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Thread: Connecting Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Card to Receiver |
    
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| Posted on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 06:12 pm: |
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Hi all,
Could use some help. I recently purchased a Kenwood 6070 and would like to connect my PC sound card, a Creative Labs SB Live 5.1. I used to have this card hooked up to Cambridge PC speakers thru something called a digital DIN, would set the output to digital and sounded great. Could I still use this connection, or would I have to use the speaker out connector on the SB Live instead? And How? Thanks so much for any help!
Bill |
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| Posted on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 06:35 pm: |
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Hey Bill,
I had the exact same rig at my computer too. SB Live! Platinum connected to the Cambridge system quad system with subwoofer (which has now crapped out, so I do NOT recommend it...but that's a separate thread).
You mention the digital DIN connection which is used to connect the stereo mini connector on the back of the SB card to the cambridge system (which has a digital amp). My understanding was that the digital DIN connection was just a digital coax connection based on a stereo miniplug. I also think it somewhat "proprietary-izes the connection between the creative stuff and the cambridge gear.
In any event...unless your can jury-rig that DIN connector to coax of optical (in order to plug into your 6070), I think you're out of luck...since that's the only way to get the digital signal out of the SB.
Alternatively, if you have the break-out box that came with the platinum version of the Live! card, you can utilize the SPDIF output. This is what I do when connecting to my HK AVR525 which has M3 decoding capabilities. The soundcard outputs a straight bitstream signal which is decoded by the receiver...it sounds great.
On the upside, any version of the creative live! card can be used with the breakout box...the problem will be finding one. Check ebay.
You could also just buy a decent sound card with either SPDIF of optical out (IF the 6070 decodes MP3...which I don't think it does...a rather hugely important part of this whole scenario!).
Otherwise, you have to connect analog output of the computer to the receiver. This generally results in crappy sound quality because of all the RF interference inside of a computer.
Good luck,
-h1pst3r |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 10:52 pm: |
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Bill,
I have a soundblaster 5.1, I think Mp3 card. It should be similar to yours. You can buy a 1/8 inch mono plug that adapts to an RCA plug, about 7 bucks at Radio Shack. Connect the 1/8 to the digital out on the card and the RCA to a coax on your receiver and set the card to digital out only. This should give you a PCM signal to your receiver even when playing Mp3s. I tried this on my receiver and it worked fine.
Phil |
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| Posted on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 06:47 am: |
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Assuming the 6070 decodes MP3...which I believe it does not.
-h1pst3r
*good to know about the mini adapter though. |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 07:56 am: |
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Hey H1,
I don't think my V1 decodes MP3 either, but you can use the sound card to decode it, I think. Although it would probably be better to have a receiver that does the decoding.
Phil |
dohmer |
| Posted on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 04:28 am: |
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Hi Phil,
In your setup, can you play a DTS/Dolby Digital 5.1 on your computer and have the receiver decode it properly? I assume you can, just want to make sure.
dohmer |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 08:56 am: |
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Dohmer,
All I was able to get was the two main channels. But in the manuel for the card there is a set of connections for 5.1 channels and there is probably another way to do it. When I get time I'll check into a way to do that.
Phil |
Derek |
| Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 12:03 pm: |
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The MP3 player does the decoding of the MP3s. The computer and sound card simply passes the PCM output to the receiver. DTS/DD typically require a "pass-through" option in the software DVD player (WinDVD, Power DVD). In that situation the computer does no decoding at all. The raw DD bitstream is sent to the S/PDIF and the receiver does all of the work. Go digital if you can. The output from digital sources will be much cleaner. I would take Phil's advice and get the cable from Radio Shack. I have been through this with the Philips Acoustic Edge and my Gigabyte GA-7VAX with /SP/DIF. No problems. |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 01:48 pm: |
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Derek,
I tried the software pass-through and it didn't really change the output. Only got two channels. From looking at the SB live manual the signals from the digital out connector have the signals for the fronts, rears, and sub/center divided. They show a special 4 pole 1/8" minijack which has 3 stripes in order to obtain all the 5.1 channels. As of yet I have not been able to find one to check this out. I suspect that you could use a stereo mini jack but you would lose some info, but possible get the front and either sub/center or rears. If you could find the 4 pole minijack you would probably get all the 5.1.
