SupremeFX X-Fi (Crosshair III mobo) limited multichannel sound from SPDIF

Tobes

Tobes

Tobes

Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2004
Posts
6,693
Location
Devon
Hey,

This is driving me nuts. OK so I have that crappy little sound card which uses the PCI-E slot which can't be used for anything else...

anyway I am using a TOSlink cable (optical) and my Denon 2807 amp is only picking up multi channel sound when I play a DVD with windows media player. Nothing in games. I can't press the configure button on the SPDIF interface in the Sound Devices but I can on the other one which I assume is the analogue ports. Which means I can't manually set it to 7.1. Running the latest drivers and creative package from the Asus website.

Any ideas?
 
http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound...tions-SPDIF-and-Dolby-Digital-Info/td-p/45857
PC Games
PC games usually use technologies like as EAX to create surround sound, not Dolby Digital. So even if your speaker system has a Dolby Digital decoder, it will be of no use when playing games. The EAX processing is done on the soundcard, and the 6-channel sound is output via the analogue (or digital DIN if available). So you still need analogue connections to your digital speakers for games, if you just use an optical/coax cable you will only get the front left/right sound.
Click to expand...

Is this true!? So for me to get multichannel sound from PC games I have to run another 3 cables to my amp? Is this true for all sound cards?
 
No it's not entirely true. EAX is environmental effects not surround sound.

Nevertheless to get surround sound over optical you need a soundcard with Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, which encodes a Dolby Digital or DTS signal on the fly.

The SupremeFX X-Fis don't do either AFAIK.

I would recommend the X-Fi Titanium, which has both DDL and DTS Connect and will allow full EAX compatibility. If you wanted to get a cheaper card, the Xonar DS has DTS Connect, although EAX compatibility isn't quite as good as the X-Fi.
 
Well the thing is I'm going to be getting into music programs like Ableton and Reason so I was going to look for a soundcard more dedicated to that route. I was just hoping that this card would do for games but obviously not.

Oh well thanks for the quick reply.
 
The Xonar D2 and D2X both have DDL and DTS Connect. They come with a free copy of Ableton Live in the package too.

Not quite as good for gaming as a full spec X-Fi but pretty close.
 
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