Digital Coax and SB Audigy Platinum

[Cyan]

I'd like to hook my computers SB Audigy Platinum to my new Reciever with Digital Coaxial Cables, first, has anyone tried this? I should be able to get 6.1/5.1 sound out of it correct?

So far I need an 18ft cable, and all I can find so far is this

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...&s=electronics

at 140$ that's quite a blow, know of any better options?

Thank you for your time.

[Snix]

Go to Radio Shack or Best Buy and purchase a 1/8" stereo to RCA stereo cable. Buy an RCA cable extension if the cable isn't long enough. Plug the RCA connector into the coaxial input on you receiver. You'll save a lot more money than buying that cable from Amazon.

[Johnny Fist]

Yeah, a lot less money and a lot less quality. Everytime a connection is made or an adapter is used there will be a signal loss. If you can live with that, then do it the cheap way. But as with anything else in life, if you want quality then you're going to have to pay for it.

[Vampiel]

Good luck, I tried a cable just like that one and it didnt work. I called Creative and they didnt know what I needed either, they were worthless.

Let me know if you find a cable that actually works. BTW The cable I bought was way cheaper, 30 bucks and it was the same thing, cant remember were I bought it but I just did a search on google to find it.

[Cyan]

Well, I tried the setup With an old DVD Player setup (spare 3.3ft (1m)) Digital Coaxial cable (monster). (had to move my whole setup close, stupid heavy monitor)

I didn't work any better than my current setup (headphone jack wich splits to left and right auido connections wich I can attach normal audio cords into my reciever.

No surround sound working, I'm not sure that's what Sound Blaster had in mind when they included those front ports.

Anyway, thanks for the help and the heads up. Saves me a bunch of money.

[Cyan]

I did notice something, and then I ran across this...

When I connect the cable, it comes up on my reciever as "PCM" not entirely sure what that means, but what I do know is that when I have my surround sound outputs wrong on my DVD player to output "PCM" instead of "Dolby Digital" I can't get surround sound on anything that isn't a DTS source. When I put it back to "Dolby Digital" I get surround sound on everything.

Now here's what I came across.

The 5.1 AAC can (and is) decoded to 6 channel pcm so wouldn't it be great if it then could be output to a receiver not supporting he-aac? (I doubt you're ever seen one) Here's the first problem... the spdif digital connection only allows 2 channel uncompressed pcm. This means that in order to get more you have to go for one of the compressed formats (ac3/dts) and possibly reencode the audio with great quality loss (or get the modpack as the solution is here). Other possibilities are to use analog connections from the soundcard and avoid recompression and quality loss but most receivers only seem to allow analog stereo input which makes it pointless. Pro-logic(2) encoding which allows 5.1 audio to be encoded into 2 channels is another way if you can accept slightly worse channel separation and quality but still won't get anywhere close to the original.

-What's that ac3 modpack thing?
It's a pack created to replace the audio of an encode with the original ac3 audio
which allows it to be output to all **** receivers without a decent set of inputs.
Only get it if you know you need it or think that ac3 is the greatest thing ever.
An ac3 decoder will also be required for playback after the procedure.

-How do I get it to output multichannel audio?
First make sure that "downmix to 2ch" isn't checked in the coreaac settings. This will
give you 5.1 audio. If your speaker configuration is different you might want to use
a downmixing filter (matrixmixer/ac3filter).

When I figure out how to get it up and running, I'll let you know, there must be something you can do, It might be limited to Video sources, an interesting test, I'll try using a DTS capable movie through the PCM stream, if that works (in surround), then there must be something you can change to get most 5.1-6.1 sources running through the reciever.

--I'll also give Fiberoptic a try, just for kicks.

[Cyan]

I tried everything, DTS, Doly, Fiberoptic, Digital Coax, Stereo, downmixing, upmixing, matrixmixing, intervideo winDVD, 5.1, 6.1 - and nothing.

One this I gained out of it, There wasn't a bit off difference between Fiberoptic, Digital Coax, and normal Stereo outputs.

go figgure...

[Cyan]

I tried Again, It works!

I'm connected using a normal L/R stereo cable in the SPDIF out of my sound Blaster Platinum's From audio pannel - to the SPDIF input of my Reciever.

I'm Currently watching "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" in 5.1 Surround sound Dolby Digital 5.1 - It's showing 5.1 source correctly on my reciever.

It is necissary (at least in my case with the RCA cable and Yamaha HTR-5740) to go into Sound Blasters "AudioHQ" - then "Device Controlls" - Under "Digital Input" I'm using "AC-3 SPDIF-In decode" and in Sampling Rate it's necisary for me to have it running in "48 KHz" no other rate will play at the moment. (you might try some others, they change "on the fly" so you can do it with a video running)

I'm using zoom player, Using the Intervideo WinDVD Audio Filter, The settings for this filter are "Enable S/PDIF output"

It seems it doesn't matter what I do in the "Surround Mixer" portion of the SB Audigy Setup (as far as "Digital Output Only" is concerned). BUT I MUST disable "AC-3 decode" in the "settings" button of the "Surround Mixer" or "speaker setup" portion of the Audigy.

This should also be possible using the S/PDIF cable in the back of your audigy card (or and sound blaster card that has the jack) and using a conversion thingy to an RCA cable.

Peace out, Ask for help if you need it.

I tried Gladiator in DTS-ES 6.1 surround.
Works perfectly doing the same settings, and it comes up as 6.1 DTS-ES on my reciever

[Vampiel]

My reciever only has a Digital Coax and a Fiber Optic input (other than the rca's of course). What do you mean when you say you hooked it into your "SPDIF input of my Reciever"?

[Cyan]

S/PDIF - to me = Digital Coax

sorry bout that, So yes, I have it hooked in the Digital Coax of my reciever.

[Cyan]

If you would like different audio sources (such as AVI files that are encoded with the CoreACC filter for 6 channel surround) to ouput in AC3 format (the one your reciver reads) Download this

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AC3_Filter.htm

I have tested it and found it working, BUT BE WARNED - it's a CPU killer.

[Vampiel]

I allready have an AC3 filter, come to think of it I dont think ive tried it since I installed the AC3 filter, maybe that was the problem.

Just exactly how are you converting it from a standard 3.5mm plug to the digital coax connection?

Youve peaked my interest in this and I might have to pull my hair out trying to get it to work again.

[Vampiel]

You think creative could have made it a little easier with instructions available.

[Cyan]

I believe creative did their job, the hard part is all the filters you need, and just a few settings that are readily available with the creative Driver set.

There is a S/PDIF output on your card (in the back, like a headphone plug) - it's labled, some Computer Surround systems use it.

I cant find a picture for what you'd need, but

This card has SPDIF output through a 1/8" mini jack on the back of the card. Simply use a 1/8" stereo mini jack to stereo RCA and enable SPDIF digital output on the card to send AC3-encoded signal out the card and into your receiver's coax digital input.

This is the reference

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...IY_HTPC_5.html

[Vampiel]

I will have to try that again. Thanks for the info.