Jauhiainen

I have a Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus! mobo and wanted to use the optical and/or S/PDIF audio out to my 5.1 digital speakers, but the only option for onboard digital audio out is in 2-speaker or earphone mode (Win 98SE). Does anyone know how to get 5.1 digital audio out of the onboard sound?

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Dunedan

AFAIK, the CMI 8738 (the chip on your Mobo) is a pretty basic audio chip, which conforms to the AC97 (Rev. 2) specs. This means that, while capable of outputting digital audio, it does not have the power to ENCODE in 5.1 format. Similarly, not even the Soundblaster Audigy or Audigy 2 can do it, though the NForce2 chipset can.

This means that the only way you'll get 5.1 sound is if you are playing a DVD through a software decoder that supports S/PDIF passthrough (like PowerDVD or WinDVD), or if a particular game has the sound pre-encoded as such. You cannot apply 5.1 sound to sources that are only 2 channel.

Still, you'll get better quality sound, for you are bypassing the D?A conversion inside your PC, and the CMI 8738 is not known for its wonderful converter.

HTH

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Mpowered

What are you outputting the signal to? In order to get 5.1 digital sound you will need to have a reciever with a Dolby Digital or DTS decoder. If there is an option to send a digital signal out in the sound card configuration, enable that. You will need an external decoder though because like Dunedan said, the hardware cannot decode a digital signal. My friend has a SBLive! Platinum with an SPDIF out connected to a DTS and DD5.1 decoder. Without a decoder it won't work in digital, only analog.

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Capricornholio

The Audigy and Audigy2 do have Dolby Digital decoding. My friend just bought one because of it. Also I read the new SBLive Platinum also has Dolby Digital support. Too bad I have the first generation SBLive.

Tommy Boomfiger

the sb live cant decode dolby digital, it can just output a raw signal to a reciever. i dont think the audigy 1 can decode either.

Capricornholio

http://www.americas.creative.com/pro...incategory=462

I think based on this that it does decode, but only the new Live's. Mine definitely doesn't.

Tommy Boomfiger

i dont see anything that says it decodes. it says it works with "Dolby Digital-ready 5.1 home theater systems". i dunno, to me that doesnt mean it has its own decoder.

Capricornholio

But also the Cambridge Digital 5.1's no?

Jauhiainen

I'm outputting to a Yamaha TSS-1 speaker set, which does DTS decoding. The problem is, even though I am using PowerDVD, the onboard sound is stripping the digital signal down to two channels and I can't get a 5.1 optical signal to the speaker's DTS decoder.

Anyone know how to get the raw optical signal out to the speakers, besides having to buy a new soundcard? I've got this nice speaker set, but have only been able to use it in analog.

Tommy Boomfiger

i havent thought about that. i do remember creating a similar setup myself using analog speakers though which did give me 5 channels of sound using creatives utilties. i dont know if it will actually decode dolby digital 5.1 or dts encoded tracks. i do know that ac3 files can be decoded on my comp. i dont know if thats done through software or hardware. if the hardware does it, then any sb 5.1 card will be able to do it, not just new ones. if you want to find out if yours can try playing an ac3 file. there should be a few on your creative install disc. if not there are some around the web, try p2p. btw, thanks for posting that, you just confused the hell out of me for how this damn card works im using the same speakers. you probably wont be able to do it via the optical cable. chances are that it will only work with a coax. double click the little speaker icon in your taskbar. under the options pull down tab make sure that advanced controls is checked. under the play control area click advanced and make sure that there is a check in the box that says digital output only. hopefully that will fix it. post up what you get. if it doesnt work there might be a few other things that i can suggest.

Jauhiainen

The advanced toolbar in the volume controls is not an option. Probably has something to do with the driver for the onboard audio. The settings are located in the mixer, which was loaded with the audio driver. Settings include: speaker setup (earphone and 2 through 6 speaker systems), output mode (s/pdif - only works on earphone or 2 speaker out). No option for digital output when selecting speakers systems with more than 2 channels.