I also have a Gigabyte MB with a SB 128 on board and both optical and coax out. For me this would work great, but not for the SB 5.1 card.
Phil |
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Derek |
| Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 05:10 pm: |
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You know, I think you are right. I seem to remember that there were some problems with getting AC3 out of the live. One guy had a site that showed how to add a connector to some jumper on the card. I also seem to remember that he had to use Gateway 2000 OEM drivers and that was the only way to check some S/PDIF box. From there it worked.
I can't find the site but if I do, I'll forward it. Try this one though.
http://alive.singnet.com.sg/tech/passthrough.htm
There is also a company called HOONTEH http://www.hoontech.com/english/index.html
They make a SB DB III that puts S/PDIF on the live. Also check 3dsoundsurge.com has some articles that may help. |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 08:07 pm: |
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Hey Derek,
Interesting revalation. I checked out you sites and they said the mono mini to RCA should give you 5.1. I was using the ATI DVD player and just out of curiosity I decided to load PowerDVD and low a behold the 5.1 worked. So with PowerDVD and the 7 dollar radioshack cable you can get DD 5.1 out of the live. Nice and cheap.
Thanks,
PHil |
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| Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 03:42 am: |
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Okay I have a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Value (The OEM version) I want to hook it up to my home theater system which will take a SPDIF co-axial signal, however I'm not sure if my card is capable of outputting the signal... I've gone to Radio Shack and bought a "stereo" mini-RCA connector but that isn't working so far... I think I've done all of the configuring right "just set the AudioHQ mixer to digital out" right, I just want the output for PCM music listening. Anyone have any advice? |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 03:50 am: |
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Hey Jeff,
If I remember reading right the OEM version doesn't have a digital output. If that is the case then you'll have to use something like Hoontooth that Derek mentioned. If you do have the digital jack then one thing to try is a "mono" to RCA connector, which is what I used.
Phil |
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| Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 05:20 am: |
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Phil,
Indeed it does have a digital output it is orange and says SPDIF and is exactly the same as the pictured version... (unless it is inactive which I could imagine is the case) But with this stereo minijack adapter I'm getting no sound... so what else did you have to do? As far as software... just check digital out in the surround mixer? Thanks for the help man! (Do you have a picture of your setup?) |
Phil Krewer |
| Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 06:34 am: |
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Hey Jeff,
Ok that's the right connector and you clicked digital out only. I didn't use a stereo mini jack. I used a mono mini jack to RCA adapter. Mine only has one stripe. If you have an email I can send you a pic later today. But, if your 1/8" mini jack has two stripes you might try taking back to radio shack and getting a mono mini-jack. I was able to get both PCM and DD 5.1 from it.
Phil |
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| Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 02:22 pm: |
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Check it out man (and everyone else trying to do the same thing) A mono jack is completely critical, it will -NOT- work with a stereo adapter. After rigging up a mono jack setup it worked PERFECT with a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 OEM just by clicking the 'ENABLE DIGITAL OUT' box in the surround mixer and hooking the digital co-axial up to the right input on your receiver. I have not tested DD 5.1 because I don't have any sources, but this is a lot cheaper than buying a $1000 music server when you can get a 120GB HD for <$150. Thanks for your help all! |
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| Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 10:45 pm: |
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All versions of the SB Live card have coaxial digital output (even the OEM). You should be able to connect either a stereo or a mono mini-plug-to-RCA cable to the orange jack and get linear PCM signal to your receiver. When you play DVDs, enable SPDIF output from your DVD player and that will send the original DD5.1 or DTS sound track of the DVD to your receiver. It is crucial in this case NOT to have "AC3 decode" enabled in your Creative Surrround Mixer.
The problem is to get 5.1 channel output from regular programs - i.e. not DVDs. Creative has a CMSS system which up-mixes stereo signals to 5.1 channels but the digital output is in 3 discrete 2-channel SPDIF streams (i.e. they're not compressed into one SPDIF stream like they are with DTS for instance - and so you need a 4-pole mini-plug jack). I haven't been able to find such a jack, but even if I do, I won't be able to do anything with it... because my receiver only supports one SPDIF stream at a time. Does anyone know if there are any receivers that can actually take 3 separate SPDIF (uncompressed PCM) signals simultaneously and use them for the 6 channels? |
Anonymous |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 - 10:09 am: |
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I would like to connect my Sound Blaster live card to a Creek 4040 Integrated amplifier. This is to listen to MP3's with the best possible sound quality. I don't think the 4040 has a digital input connector, it just seems to have standard inputs like tuner, phono, CD, and maybe Aux.
