No 5.1 in Games

Greased Up

Greased Up

Greased Up

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28 Jul 2010
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3
Hey,

Ive recently got a home theatre speaker system hooked up to my computer via S/PDIF (optical) and a Soundblaster X-Fi xtreme audio pci express sound card.

Ive tested films with this and it works fine but games do not play in 5.1

I did some research and seem to have found that the sound needs to be encoded into a Dolby Digital format. Most games use EAX for sound and therefore the receiver cannot decode the sound into 5.1 properly.

I've emailed Creative numerous times about the Dolby Digital Live and DTS driver pack, but as usual they are rubbish at replying with anything useful. Does anyone know if the dolby digital live driver is what I need to play games in 5.1 on the home theatre system using an optical cable?

Any help with this would be awesome,

Thanks
 
I'm afraid Hohum is indeed correct. DDL/DTS pack is what you need, to convert the audio to 5.1 in real time. The Xtreme Audio is not an X-Fi though, it's just clever repackaging by Creative, it's actually an Audigy SE, which is based on a 11 year old audio chip.
 
I may be being stupid but I looked on the creative website for my soundcard and it goes on about the dolby digital live and dts driver pack, so surely it does support dolby digital live? also it says its X-Fi, so can't quite understand how it isnt a X-Fi lol

http://uk.store.creative.com/products/product.aspx?catid=1&pid=16770

If it is all true what you're saying and I need a new soundcard, what would you recommend? I'm looking for a good soundcard but nothing really expensive.

Cheers for the quick responses guys :)
 
It just mentions the features available on the DVD playback software I'm afraid. Films already contain Dolby Digital/DTS audio, whereas you need to convert standard PCM audio to DDL/DTS in real-time... something the card isn't capable of. X-Fi is just branding, nothing more.

Don't really know what card to recommend to you unfortunately, as I don't follow the discrete card market anymore. Both Creative and Asus have equally naff driver support though.
 
Greased Up said:
I may be being stupid but I looked on the creative website for my soundcard and it goes on about the dolby digital live and dts driver pack, so surely it does support dolby digital live? also it says its X-Fi, so can't quite understand how it isnt a X-Fi lol
Click to expand...

The card is capable of passing on DTS and Dolby to an external AV receiver or similar, from DVD playback software, as Hohum mentioned. DVD's have 5.1 encoded on them, so it's just passed on to the AVR to decode. The card would need real time 5.1 encoding to get 5.1 from games, which is something only the true X-Fi's can do.

The website says the Xtreme Audo is an X-Fi, but a fake Rolex watch says Rolex on the dial, when it isn't actually a Rolex. It's naughty of Creative to label the Xtreme Audio as an X-Fi, when it isn't. Trying to sell an older card by passing it off as an X-Fi.
 
The original X-Fis were EMU20k1 chip based pci cards. Later the EMU20k2 was released, supporting pci-e. Anything not based on those chips does not have the full X-Fi feature set. The others are quite correct in stating that the Xtreme Audio is a rebranded Audigy SE. It doesn't support DDL or DTS-Connect, hence no 5.1 over optical that isn't pre-encoded.
 
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Xonar DX/D1 offers Dolby Digital Live, but not the DTS equivalent. To get both, the cheapest would be a X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. You would need to buy and download the pack from Creative's US store though, as it doesn't come with the software. The Titanium does come with the software.
 
yeh I thought the fact that DVDs etc are already encoded was why they worked and games didnt. Creative however still cant realise that, and just send me articles on how to plug speakers in lol.

New card it is then......eventually :(

Cheers for all the help guys :D
 
If you can use analogue cables, the Xtreme Audio will give surround sound in games. It just can't send it over optical.

Misremembered the X-Fi chip names earlier by the way. I've corrected them now.
 
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