surround sound assistance

Kotu · 26 Dec 2006 at 15:29

Hi there, I got some nice new speakers for christmas (Philips MMS460) but i am having difficulties getting them working. I have searched google and it seems there are quite a few people with the same issues

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I currently have an SN25P (shuttle) with onboard (envy 24) 5.1 surround output. Using the analogue cables i can get all the speakers to output when testing. But it seems that games/dvds/music all just output in stereo, if i select any surround settings then it just copies the stereo to each side (still no surround) and I never get any bass output to the subwoofer.

At a guess, it would seem the digital output on my shuttle is required, but the speakers only have analogue inputs!

So the question is, is there any software to make the setup work (convert the digital surround system games and films use to the analogue the speakers need). Or are there any really small amps which would do a straight conversion (dont really want a huge home cinema amp just for a pc).

Any help is greatly appreciated

Phil99 · 26 Dec 2006 at 15:49

Which DVD player software are you using? Some editions only allow stereo decoding due to licensing.

Most music was recorded in Stereo so will be output in stereo unless you mirror it to the rear speakers as well as the front (as you seem to have done) or get something to try and upmix them.

In games make sure any game settings are set to 5.1, try CSS/HL2 if you have them as they definitely support 5.1.

Digital output is not required to get 5.1 from DVDs, games or music.

Kotu · 26 Dec 2006 at 16:46

media player classic for the films, it says its using 6 channel audio but the audio deck software for the envy 24 shows it only using 2 channels (output levels for each speaker). I noticed it also mentioned ac3 audio from the dvd, so i have tried using ac3filter with bass redir (120), this seems to make the bass and rear surround channels work although the rear sound output is much lower than the front.

using the half life 2 sound test, rear left and rear right both come out of all the speakers while the subwoofer test produces no sound. This makes it sound like normal stereo sound in game.

Phil99 · 26 Dec 2006 at 16:48

Is there a bass/sub crossover option in the audio driver panel? That should sort it out for CSS/DVDs, I remember having to do a similar thing for my Audigy 2 when I had it on analogue.

Kotu · 26 Dec 2006 at 17:20

only a Center/LFE swap option, that stops the center output working though.

XtAsY · 27 Dec 2006 at 15:25

If I were you I'd jus get yourself some decent DVD playback software. I'm using WinDVD 7 Platinum and my Gigaworks 7.1 surround works wonders with it.