Computer Digital Audio

[board2death986]

With all the gizmos i have running in my home entertainment center (the one in my room at least), I've finally given into choosing a cheap home theatre sound system. I decided to get the Pioneer 600w system geared for the 360, as it had a sleek look, speakers were small and it had all the digital connections i would need. So far this is what im connecting to it:

Xbox360 via Optical
HTPC via Optical
HD cable box via Digital Coax
Xbox via Analog audio

My question is however, what is the quality like using the digital outputs on your motherboard? I'm trying to use this as an all around solution so i dont have to switch audio from the TV to the computer speakers and back again, plus it would allow me to utilize surround for all of the above devices instead of the built in speakers on my TV or the 2.1 setup i have for the pc. I know its a mediocre system but so are my needs. Also i know that the pc will not utilize surround for everything, but it should for video and some games, that should about cover my needs.

If there is another solution out there that would do the same for the same price range better or maybe also include video switching, that would be great, but for 150$, it isn't a bad deal.

 

[phide]

The bottom line:
1) All digital audio is roughly the same. The digital output from a $200 sound card and the digital output from an on-board solution will be essentially the same -- no audible differences between the two. The most critical part of the digital chain is the component that's receiving digital audio, and for home use, even that isn't critical at all.
2) You can't get surround from PC games with the digital output natively. You'll need a sound card that supports DD and/or DTS encoding. These include the BlueGears b-Enspirer, the Sondigo Inferno 7.1, the Auzentech X-Mystique, X-Plosion, X-Meridian, the upcoming X-Fi Prelude, and a few others. Without encoding, you'll only be able to spit out stereo from the digital out. For movies, the soundtrack is obviously already encoded, so that just needs to be spit out in its encoded form and decoded at the receiver.

Don't worry about the advantages of DTS encoding over Dolby Digital encoding with the system you'll be using, as they're going to be minimal to nonexistent. You can get the Auzentech X-Mystique, which does DD encoding only, for around $70.

 

[Audioguy]

The Sondigo inferno is a 8788 cards and offers Dolby Digital Live and DTS-connect for around $70. That is a great deal for the feature set and they make great HTPC cards.

 

[board2death986]

The Sondigo inferno is a 8788 cards and offers Dolby Digital Live and DTS-connect for around $70. That is a great deal for the feature set and they make great HTPC cards.

Thanks guys helpful as always! I decided to go with the Auzentech X-plosion, it doesn't have any passthrough options like the other brands which is fine because this is all going through a reciever, so still having the option of using coax or optical is great.