X-FI music and digital connection

Combat squirrel · 11 Nov 2006 at 17:24

Hey all, I want to connect my s750 Speakers to my PC and Xbox360, ill be using a creative DDTS 100 decoder, iv had a quick look through the xfi manual but its only states a 2.1 connection over digital from the xfi, I thought it could do 7.1? or is this analogue only ?, could I do 7.1 analogue from the pc to decoder to speakers and digital 5.1 from 360 to decoder to speakers? (I could then up mix it to 7.1)?

Any answers for this would be greatly appreciated, cheers peeps

EDIT: Or could I do optical from 360 to an xfi I/O module to the soundcard which would then output it 7.1 to the speakers direct ? confused now!

Phil99 · 11 Nov 2006 at 20:51

Stereo over digital from the X-Fi I'm afraid, unless it's a pre-encoded source like a DVD movie soundtrack.

Your best option would be analogue from the X-Fi and optical from the 360, that way you get (up to) 7.1 from the PC and 5.1 from the 360

Combat squirrel · 12 Nov 2006 at 00:13

Phil99 said:
Stereo over digital from the X-Fi I'm afraid, unless it's a pre-encoded source like a DVD movie soundtrack.

Your best option would be analogue from the X-Fi and optical from the 360, that way you get (up to) 7.1 from the PC and 5.1 from the 360

Cool cheers dude, and these would go to the creative DDTS100 without any problems ?

Phil99 · 12 Nov 2006 at 00:30

Looks like it'll be fine, you'll just need 3x stereo mini-plug -> Phono cables to connect the X-Fi up to the decoder. I don't think you'll get native 7.1 though, just 5.1 upmixed from both sources as the decoder only has 6 channel input.

Combat squirrel · 12 Nov 2006 at 12:30

Phil99 said:
Looks like it'll be fine, you'll just need 3x stereo mini-plug -> Phono cables to connect the X-Fi up to the decoder. I don't think you'll get native 7.1 though, just 5.1 upmixed from both sources as the decoder only has 6 channel input.

Doh, says in the manual does do 'Supports Creative speakers up to 7.1 configuration' will it do this as long as the source is 7.1 ? like my x-fi ? I assume the 3pin-->4pin leads running from my xfi to speakers sub will now run to the decoder ? then decoder to sub ? means ill need another of those leads though that came with my speaker system ? cheers for help thus far,CS

EDIT: or is there a totally new way anyone could suggest for running the 360/pc onto these speakers ? Maybe an amp/control box that does 7.1 out ? Is there such a thing ?

PC-->Amp/control box--->speaker sub (I assume this not good idea? if from amp :confused:

)

also 360--->amp/control box--->speakers

EDIT2: You mentioned the x-fi WOULD do 5.1, as long as the source is pre-encoded, so would it not be possible to take the optical out from 360, to one of those X-FI I/O modules, and then run it through the card so it outputs 5.1 to the correct positions ?

Combat squirrel · 12 Nov 2006 at 12:54

What about the Creative digital I/O module ? will that pass the 360 digital to the speakers in 5.1 ? sooo confusing ! lol

Phil99 · 12 Nov 2006 at 22:43

Right, so at the moment you have one of those fancy 3x3.5mm -> 4x3.5mm cables going from your X-Fi to your 7.1 Creative speaker setup?

With that decoder box you can do up to 5.1 in to it (3x3.5mm -> 6x phono) from the X-Fi and then optical in from the 360 to get 5.1 from that as well, and you can upmix these on the decoder if you like...it seems strange that you can only get 5.1 analogue input yet 7.1 output on that decoder, but that seems to be the way it is.

You could try with one of the IO modules, but they seem virtually impossible to get hold of and IIRC someone tried doing it like that on here a while back with no success (even though it should work in theory).