Sound Card with 5.1 optical output

oafc0000 · 30 Apr 2006 at 11:12

I need a sound card that does 5.1 on the optical output.

Anybody know a card which does this?

I have bought to cards now and both only do 2.1 on the optical output.

Help me

tom_nieto · 30 Apr 2006 at 11:45

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_HiTeC_699.html
Either of those will suit your bill.

conuk · 3 May 2006 at 00:12

sorry to jump in here...

i have at present an oldish Soundblaster Audigy card... no digital out though.

I use a Sony TA-KSL7 Audio control center (the name on the thing

via erm... mini jack (?) connector from sound card to > `connector` > 2 RCA leads (sorry forget the correct name of the connections....)

Sounds good I guess... Could it sound better ?

Would I get better sound output using one of the above cards for

1) Just mp3 playing via something like winamp
2) DVD Movies
3) Games
4) Any difference to just stereo music cds

On the control center I can select 2ch Stereo ... Normal Surround... VM dimensional...Game etc to come from the 5 speakers and subwoofer... I guess at the mo it just simulates these effects ?

Worth upgrading to one of the above cards ?
TIA

squiffy · 3 May 2006 at 00:55

I also need to know of a simple digital out soundcard that will pass PCM, multi-channel Dolby Digital and DTS (from mono to 5.1, also newer variations of DD and DTS ie DTS EX, ES blah blah) Seems not many people/replies
:confused:

tom_nieto · 3 May 2006 at 10:09

conuk, if your speakers are capable of decoding Dolby Digital or DTS and have a digital input you'd be able to gain a huge benefit from these soundcards.

squiffy, are you after DD/DTS in games and music? If you're just after a simple passthrough like from DVDs then pretty much any soundcard on the market these days would be fine.

conuk · 3 May 2006 at 11:31

tom_nieto said:
conuk, if your speakers are capable of decoding Dolby Digital or DTS and have a digital input you'd be able to gain a huge benefit from these soundcards.

well it has Dolby Digital - Digital DTS Decoding - Digital Cinema Sound... full digital amplifier stickers plastered on the front so I guess they do.

Will the cheapest of the 2 cards work good ?
Never had cards other than Creative before.... worth the change ?

tom_nieto · 3 May 2006 at 11:37

Yes definitely worth the change. I presume your amp only has digital inputs and not 5.1 channel analogue inputs. The cheaper card will work fine, but the newer card has been optimised a bit more and is of higher quality.

squiffy · 3 May 2006 at 12:25

tom_nieto said:
squiffy, are you after DD/DTS in games and music? If you're just after a simple passthrough like from DVDs then pretty much any soundcard on the market these days would be fine.

Yeah just PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS (all variations) to a AV Amp for processing.

conuk · 3 May 2006 at 12:43

tom_nieto said:
Yes definitely worth the change. I presume your amp only has digital inputs and not 5.1 channel analogue inputs. The cheaper card will work fine, but the newer card has been optimised a bit more and is of higher quality.

its got erm... looks at back of unit....

tom_nieto · 3 May 2006 at 12:55

The Multichannel input could be used with any sound card if you use minijack to RCA converter cables. In fact you could use your current card to get lovely surround sound. However, you do have lots of digital inputs too, so whether you buy an HDA card and use a digital cable or 3 minijack to RCA cables is really up to you.

conuk · 3 May 2006 at 12:59

ah yes thats what I use at the mo minijack > the 2 rca you see in the picture (subwoofer disconnected for picture

but would buy the new card if going the digital route would improve things.

tom_nieto · 3 May 2006 at 13:59

It might improve things, but you might as well try the surround sound in analogue option first as it'll be a lot cheaper to start with. I'm sure you could find a couple more cables for less than a fiver. You might be satisfied with that. Sure, you won't get the nice dolby digital light showing, but it'll be the same thing just with your soundcard doing the decoding instead. Up to you entirely though, depends if you want to spend the cash or not, the HDA cards do offer a very nice solution.

conuk · 3 May 2006 at 14:15

tom_nieto said:
It might improve things, but you might as well try the surround sound in analogue option first as it'll be a lot cheaper to start with. I'm sure you could find a couple more cables for less than a fiver. You might be satisfied with that. Sure, you won't get the nice dolby digital light showing, but it'll be the same thing just with your soundcard doing the decoding instead. Up to you entirely though, depends if you want to spend the cash or not, the HDA cards do offer a very nice solution.

Thanks - think I`ll try the extra analogue cables first then... might save a few quid for something else