What is the best way to connect this amp?
Neil |
The Fatty |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 - 06:02 pm: |
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i just cant get 5.1 out of mine! using PDVD4 deluxe, but still no luck! normal 5.1 test works, but not from this program, all selecctions above 2 speakers are grayed out, anyone no how to fix???? |
Tim |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 01:21 am: |
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i'm glad i found this place!
I was searching on the internet for this exact type of question and after about an hour stumbled onto this place. Glad to have found it.
I have a Audigy2 and am trying to figure out how to hook it up to a 5.1 digital/dts receiver to get 5.1 sound out of the home theatre. i read the cd manual and it looks like it had the same type of suggested cable hookup that Phil K described. I'll be off to Radio Shack tomorrow. thanks. |
Argonzero |
| Posted on Saturday, April 26, 2003 - 09:55 pm: |
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Hi there everyone,
I have a Sound Blaster Live! non 5.1 (I belive OEM) and am hooking it up to my sony reciever with a 1/8 inch minijack through the digital out. The problem I found was what Todor said, theres two streams that come out of that jack, one for front left/right and the other is for rear left/right. My reciever also only handles one SPDIF stream at a time, and you can't combine these ether (I tried =\).
When I do dvd, its 5.1 because the AC3 is passed through the card and into my reciever so thats no problem. Does anyone know how you can get both streams into one, or is that not possible? |
Olle |
| Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 05:47 am: |
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Hi there!
The signal from the digital output on sb live is 5.0 V while the standard signal for receivers is 0.5 V. Som be ware! You may ruin your receiver if you use those methods mentioned here with mono->RCA-cables. Some equipment may be more tolerant and some may not, so be careful.
Thought you should know.
/Olle |
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| Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 09:16 am: |
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I'm attempting a similar thing.
I have a soundblaster live 5.1, and am trying to connect it up to my marantz sr4200. Which supports dolby digital and dts.
Living in the UK, I found it hard to get hold of one of these radioshack cables, however i've 'botched' a similar solution. I have a digital coax cable, with a gold 3.5 to phono convertor pic here on one end. However when this is connected to the amp, my amp just picks up on a STEREO PCM stream. I've tried the creative software and when trying to test other speakers; centre, back satellites etc. No luck. I've enabled digital output only, and in the creative mixer - i've disabled ac3 dolby digital decode (as i guess i want the sr4200 to do this)
Any help would be much appreciated. |
Derek |
| Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 01:59 pm: |
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Are you using PowerDVD or WinDVD? Regular audio will be PCM. Only DVD players can produce the AC-3 stream.
To everyone else: I just picked the ASUS A7N8X motherboard. This thing has nVidia's nForce-2 and is one of only three motherboards actually certified by Dolby labs. It does Dolby Digital ENCODING of all streams and DVD passthrough. I have been doing a lot of testing and so far, this thing works as advertised. I can run the speaker test from the remote of my Denon receiver or from software on the computer and I have bass management before its streamed to the receiver. It's a little expensive though. I paid $131 online. |
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| Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2003 - 05:31 pm: |
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Yeah, think i'm pretty much sorted now.
When playing a DVD i get full surround, well apart from centre, don't know whats wrong with that. I guess thats working cos i've disabled ac-3 decode so that amp's doing its job.
In the creative live! software, their mixer - in speakers, i've changed it to 5.1 and tried the test that has someone saying the name of the speaker just coming from that speaker - and that still only shows up stereo (front left and right).
Have i missed somehting i should be doing?
i'm using a cable mentioned above in this thread to link my soundcard to a marantz sr4200. |
Warder45 |
| Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2003 - 11:43 pm: |
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Thats good news to me derek; as I'm planning on useing the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe in my computer. Was it hard to connect from computer to reciever? I'm kinda a novice. |
Derek |
| Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 - 05:00 am: |
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No. I use use four cables. One coax-digital from the back of the computer to the coax in of my receiver. The receiver is set to "auto" and when the computer boots, it shows up as "Dolby D" all the time. The other three cables are comming from my receiver into an ATI All-in-Wonder 8500DV that I use as a scaler to a Proscan big screen VGA input.
