (no PC this time), rather than direct mode turned on the SBX engine which affected the sound output to the AV AMP, so it must be doing DD encoding rather than a bit for bit pass through the marketing blurb said. Turns out it's more feature rich than I thought ^^

ToTheMax · 5 Oct 2018 at 11:53

Final test to demonstrate it does DD 5.1 encoding, PC USB connection with optical out to AV 5.1 setup, using windows PC speaker test, sound goes to each channel/speaker correctly.

This must be done at the hardware level because there isn't a setting to turn on DD encoding and works without the PC being connected with optical input / SBX engine.