Surround Sound in Games

Cairnsey · 1 Mar 2008 at 22:20

Hi,

I'm trying to get some sort of surround sound working in my PC games. My sound card is a Creative Audigy. I have a Yamaha DSP-AX620 AV Amp and their connected together using the cards SPDIF output using a 3.5mm jack to co-ax via an adaptor. I've installed a plugin called SPDIFER to get my movies working in DD5.1 but when I play games, I don't know how to enable surround sound. Take Crysis, for example. I can either get PCM stereo and Pro Logic, which aren't what I'm after. Any ideas?

Cairnsey · 2 Mar 2008 at 19:28

Anyone? also, what format is the sound in? I take it it's not Dolby Digital/DTS then?

badbob · 2 Mar 2008 at 19:29

You can't use digital out, you've got to use the analogue 5.1 output for surround/eax gaming

Cairnsey · 2 Mar 2008 at 22:28

Is this because of the card I have? Is there any that can do this? I really don't like the idea of routing 6x3.5mm to RCA from my PC to my amp. Are there any PC games that use Dolby Digital instead of EAX? Don't see how consoles can do it and not PC.......

badbob · 2 Mar 2008 at 22:51

Either use 5.1 RCA cables, or buy a soundcard with live encoding (converts EAX games to DD/DTS)

G-Police was in Dolby Digital..

Cairnsey · 3 Mar 2008 at 13:28

Live encoding you say, I'll look into it. I suppose it'll have to be creative labs?

Gimpymoo · 3 Mar 2008 at 13:41

Either one of these at the moment AFAIK:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-000-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-001-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-000-AZ&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-003-HT&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

Although for games, some will say EAX 5.0 is a must.

Cairnsey · 3 Mar 2008 at 17:47

Will Live Encoding accurately convert EAX surround to DD/DTS? From what I can understand from the blurb it "creates" a 5.1 signal from a stereo source. So, basically it sounds like Pro Logic except it's digital. Seriously, does everyone with a proper surround sound setup have to route 6 analogue cables (with 6x 3.5mm to RCA adaptors) from their PC's to AV amps just to get real surround sound?

james.miller · 4 Mar 2008 at 09:18

no, the encoder takes a multichannel analogue signal and converts it in to a Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 signal that an av amp is compatible with. if you want to get 5.1 from games using spdif, that you MUST have something that is able to encode with either DDLive or DTSinteractive.

or, use analogue.

Cairnsey · 4 Mar 2008 at 15:01

Ok. The last card that Gimpymoo listed, any good? £65 doesn't sound too bad. If I went the analogue route with my existing sound card, it'd cost me about £30 for the cables/adaptors/postage etc so I might as well get a new card!