DVD Dolby Digital is simply passed through and bass management is a BIG plus. My old Philips Acoustic Edge was a little more subtle in the 5.1 encoding department though.
The Gigabyte GA-VAX and the Asus A7N8X both have digital-in though it's not mentioned on thier web pages. You drill a hole through one of the slot covers and install an RCA connector and stay toatally digital in and out.
Hope this helps. |
Slick |
| Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 09:06 pm: |
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I have a bit of a short termed memory, so forgive me if I repeat what others have said.
You can buy a four conductor 1/8" mini jack at an exorbitant price from some place like Best Buy. It's in their video section, and it is designed for hooking video recorders to a VCR or something (one video signal and two audio). It probably doesn't have the right impedance for digital audio, but then the Radio Shack mono plug probably doesn't either, and works fine.
I don't know what good this would do, however, since I haven't seen an amp that would take three PCM signals and send them to the right speakers.
I have a Live 5.1 platinum and am running win2k with service pack 3. I have spent the last week trying to get WinDVD 3 or 4 to pass through AC3, but even with the latest SB drivers I get silence. I have read many sites with patches and fixes for other software DVD players, but no one seems to have a fix for WinDVD.
When I enable the pass through it silences all PCM output (MP3 or WAV or whatever) but no AC3 signal reaches my decoder. Does anyone know of a fix for the AC3 pass through under WinDVD 3? I have all ready bought it, and don't want to spend money on PowerDVD or the like. |
Derek |
| Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 04:19 pm: |
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I don't know WinDVD but in addition to setting the soundblaster for SPDI there is a setting in PowerDVD where you tell the program how to decode the AC-3. The options are: 2-channel (and various fake surrounds), 4-channel, 5.1-channel and SPDI (which does nothing but pass the stream). Do you have that option in WinDVD?
Both must be set for this to work. |
Slick |
| Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 05:28 pm: |
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Yeah, Derek, I did not miss that one. I have heard of people who have the SPDIF output selection grayed out, but not me. I select that option and all sound ceases to come out of my computer. From what I understand there is some driver compatability issue with Win2k and WinDVD's method of bypassing the "normal" digital output stream (PCM) and simply passing through the non-decoded AC3 stream. Supposedly service pack two fixed this issue, but I have service pack three (should include all fixes in two, plus some)and still can't get it to work. PowerDVD uses a different method of passthrough which even had a work around before service pack two, and will now work with service pack two/three (no work around) but I don't really want to spend the money on a second software DVD player, especially now that I have a stand-alone player that works.
If anyone knows of a fix for WinDVD in Win2k I would greatly appreciate it. |
Neil Patel |
| Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 11:14 am: |
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I just bought the logitech z-680s and they have a digital DTS decoder in the control pod. My sound card is a Soundblaster live platinum 5.1, I am running a Monster THX optical cable out of the live drive and into the 680's control pod. I am getting the same problem that many people have had before, when I do a speaker test it only does the left and right channels, and my sound card seems to think I only have 2 speakers based off the audio settings in WinDVD 5 platinum which is what I am using. I tried going to AudioHQ and looking for a spdif pass through option, but all i have is default and bypass, and bypass produces no sound at all. In Windvd there is a sound option that says pass through, and I tried that. I tried watching minority report which has a DTS strack and a dolby digital 5.1, the DTS track produices no sound when the pass through option is check, and the DD5.1 produces sound like it should( well i think unless the prologic on the 680's is decoding the signal). Can someone please help me, I would greatly appreciate it? |
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| Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 10:29 pm: |
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ok up date on what I have done since I got home, I called Creative support and they told me to turn off the ac-3 decoding, so i did, and when i try to set spdif pass through on in windvd, so much noise comes out of my speakers I feel like im under attack. Can someone please help me...? |
Vik Ven |
| Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2003 - 01:15 am: |
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Hi everyone. I just bought a z680, the one that Patel has. I have Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital. I want to connect the speakers to a receiver and connect my sound card to the receiver as well. If the receiver supports DTS and is digital, What cables do i need to make this connection work? Also, which cables do I have to connect where? Does Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital have optical plugins or coaxial? Someone please help me. |
Slick |
| Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 08:35 pm: |
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Well, after I tried and tried to get the SPDIF output to work in WinDVD I gave up and bought an Audigy (SB0090). I uninstalled all creative drivers and programs, even cleaned out my registry and then installed the basic Audigy drivers. Then I put my Live platinum back in, installed its drivers and then the update for the live drive, then pulled the Live back out, and hooked the live drive up to the Audigy and then installed the latest Audigy drivers. I had to install the Live again because I had to update the live drive to the latest version, otherwise it wouldn't work with the Audigy, and to update the Live drive I needed the most up to date Live platinum drivers.
