How does one connect a pc up to a dolby digital receiver to get 5.1 sound in games?

A

alex pez

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Hi, im a bit of a novice when it comes to PC audio (although i used to have a Gravis Ultrasound MAX card that was the best on the market in its day!), things have changed alot and stereo is no longer as good as it gets for pc audio.

Doom3 is just around the corner, and ive got a Pioneer DCS303 dolby digital/dts dvd player/receiver with 400watts output. It has 1 TOSLINK digital optical in on the back.

What i want to know is whether i can simply connect a pc to this receiver using a TOSLINK cable (as i do with my PS2) and get digital 5.1 sound out of it?

Ive seen id software post that the sound card is irrelevant in doom3 as the audio processing is all carried out by your pcs processor, which leaves me perplexed. How do you get 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 audio out of a pc?

I dont want to have to 'invest' in some creative labs speakers as they wont match the quality of what i already have, so i need to know whether a sound card that has a TOSLINK optical digital out can output the signal i require to drive my receiver.

Could i use any sound card with a TOSLINK digital optical out as doom3 uses the processor to carry out the hard work?

Would i get true digital surround 5.1 sound with Doom3 if i connect a TOSLINK digital optical cable from whatever sound card to my Pioneer DCS303?

pc audio stuff is way more complicated than pc graphics (ive got a panasonic ptae500 lcd video projector that runs at 1280x720, and i know that to get the best image out of it i need to select 1280x720 desktop, and feed the projector through the DVI)

any and all help appreciated.

cheers

pez
 
also, where does EAX come into things?

what is it, and how does it work with regards to outputting 5.1 channel sound to external receivers?

pez
 
im reading more and more and just getting more and more confused.

would i need a card that did Dolby Digital Encoding if i wanted to hear anything through my Pioneer Dolby Digital receiver if i connected it via the TOSLINK optical digital cable?

seems to me like creative have ignored home theatre surround sound.

What of Intels new onboard HiDef sound stuff thats on the 925x and 915 mobos?

do these come with optical digital outs (TOSLINK) and would i hear anything from my dolby digital receiver if i plugged that in?

pez
 
the only one that encodes right now is the nvidia sound storm, for all the others youll need to run analog cables (usually 3x stereo cables into splitters).
 
so theres no way to use my home theatre setup for surround sound unless i have a soundstorm based sound solution?

eek, does that mean id be forced to buy some pc based speaker system?

man, that sounds like a con to me.

pez
 
Some of the Creative sound cards have external devices that allow for optical connections. Plop one of those into your system and you can run optical to your receiver.
 
If your receiver has a 6channel discrete analog input then you can use that to hook up your computer(if you have a 5.1 soundcard). You can't get 5.1 sound out of a soundcard's digital output unless the sound is dobly digitally encoded.
 
If you connect via spdif, coaxial or optical to your receiver you will have the following

---FOR DVD Playback - DISCRETE (Front LR, Rear LR, Center, and sub) Multi Channel audio in whatever format your receiver decodes (DD, DTS)

---FOR OTHER SOURCES (MP3, CD-Audio, Games) - Whatever matrix surround your receiver processes (Dolby ProLogic and ProLogic II, SRS), and whatever stereo or enhanced stereo modes your receiver processes.



EAX and EAX-HD refers to Creative's own positional audio for games, this mode is NOT available via spdif. However, if your receiver has multichannel RCA INPUTS (Front LR, Rear LR, Center, and sub), you could connect it that way using a stereo miniplug to rca adapter for each corresponding minijack on the soundcard. This will give you EAX for games as long as both your soundcard, and your game support it.
 
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