True 5.1 surround sound from PC to receiver. DTS or DD

[Abel408]

Hello everyone! I'm trying to wrap my head around this and google searching brings me to an unclear answer.

I have an old Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card and a Pioneer VSX-1019ah receiver. My question is how can I get true surround sound from my pc to my receiver? I am thinking about buying the creative DTS-610 which I think will solve my issues.

From what I understand just because your sound card has optical out does not mean it does digital surround sound. It only does digital stereo and your receiver will convert that to Dolby Digital Pro-logic which is NOT true surround sound. Your sound card must support Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect and there are only 4 sound cards that currently support that (all over $100).

If someone could explain to me what I need and explain the whole analog to digital conversation thing to me that would be great.

Thanks!

 

[krzywica]

Hello everyone! I'm trying to wrap my head around this and google searching brings me to an unclear answer.

I have an old Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card and a Pioneer VSX-1019ah receiver. My question is how can I get true surround sound from my pc to my receiver? I am thinking about buying the creative DTS-610 which I think will solve my issues.

From what I understand just because your sound card has optical out does not mean it does digital surround sound. It only does digital stereo and your receiver will convert that to Dolby Digital Pro-logic which is NOT true surround sound. Your sound card must support Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect and there are only 4 sound cards that currently support that (all over $100).

If someone could explain to me what I need and explain the whole analog to digital conversation thing to me that would be great.

Thanks!

Your conclusion is incorrect.

The 4 cards you are referring to I are likely capable of DECODING mulichannel formats. If it has an optical or digital coax, then chances are it is capable of DD/DTS "passthrough". This means that you are getting true DD or DTS surround. You can check this by going to your receivers input source information menu and seeing what exactly is being handed to your receiver to process.

If you are set on upgrading your best bet is to purchase one of the new ATI Video cards that support DTS-HDMA and DD-TrueHD over the HDMI port.

 

[Abel408]

The 4 cards you are referring to I are likely capable of DECODING mulichannel formats. If it has an optical or digital coax, then chances are it is capable of DD/DTS "passthrough". This means that you are getting true DD or DTS surround. You can check this by going to your receivers input source information menu and seeing what exactly is being handed to your receiver to process.

Does this mean the receiver does the decoding? does it read it as Dolby Digital Pro-logic or live?


I do have a 9800gx2 that has some sort of spdif passthrough from it's hdmi port... Would that work? They gave my a simple 2 wire cable that connects the video card to the sound card or mobo.

 

[krzywica]

That might work if your motherboard or audio card as an spdif out jumper (most do).

What make and model motherboard do you have?

And yes passthrough means the singal is sent to the receiver in an unprocessed format for the receiver to decode.

The 4 and 5 series ATI cards have sound cards built into the PCB. Nvidia will be implementing this with their new cards as well but do not offer this ATM.

 

[Abel408]

Thanks,

I have an MSI Neo2-FR Motherboard. Not sure if it has the pin-outs for the card though. I will look in my manual when I get home.

 

[krzywica]

Thanks,

I have an MSI Neo2-FR Motherboard. Not sure if it has the pin-outs for the card though. I will look in my manual when I get home.

Here is the link for the manual.

Here is the connection point. Its on page 2-2.

 

[Abel408]

Great! Thanks for the help!

 

[Mirko]

Does this mean the receiver does the decoding? does it read it as Dolby Digital Pro-logic or live?

Just for clarification: Dolby Pro logic is the correct name for that matrixed format, Dolby Digital is what's found on DVDs etc, and Dolby Digital Live is only a name for the encoding audio in games to the Dolby Digital format, your receiver would see it as regular Dolby Digital