So with all that I finally have everything working. My Live drive, my Audigy with 5.1 digital or analog out, and my SPDIF output (in Win DVD). I think the only thing I haven't fixed is my game port, but I probably need to get some updated driver for that too.
Oh, and one other thing. I had to rev my bios to use the Audigy card. DELL obviously didn't make their bios compatible with the Audigy orriginally.
The only thing I can figure that was my problem (I did spend some time talking back and forth with Creative support) was that the method WinDVD used for the SPDIF output/bypass was not compatible with the drivers for either Win2k or the Live 5.1 series. If you are set on using WinDVD I would suggest an Audigy. I shelled out $60 for the OEM with connectors and drivers (hard to find though).
Vik, I don't know anything about the z680, but if you have the Live drive you can probably use the optical out, the SPDIF out or the digital out on the back of your sound card. If you only have the sound card then you will have to use the digital out on the back. If you want DTS then you have to set your DVD player to bypass, or output that signal, and then set your speakers to digital output only, and turn off the AC3 decode option under settings. If you have Power DVD you will probably have no problem (other than finding a good mono 1/8" plug to RCA for digital signals) but if you have WinDVD, good luck. I couldn't get it to work. |
Ned Ragdnuos |
| Posted on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 08:45 pm: |
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Anyone here got AC/3 passthrough to work with the
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card under Linux?
I'd prefer not to have to use the analog outputs,
as it's quite a long distance from my computer to
my receiver.
I guess it would be possible to still use the analog
outputs if I could find a converter that used
balanced signalling, but perhaps that sort of thing
is still expensive? Anyone see that sort of thing for a reasonable price?Still, even analog output is fairly good, and
6-channel decoding in linux works pretty well
with mplayer (remembering to set the crossover
frequency for the LFE channel to 200Hz using
"-af sub=200:5 -channels 6"). |
Anonymous |
| Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 12:26 pm: |
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I have a SB Live 5.1 SE Digital and Creative Inspire 5.1 speakers. It drove me crazy that I was getting center speaker sound only in the surround mixer test. I was going to mess with the cables and pulled out the orange cable that goes into the "center subwoofer" hole on the subwoofer and low and behold I got sound from the center speaker (and all the other speakers). I unplugged it from the orange hole on the card too, so now I only have two cables running into the card but all channels are working. The funny thing is that now when I do the surround mixer test I can't hear the "center" speaker. Good trade off. I hope this helps someone cuz this was driving me crazy. |
Anonymous |
| Posted on Sunday, August 03, 2003 - 02:44 pm: |
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I have a Harman Kardon A/V receiver. I wanted to be able to play MP3's on my home theatre system. I bought a 1/8" mono to 1/4" mono adaptor and a mono RCA cable from Radio Shack. I plugged the 1/8" side itno my SPDI/F output on my Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Value sound card and the other end into one of my digital coaxial inputs on my receiver. I get stereo sound and my receiver can decode MP3's. I can also use WinDVD to get 5.1 sound. I just set the audio setup in WinDVD to go to an external decoder and it works great. If someone has a "greyed out" digital output on the sound properties, it is probably the driver. But, I do not set this and my setup works fine. |
yiserl |
| Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 08:00 am: |
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Using soundblaster live 5.1 (hooked up to the Sony Theatre System) using PowerDVD4 (and 5) I can get sounds from 2,7,8 speakers but not with 6 speaker setting. With the 7 or 8 speaker setting I can hear the surrounding sounds but not the voice/dialogue. Any clues why PowerDVD won't allow 6 speaker setting? |
yiserl |
| Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 08:21 am: |
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Oh...i just worked it out. It was the EAX setting (from Soundblaster Util) that needed to be adjusted. When it was put to "no effects", 6 speaker setting on PowerDVD worked. Wow...now I get proper 5.1 surround sound with PowerDVD...cool. |
L to the H |
| Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 05:56 pm: |
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Anyone with some linkage to the cables needed to do this?
