A early X-mas gift already! But problems...

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Well, my girlfriend was at wally world (wall-mart) yesterday and couldnt resist a new sound system for the pc. I put it off cause they are so expensive and I always put all my $ in the hardware. Anyhow she insisted it was a early xmas gift for me. So how could I say no. They are Altec Lansing 251 model 6 channel surround sound. 5 1/2" kicken bass cannon and the sat. speakers (5 at 3")are sooo crisp and clear. $99.00 for P.C. speakers though! Anyhow here comes the trouble, my Sb live card. Surprised, I think not. Now these speakers have 3 mini jacks for the sound card. This is the SB live MP3+ 5.1 card. The one speaker plug is front Left and right. Other is rear left and right. Then the yellow is center and bass as the manual says anyhow. BUT I can hook it up like that! My yellow jack on the sb card is a digital output. From what I understand in the manual on that it runs ALL the speakers from that one. I tried all 3 hooked up to right spots and yellow speaker plug to yellow sb live din, but it crackles. Now if I just use the front and rear channels and set the speaker set to 4 channel mode it works great! But one other problem now comes up, I cant adjust the bass or treble. It lets the slider move on the mixer but doesnt actually adjust the sound at all. Like my home theatre setup, the dvd takes over the head unit when in 5.1 mode (Sony matched set $700.00 for single disc dvd and 520watt head unit). Is this similar., meaning that I now have NO control over bass treble etc. And all my preset are now gone too. HELP!

Sorry mods. I goofed. Should have been in Tech Support.

[BipolarBill]

Buck up and ask your girl to get you the 621s - but before you risk your life doing that, go into AudioHQ and configure your output according to the speaker setup. Don't leave it on 2-speaker while you're doing all of this.

[$1500-P4 gamer]

"Buck up and ask your girl to get you the 621s - but before you risk your life doing that"

LOL, I think I would have a better chance of surviving a head on collision with a rig! Hehe. In the audio HQ I have 2 spk. 4spk. and live surround options. I choose 4 speaker and it works. But the live suround doesnt, it just crackles alot for some odd reason. On the altec's you set wether in 4spk or 6 spk input. I choose 6 while trying suround, no go. So now the altecs are on 4 and the sblive on 4 its fine. But this doesnt work the center and bass cannon seperate. Now in XP I see that I can option for Digital out only. this is the yellow jack on the sblive. Heres the real clincher to this situation. The digi-out does all the 6 spk. right? If so hooking it to the center/bass jack on spk.'s would be wrong then-right??? Thats the only thing I cant figure is these two manuals are clashing heads about what the yellow jack does. Now I hav seen a Aopne SB card that had center/bass fr r/l and Rear r/l but this has no center/bass I can find. So is there a adaptor of sorts or somthing I can plug into the sblive digi out and get the center and bass seperated or even the whole lot of 6 out of it? Or should I only use the yellow jack on spk.'s to the digi out on sb live (also yellow) and say the heck with Altec's manual. I got a surprise looking on the back of unit. SPK's are made in china, but co's in Milford PA. Dang, thats close to home. We actually make somthing fo rth epc that doesnt suck-ha its a miracle... Thanks for the help BP and any further suggestions are WAY welcome. I did find what was hanging my bass adjustments though. ATI tv tuner card is being weird with my sound card. If I turn it off completly it works ok tone wise but still no 6 channel sound. Heck maybe its the real problem. But one idea at a time.

[gjimene2]

do this.

put the front speaker jack on your spoeaker out jack, and your rear speacker jack on your LineIn, then use whatever media player you use to blance out the sound.

that's how have my sorround setup.

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Originally posted by gjimene2
do this.

put the front speaker jack on your spoeaker out jack, and your rear speacker jack on your LineIn, then use whatever media player you use to blance out the sound.

that's how have my sorround setup.

What card do you have. I have seen this on other cards like the aopen I mentioned. Its center/bass is really the line-in jack. Has two functions. But this one def. has front and rear output. that works. The prob. is the center and bass jack has no home. And the card has digi-out which is all 6 speakers in one plug. How to get digi- to work my needs I guess is the problem. This is a retail SB live mp3+ made by sound blaster not 3rd party. **** sb is a real pain somtimes. If they didnt sound so good I would toss it out the window, drive over it with my car and back up over about 10x then proceed to fill it with 8mm mag holes!

[Rocketmech]

The SB 5.1 and Audigy are the same for 5.1 speaker hookup.

* Analog/Digital Out (Analog Center & Subwoofer/6-channel S/PDIF Output)
* Microphone In
* Line In
* Line Level Out (Front)
* Line Level Out (Rear)
* Joystick Port/MIDI Port

You'll still need to follow BPB's lead for the Audio HQ setup.

Here's the link

[gjimene2]

yea, what I'm talking about is a 4 channel

hey, why not go to the store and buy a cheap reciever, or hook it up to yours

or just wait and spoil yourself with the new sound card

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Thanks Rocketmech! Ya, your right they are the same card. The hole sblive series is identical hardware wise just the software bundle is dif. Least thats what the readme at creative says.
So lets see if Im begining to understand this. From your link, bp's suggestions and all thereading I just did I get this out of it. the digi- out has TWO modes. One is spidf mode which has the support of all 6 channels in one for digi ready speakers. then there is the analouge mode that switches it to outputting the center and woofer ONLY out of the digi (yellow) jack. Hmm, so this mean I have to tell the sblive to run it in the other mode right. THis is what CMSS is about??? Thanks for all the help so far guys!

Creative specs and how to's on 5.1
Digi jack in multi mode
http://dmzweb3.europe.creative.com/S...estion4078=obj(4078):obj(5314)

Digi jack in other mode (analouge)

"Connect the Line-Out of the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 to the Line-In (or Left- and Right- In) of the speaker system, the Rear-out of the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 to the Rear-In (or Rear Left- and Right- In) of the speaker system, and the Analogue/Digital out of the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 to the Centre/Subwoofer input (or Centre-In and Subwoofer-In) of the speaker system.


Software Settings

Choose 5.1 Speaker in the Speaker Settings window.
Deactivate the option Digital Output Only."

Guess that answers that! From here

http://dmzweb3.europe.creative.com/S...estion4078=obj(4078):obj(4814)

Let you know if it works now. Thanks guys!