Anyone know of any sound card/app out there that will allow you to use the Optical/coax digital out to a decoding receiver, and have the receiver decode the data properly into the channels? I mean this for everything, not just games that are supposedly "Dolby Digital" compatible. If there's one thing I hate about the current state of sound cards is that you can't use the lovely digital out to get that $200 sound wave from inside your box to inside your eardrum. Every time I switch apps, I have to wonder "Did I set my sound mode for this? Is the sub going to be active?" It's annoying. Well I guess that's partly the winblows speaker setting that is to blame, but still the digital out should be USEABLE.
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Digital Optical Out to manage mode?
- Thread starter vmerc
- Start date
my onboard rca digital out works just fine for me with my receiver. Now games on the other hand you can't use digital with, you have to switch your receiver to analog for proper sound channels, but movies that are DD etc work great in digital as does music.
vmerc: the receiver can only decode audio that's been encoded in the first place. So you either need to use DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded streams only, or buy a card that can encode other surround sound stuff (e.g. games) to DD - there are a few out there, they've been discussed in these forums. Otherwise all you'll get out of the digital output is PCM stereo, with non-encoded sources.
As long as your digital out on your soundcard is active, your receiver will be able to send audio to the proper channels(which will just be stereo in most cases, unless you are passing an encoded stream to the receiver(either by means of a soundcard with a DD encoder or a preencoded stream)). So if you aren't getting any sound at all then something is messed up. If you want 5.1 channel sound(hard to tell from your post if that's what you want or not), then you need a new sound card. In any case, it should definitely be usable as it is.
I have an Audigy. What I want is to have something encode the output from the digital optical out so that my DD receiver can decode it and put the sound into the correct channels. I know that movies and some games will do this, but I was hoping that there was some 3rd party app or other hardware that would do an encode on the fly to make everything come out DD for the optical to work right and make surround for everything that uses multi-channel. I do get stereo out from there, it works as intended right now, but as intended is not what I want. 
On-the-fly dolby digital encoding in software simply isn't going to happen on current PC hardware, at least without slowing everything else to a crawl, making the encoding somewhat pointless. There is nothing you can do to get your audigy to output create a dolby digital stream on-the-fly. You'll need a new soundcard that has a dolby digital encoder to do that(there are a couple out now). Or just use the analog connections and call it a day.
There is nothing you can do to get your audigy to output create a dolby digital stream on-the-fly. You'll need a new soundcard that has a dolby digital encoder to do that(there are a couple out now). Or just use the analog connections and call it a day....or you can ignore jpmkm and download AC3Filter 1.02a_test8 and experiment with the AC3 encoding on-the-fly option.
Ahh...
This is all very informative. Thanks guys!
Does anyone know the model/brand of the cards that do the on-the-fly DD encoding?
(I hope it's not Creative Labs, cuz if so you can be almost guaranteed that it's a lie; some form of trickery and marketing acrobatics.)
This is all very informative. Thanks guys!
Does anyone know the model/brand of the cards that do the on-the-fly DD encoding?
(I hope it's not Creative Labs, cuz if so you can be almost guaranteed that it's a lie; some form of trickery and marketing acrobatics.)