I live over 2 hours away from the nearest radio shack :P |
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| Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 05:41 am: |
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Hi !
I've just bought sb live 5.1 to connect my PC to Panasonic SC-AK600 theatre system and got some kind of problem : I use SPDIF (coax) output from SB, but it works fine only PCM (mp3s and so on) (i didn't have any hope to encode dolby via SB because PRO LOGIC works fine). But when i use AC3 bypass (in drivers : digital only checked, AC3 decode unchecked, in powerDVD 5 : audio output is set to SPDIF) i receive DolbyDigital sign on my theatre, but it shows that only 2 front channels has reached decoder. DVD sound is fine, but i suppose that it is PRO LOGIC working mapping digital stereo signal to 6 speakers but not true DOLBY DIGITAL. When i use surround mixer test, it shows only 2 front channels also.
Configuration is : sb live 5.1 with SPDIF output (4 pin hole), Panasonic SC-AK600 home theatre, MONOmini(3,5 mm)JACK -to- RCA coax. cable.
Can i get true 5.1 output from sb live in DOLBY DIGITAL mode or it is just a dream ??? or it is easer to change it to audigy or audigy 2 sound card ? and are they capable to output dolby in 1 spdif channel ?
Thanks a lot  |
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| Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 01:08 pm: |
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Slick: The kenwood 6060 takes in six channels of rca input and plays them simultaneusly. I'm sure there are others.
I have that receiver and an SB 5.1 Live card. I plugged in 3 stereo miniplugs from the card to my receiver and am now able to get Front L/R, Rear L/R, but not center and subwoofer. I don't know about the sub because I don't have one, but the center channel definitely does not work. The only way it works is when I play DVD's and stick the card into digital output mode.
Does anyone know how to enable the center/subwoofer output on the card? Or what else is wrong with the setup? |
Anonymous |
| Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - 02:03 am: |
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I have a Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer card and Klipsch Promedia GMX 5.1 speakers. I had a lot of options for connecting the speakers -- they support a digital coax connector, toslink as well as RCA connectors. But I've had the same problem many others have reported here, with the 5.1 not working completely.
I spent a lot of time searching the Internet for a solution before coming here and finally gaining a real understanding of the proprietary Creative Labs minijack connector... I guess it is one way to get people to buy the Creative Labs speakers. One option I haven't seen mentioned here, for users of the Soundblaster Live and Audigy cards, is to shell out the extra cash for the Creative "Optical Digital I/O Card II" -- which solves the 5.1 problem for anyone with speakers that will support toslink or digital coax. Creative also offers upgrades to the Audigy cards that include these connectors... I realize all these options are expensive, so use your own judgement of course... in fact I'm not sure I'll use these suggestions myself, but I figured I should share given the valuable information I've read here.
Good luck to all. |
Anonymous |
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2003 - 11:48 pm: |
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There has to be a sound card that will let me take stereo sound from my computer to my stereo. My old SB16 connected to my old Yamaha stereo worked just fine. Sould have keep my win98 computer. |
Omri Sadeh |
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2003 - 09:08 am: |
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Hello,
i've been reading all these posts because i plan on buying the Creative SB live 5.1 (the simplest model that supports 5.1). from what i read i hope that connecting the card to my Pioneer vsx-d810s will work and give me 5.1 from the computer to the system. But, unlike most of you (from what i see) i don't connect them in order to hear DVDs played on my comp in my system, i plan on hearing movies downloaded from the net coded with AC3, has anyone here tried something like that? i'm afraid that i won't find a software that will support AC3 coded movie files or any other problems. if anyone tried this and it works i'd love to know. |
Parsons |
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2003 - 02:56 pm: |
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HEY EVERYONE....
