sound card and DVD surround sound question

[David Lewis]

Hi All

I have the creative soundblaster live 5.1 digital sound card and am trying
to figure out from the marketing hype whether it will play DVD's with dolby
digital 6 discrete channel surround sound.Specifically I need to know

1)whether decoding is done inside the pc.In which case I can only see 5
mini-stereo jacks at rear of computer,green one for ?speakers,pink for
?microphone....line in,line out.....and one that says analogue/digital
out.If decoding is done within pc then how do you connect the speakers for
the resultant 6 channels of audio?

2)or if I must buy a speaker kit with decoders built in to them(much more
expensive) and presunably use digital out to feed into external dig to
analogue decoders/decompressors?

Thanks for help

David

 

[FuzionMan]

On my SB Audigy 2, there are 3 jacks for sound output. 1) Front Left &
Right 2) Rear Left & Right 3) Subwoofer, Center and Center Rear. Yours
should be similar to that, except the rear center channel. The SB
installation manual and PDF documents from the website sound have all the
diagrams.

 

[David Lewis]

On my SB Audigy 2, there are 3 jacks for sound output. 1) Front
Left & Right 2) Rear Left & Right 3) Subwoofer, Center and Center
Rear. Yours should be similar to that, except the rear center
channel. The SB installation manual and PDF documents from the
website sound have all the diagrams.

how do you get 6 discrete channel (analogue) sound from 3 jacks eg your
front L and R must be getting the same signal.I am guessing this is
simulated surround sound NOT true surround (dolby digital 5.1 aka AC3) ?

David

 

[josh]

You probably need to use the digital outs, since it seems you don't have
analogue outs for each channel. Run that into a reciever to power your
speakers.

 

[kony]

how do you get 6 discrete channel (analogue) sound from 3 jacks eg your
front L and R must be getting the same signal.I am guessing this is
simulated surround sound NOT true surround (dolby digital 5.1 aka AC3) ?

David

Well the math is pretty easy, 3 jacks, 2 channels each, = 6.
These are stereo 'phone jacks, not RCAs or ...


Dave

 

[kony]

how do you get 6 discrete channel (analogue) sound from 3 jacks eg your
front L and R must be getting the same signal.I am guessing this is
simulated surround sound NOT true surround (dolby digital 5.1 aka AC3) ?

David

Apparently, Creative, being the customer-oriented company that it is,
endorses that you buy a book to learn how to use their product, LOL!
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/sblive/
http://www.nostarch.com/sblive.htm

I suppose that might tell you, as it claims to, but on the other hand,
have you RTM?


Dave

 

[FuzionMan]

Hey David

It's definitely true surround AC3...
I use Power DVD 4.0 right now and it has 5.1 capabilities. When I play an
AVI movie encoded with AC3, Power DVD will take advantage of it. Most other
generic AVI players will only put out through the 2 front speakers.

Anyway, like Kony said, each jack has 2 outputs. In my case, one of the
three jacks has three outputs (rear center, front center, subwoofer). This
is a 6.1 sound card. I have to buy a special cable with 3 RCA's at the
end...YOU should be able to find the cable at any store with a jack at one
end and 2 RCA's at the other end.

It's all analog baby!

 

[David Lewis]

Hey David

It's definitely true surround AC3...
I use Power DVD 4.0 right now and it has 5.1 capabilities. When I
play an AVI movie encoded with AC3, Power DVD will take advantage of
it. Most other generic AVI players will only put out through the 2
front speakers.

Anyway, like Kony said, each jack has 2 outputs. In my case, one of
the three jacks has three outputs (rear center, front center,
subwoofer). This is a 6.1 sound card. I have to buy a special cable
with 3 RCA's at the end...YOU should be able to find the cable at any
store with a jack at one end and 2 RCA's at the other end.

It's all analog baby!

OK and thanks

David