Help with DTS 5.1 Audio CDs

[ontherocks]

I have an Acer AST180 PC which has support for digital audio. I connect it to my Sony HTDDW750 receiver through Coaxial cable. I have enabled Digital Audio Output in the Sound Manger in Windows.

I am trying to play DTS 5.1 Audio CDs in PowerDVD or WinDVD

This is what happens in the following two cases:-

Case I - Audio Output setup in WinDVD or PowerDVD set as Stereo
I play a DTS 5.1 Audio CD, the audio is perfect from the receiver's speakers BUT it is 2.1 (Receiver doesn't show DTS). This case seems fine.

Case II - Audio Output setup in WinDVD or PowerDVD set as Digital SPDIF
I play a DTS 5.1 Audio CD, the audio is garbled, noisy and whatnot. (Receiver does show DTS 5.1)

What is the problem in case II and what is the solution??

(BTW.......All DTS 5.1 DVDs play perfectly in the PC and the same DTS 5.1 Audio CDs play perfectly in a standalone DVD player connected to the Sony receiver)

-------------------------------------
Acer Aspire AST180
Windows XP SP2
Realtek HD Audio
Sony HTDDW750

 

[MDS]

The DTS encoding is being destroyed, most likely due to the sound card and/or Windows kmixer resampling it on the fly. You need a card that is capable of pure pass-thru of digital signals without touching it at all.

It plays fine on the computer itself because the media software (or the sound card itself) is doing the decoding.

Edit: Just noticed you have Realtek HD Audio. I'm not familiar with the latest Realtek chips but in the past they have all been AC'92 compliant and by spec they resample everything to 48 kHz - that will destroy the encoding.

 

[Adam]

I seem to recall having to set digital pass-through in two places when I first set up my sound card to play through the SPDIF output. Of course, I could be remembering incorrectly.

You might want to check if you also have to set up your sound card to output SPDIF, in addition to the playback software.

 

[ontherocks]

The DTS encoding is being destroyed, most likely due to the sound card and/or Windows kmixer resampling it on the fly. You need a card that is capable of pure pass-thru of digital signals without touching it at all.

It plays fine on the computer itself because the media software (or the sound card itself) is doing the decoding.

I guess you are right. Its the resampling thats messing up the whole thing.
Its strange that my on-board audio as well as Creative PCI soundcard both are doing the resampling. I even tried it in another PC and its the same case there too.
Is there no way to resample it back to 44.1 KHz??
Or could you can suggest a cheap sound card that will do the job because i really don't want to invest in another sound card.

 

[jcPanny]

Chaintech sound card

I bought a Chaintech sound card for about $20 from newegg to take advantage of the bit-perfect digital optical output from the PC to my receiver. It might be a good solution for your application.

 

[ontherocks]

I bought a Chaintech sound card for about $20 from newegg to take advantage of the bit-perfect digital optical output from the PC to my receiver. It might be a good solution for your application.

Thanks......will look into it.

Any more ideas??