Using dolby digital live in 2022

[slim01]

Hi guys, just wondering what your thoughts are and could help with the following?

1) is there any reason to NOT use the old skool optical/toslink to connect HTPC to av receiver?

2) do games nowadays even NEED a sound card to output 5.1 sound to a receiver? Gone are the days of EAX sound and I'm guessing most do dolby digital or atmos over hdmi?

3) what happens to the games (if there are any) that DON'T have dolby digital or atmos, they won't be in 5.1 at the amp end?

3) I'm using an Asus xonar dx to send audio to my av receiver in dolby digital live. I can only use optical/toslink, which I believe is limited to around 750mbps.
What I want to know is, if I play an eg 850mbps lossless FLAC file, does sound card change into a 2 channel dolby live codec, so I'll hear 750mbps, or is is like 750mbps divide by the 6 max channels, so more like 125mbps?
4) how can I test/check the mbps that it's sending?


Thanks guys

Having a debate over mp3 quality using an old setup like this with new HiFi, wondering if I nerd to switch or if being told bs.

 

[EsaT]

One good thing in optical is that it's 100% EMI proof, unlike electric signaling based connections.
But because of original standard being so old, you can't get more than two channel uncompressed PCM signal through it and 5.1 needs AC3/DD or DTS encoding.
That's something hardly any game has and hence you'll need separate encoder, or you'll have only stereo sound.

Being lot newer standard HDMI specs enough bandwidth for 5.1/7.1 PCM sound, which works from any source software.

 

[james.miller]

1) is there any reason to NOT use the old skool optical/toslink to connect HTPC to av receiver?
- spdif doesnt support LPCM, DTS:MA, Dolby TruHD / Atmos etc.
- spdif doesnt support multi channel output without compression.

2) do games nowadays even NEED a sound card to output 5.1 sound to a receiver? Gone are the days of EAX sound and I'm guessing most do dolby digital or atmos over hdmi?
No, LPCM is superior and doesnt require encoding and decoding.

3) what happens to the games (if there are any) that DON'T have dolby digital or atmos, they won't be in 5.1 at the amp end?
No, LPCM is multi channel.

3) I'm using an Asus xonar dx to send audio to my av receiver in dolby digital live. I can only use optical/toslink, which I believe is limited to around 750mbps.
What I want to know is, if I play an eg 850mbps lossless FLAC file, does sound card change into a 2 channel dolby live codec, so I'll hear 750mbps, or is is like 750mbps divide by the 6 max channels, so more like 125mbps?
The flac file will be decoded on the pc. how the audio is sent to the pc exactly depends on how your software and drivers are set up. DDLive/DTS:interactive are both lossy encoders so anything they do will be at some detriment to the audio. Ultimately what gets sent to the receiver lies with the soundcard, so if it's set to ddLive then that's what the receiver will see, whether that's just 2 channel dressed up as 5.1 or 2 channel expanded in some way to 5.1 which would be either down to the sound card drivers or software player.

The upper limit for spdif is about 1.5Mb or 12mbps. some DTS audio tracks were 1.5Mb. 192khz 24bit stereo PCM is around 1.1Mb.

4) how can I test/check the mbps that it's sending?
The only real way is if your receiver tells you.

Having a debate over mp3 quality using an old setup like this with new HiFi, wondering if I nerd to switch or if being told bs.

As in switch from spdif to hdmi? no question, switch.