new sound card for movies

drogon

drogon

drogon

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Joined
10 Dec 2009
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236
Location
Scotland, Edinburgh
Hey guys,

Basically I'm looking for a new card or a way of connecting my audigy 2 up to my amp and getting 5.1 dolby and dts. I'd like to do this preferably by optical toslink. My pc is about 7 meters from my tv.

My max budget is £35

Cheers Andy
 
Audigy 2 has to my knowledge, a digital out 3.5mm socket. You would need to buy a 3.5mm mono to RCA connector. However, the Audigy can only use coaxial, not optical.
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You can buy a Dolby Digital Live pack off Creative's USA site that converts multi channel audio into digital 5.1 to be sent to the receiver. They do a pack specifically for the Audigy cards. If you don't use a credit card, or don't want to buy this pack, then you would have to use Power DVD, which passes on the Dolby or DTS 5.1 digital audio to the receiver, but it will only work with DVD's and Blu-ray etc. With AVI for eg, you will only get stereo. The receivers Dolby Pro Logic should convert the incoming stereo into 5.1.

Other option would be to buy a new card that allows you to use optical, Asus Xonar DS would be a good choice at just a tad over £35. The card comes with DTS connect, which will convert stereo or multi channel audio to DTS 5.1 digital to be sent to the receiver, similar to Dolby Digital Live. Useful if you are watching a film that has no Dolby or DTS digital audio. Watching DVD's or Blu-ray will pass on the Dolby or DTS digital audio to the receiver to decode using Power DVD etc.

If you are confused by any of that, please ask questions. Will answer them best I can. :)
 
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Just get the appropriate adaptor or ditch the audigy entirely and sue the onboard which will have optical or coax S/PDIF. Any playback software will pass-through AC3/DTS tracks, you only need DDL/DTS Connect for games surround sound over S/PDIF.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. My on-board doesn't have an optical out as it's an older asrock dual sata.

I have got a coax to toslink converter laying around and I was wondering if that would work in conjunction with the audigy to achieve 5.1 in avi's etc.

Cheers Andy
 
AbsenceJam said:
onboard which will have optical or coax S/PDIF.
Click to expand...

Will have? Hmm, mine doesn't.

I didn't really think of mentioning that, because I assumed if his board had optical and coax, he would have used it. However, best not to assume anything really. :)
 
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drogon said:
Thanks for the replies guys. My on-board doesn't have an optical out as it's an older asrock dual sata.

I have got a coax to toslink converter laying around and I was wondering if that would work in conjunction with the audigy to achieve 5.1 in avi's etc.

Cheers Andy
Click to expand...

Yes you can do that. I think the easiest and least cost way is to grab one of the connectors I linked, and forget the audio pack from Creative. The receiver will convert the incoming audio to 5.1 using Dolby Pro Logic or similar. If you are watching DVD, a good media player should be able to pass through the Dolby Digital or DTS to the receiver, as Absence mentioned.

If some reason the Audigy 2 won't play nicely with your receiver, you can always buy a Xonar DS. Having only spent a couple of £ on a connector, it won't be so bad if it refuses to play ball, as they are cheap as chips. My Audigy SE that I used to have would not play nicely with my digital system on W7. I was outraged at Creative's lame drivers, so I bought a Xonar DS, which has been great, no problems.
 
Thanks again man :)

I'm gonna buy one of the adapters you suggested and fingers crossed I'll have some success.

Cheers
Andy
 
With the Audigy SE, using XP my 5.1 speakers connected with the digital module, works great. With Win7, I get nothing but trouble. The last Win7 drivers they released for Audigy SE were 6 months ago, which are half assed. Creative are not worth their salt anymore imo, they still have some good cards but their support for older cards is non existent. Frankly they would prefer people to buy an X-Fi, so I gave them the proverbial finger and bought a Xonar. I do hope the Audigy 2 does work for you, it uses a different driver to the SE so there is some hope, but it is dated July 09, same as the SE driver. You may be forced into buying a new card like I was.

It would bring a wry smile to my face, if all the people with older Creative cards, forced to buy a new card because Creative would rather people buy an X-Fi, so they don't have to make working drivers for their older products, went and bought an Asus card instead.
 
Yeah creative support is pretty poor and if forced to get a new card, I think I'll probably go with what you suggested.

cheers
Andy
 
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