Quick questions S/PDIF

No, if you use SPDIF the soundcard doesn't matter.

However, you can only do 5.1DD over SPDIF, not lossless. So you're ruining the sound right at the source.

Unless you have a really cheesy sound system I recommend you reconsider the whole SPDIF idea. Consider analog or HDMI.

But - If you are playing nothing but DVDs and/or CDs, SPDIF is the best you can get from those sources. Why not send it direct to an AV Receiver to decode.

Once you go Blu-Ray you would need analog or HDMI to get lossless.

Tim

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I'm sorry but you're just flat wrong. SPDIF absolutely can pass DTS, how do you think people listened to DTS way back in good ol 1998?

Without a BD deck, spdif is perfect.

it's 2channel audio just as it comes off the disc, if you like 2channel audio in surround mode you can matrix it with your reciever.

For DVD it passes both DD and DTS.

DTS usually contains 5.1 channels at a bitrate higher than SPDIF can pass to the receiver. So, you're advocating just sending the two channels as-recorded and then using the receiver to fake 5.1?

Look, it's 2009, not 1998. SPDIF had it's day, but it is over.

how much is lost if you run DTS over SPDIF? I thought SPDIF was enough to run all non HD sound

There is no data loss from transmitting DTS with S/PDIF, provided the equipment and cables used are not defective. You absolutely can use an S/PDIF connection to listen to DTS audio.

It is.... SPDIF can support both DD and DTS... as well as uncompressed 2 CH PCM CD audio

Hope this isn't too far off topic but the recent Realtek ALC889a audio chip does real time DD Live on the fly like the good ole SoundStorm audio on NF2 motherboards.

As does the IDT chip&software supplied on the Intel DG45ID motherboard.

Yeah, so you've had at least 11 years to educate yourself. Now I understand how difficult it must be for Noobs to get their facts right in 2009.

EAX is not a sound format, it's processing in the game.
PCM audio (the native audio in windows) can only be output in 2 channel via SPDIF.

If you want to get 5.1 audio from games you need to re-encode the 5.1 PCM audio in windows into DD or DTS. The technologies that do this are Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect/Interactive.

DD only goes up to 640kbps, DTS does 1.5mbps this give DTS a distinct advantage for sound quality.

So sounds like what you want is a DTS Interactive card with EAX support...
http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php

That's your sound card.

Right so the chain of should for a game goes like this.

native sound effect files->ingame audio engine + EAX -> 5 channel ouput (as configured ingame) to windows mixer->sound card driver (DTS Interactive/Connect encodes in this step)-> output analog/digital.

So EAX processing happens in the game engine that's why you always have to enable the ingame and set your speaker settings ingame to get proper surround from the game.

The output is an either or thing, if you use digital out, you wouldn't hook up the analog side.

You are right that the sound quality when using DTS connect is not effected by the sound card (other than supporting EAX). It used to be that none of the creative cards supported either DD Live or DTS connect, it now looks like it is supported from the X-Fi Titanium and up. So yeah, now that creative supports it getting the titanium at half the price does make sense. Be careful when your shopping creative advertises hardware decoding of Dolby Digital on alot of their cards, but Dolby Digital support is very different from Dolby Digital Live support.