Great msg board going here.... it helped me out alot..... though i am really really worried about something olley said in the middle of the msg board. He was mentioning about the voltages that came out of the sound card and the ones that recievers usually take. Now if he is right then we are supplying a voltage 10 times what we should be feeding into a reciever and this is oviously not good!!!!!!!!! I'm just wondering if anyone can confirm if this is true or not. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!
cheers,
Parsons |
Parsons |
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2003 - 03:21 pm: |
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Hey it's me again
I just answered my own question and I thought I would relay it on to you guys just in case you guys are curious...... OLLEY WAS RIGHT.... these voltages are different and using the mono-2-rca/coax setup will supply a voltage a lot greater than your receiver will be expecting.... However this method will still work indefinitely (basic transistor theory) but at the same time, for everyone that understand transistor theory, this will over saturate the transistors in your receiver and draw alto of current from your soundcard..... TO SUM IT UP if you use this method your life expectancy of your receiver and soundcard will diminish exponentially. I WOULD SUGGEST BUYING THE $60 EXPANSION BAY FEATURE OR WHATEVER THEY CALL IT WHICH SUPPLIES A PROPER COAX SPDIF AND NOT TO USE THE TTL SPDIF LOCATED ON THE BACK OF THE PHYSICAL CARD UNLESS YOUR RECIEVER IS EXPECTING THE TTL SPDIF SIGNAL.
HOPE THIS SAVES ALOT OF PEOPLE FROM BURNING OUT THEIR RECIEVERS AND CARDS. |
Derek |
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2003 - 07:17 pm: |
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Omri, I am not using a Creative Labs soundcard. Instead, I am using an ASUS A7N8X nForce-2 motherboard. It does AC-3 encoding in real time and is one of only two motherboards that is Dolby Certified. When a source that is already AC-3 is presented it, it simply passes it on. I only have two connections between the computer and my Denon receiver - a digital in and a digital out and my receiver always shows Dolby Digital although I see it switch back and forth yo PCM sometimes.
Hope this helps. |
Anonymous |
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2003 - 09:05 am: |
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I connected "3.5mm to phono" adapter to the orange slot in audigy and connected a coaxial cable to adapter. The cable goes to my panasonic sa-he90 coaxial in. When i turn "digital output only" and test the speakers only front left and right is heard. Im wondering what cable or adaptor to use. |
Omri Sadeh |
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2003 - 01:56 pm: |
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Anyone,
i need help.
my earlier guess wasn't good. i bought the Creative SB live 5.1, connected the orange digital out on the board with the famous mono minijack to RCA 3.5mm coaxial digital input in my Pioneer vsx-d810s, checked "digital output only", unchecked "decode AC3", installed PowerDVD 5 trail ver.
First, stereo sources work good.
But, when i test "5.1 speakers" in the SB software i get only the 2 front speakers.
also, i tried a movie file (i don't have a dvd-rom in my comp) and an audio file coded with AC3, the movie worked only in stereo and the audio file didn't work at all (it made an awful noise)
i tried playing the movie file on PowerDVD while selecting "use SPDIF" in the audio section.
anyone has any idea what else i should do?
thanks
that MB that encodes DD is too expensive for me.. |
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| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - 06:25 am: |
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I have the same problem, i have SB Live 5.1 connected from the orange digital out to a input in my Pioneer VSX-D510.
And only the 2 front speakers work in the SB Live speaker test. And the AC3-sound in the movies doesn't work for me neither.
Omri, if you come up with a solution please write it here.. |
Omri Sadeh |
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - 02:35 pm: |
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Jay,
after hours of trying things i managed to hear movie files coded in AC3 in my Pioneer! basicly i haven't changed too much in the setup i had when i wrote the last message so make sure you do all those things (like, connecting a mono minijack from the card to the coax RCA in your amp, unchecking "decode ac3", selecting "digital output only").
from here i think you need to do the following:
1. install an AC3 codec (i thought i had one but i guess it wasn't good enough)
2. make sure that on whatever software you use to watch movie files or play DVDs you select an option to use SPDIF.
here's how i did it (try these).
1. downloaded the latest DIVX codec bundle from www.divx.com
2. downloaded a very useful software called AC3filter from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ac3filter which i think solved the problem. read about it's options, there are various configurations you can make there that might solve your problem. i set it on "use SPDIF" and "prefer ac3filter" (the last tells the software to handle ac3 instead of other softwares and codecs) in the settings.
3. also i can recommend a good media player called "AllPlayer" from http://www.marbit.com.pl/_ENGLISH_/ALLPlayer.htm
movies work good with win98's media player too but Allplayer can display subtitles too.
hope this helps,
by the way, on the SB's surround test it still plays only the two front channels but i don't cares as long as the card sends the Dolby Digital to my Pioneer. |
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| Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2003 - 09:31 am: |
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Hi Omri,
Do you know where can I buy this "mono minijack from the card to the coax RCA" in Israel ?
There is no radio-sh | |
