[Dakz]

I hooked up my Fortissimo II to my Sony DA555-ES reciever via optical outputs, and i am only getting 2 channel stereo. I am not trying to watch DVD's on my pc, i just want to get surround sound. When i set my fortissimo control panel settings to "Main output" and do a 4 speaker test, my reciever only detecs 2 channel audio. If i set the setting to Digital Source, and do a 4 speaker test, my reciever still only detecs 2 channel audio, but i get NO SOUND. I bought the card OEM so i dont have any retail cables and such that comes with the card. Does the fortissimo 4 speaker test only work on the speaker output, and not the optical. Ive tried all the troubleshooting procedures on the website (not many) and it still doesnt work. I have not tried passing DD to the reciever because i do not have a dvd-rom drive to test the digital source (hence why i am most likely not getting any sound at all when i set my option to digital source. HELP!!!

 

[Kensai]

All current sound cards (as far as I know with the possible exception of the sound hardware on the NForce motherboards) only pass 2 channel information through their digital connections (coax or optical) when passing PC sound (MP3, game sound, etc.). You can also past AC-3 and DTS streams which will be decoded by your receiver, but something has to be present to encode your sound to one of those formats if the sound is not already encoded (like DVD movie audio). To get surround out of games or out of software decoded DVD, you have to use the analog outs on the sound card (or optionally, set the digital out to be front L/R and then do rear L/R, center/sub with analog, if you can. I'm guessing the reason behind this all is that the digital audio connection technologies they're using right now only have enough bandwidth for 2 channel uncompressed PCM which is what you're getting now. An encoded AC-3 or DTS stream is that size or smaller, but contains all the channels of info.


Kensai

 

[Dakz]

Well...i bought an OEM card so i dont have the analog out cables, and the whole purpose of me buying the fortissimo is because of the optical out so i can get surround sound in games...so basically what your telling me is that i just wasted my money.....are there any sound cards that WILL pass the GAME surround info through the spdif output so that I may have my games surround info decoded by my receiver

 

[Dirk Gently]

It is my understanding that the nvidia NForce based motherboards may do this via the onboard audio chipset. It includes a Dolby Digital encoder, so it can encode multi-channel sound into DD to be decoded by your receiver.


I don't have an nForce board though, so I can't confirm this...



ps. I do enjoy 5.1 channels surround in mp3 & games on my Game Theatre XP via the 6xRCA analog outs. I use SPDIF for DVD only.

 

[Dakz]

sounds good, but i will never in my life purchase a motherboard with onboard video or sound....i just cant bring myself to do it!

 

[Donholio]

OK,


This is one of those poke around to find it things:


1) Open the little icon next to the clock. When you install the Fortissimo software, it placed a little icon that is green with what looks like a black eagle or bat on it.


2) Inside of there, you will see a bunch of options. Click on the last page. This contains the information on what you want to go out through the digital out.


3) Check the PowerDVD option. If you aren't using PowerDVD, don't worry, it's an option to let it output 5.1. The other options are only for the output of the card's windows sound. This card is ONLY 4 channel compatible. Even if you got everything working AND had the cable, it would only do 4.1.


4) Click on the apply and/or OK buttons and close the window.


5) Go into the options for PowerDVD and set the output to Digital SPIDF out.


6) Click on the apply and/or OK buttons and close the window.


7) Watch your movie.



A small word of annoyance / issues with this card.


This has to be one of the worst cards I have used. I generally have issues where the DTS output will be completely hosed, nothing but static. I also have issues where during a movie, the audio might cut out for a bit. I am switching to another card soon, and would suggest you do the same if you have these issues.


Hope this helps, and I am sorry I couldn't be more detailed on the steps. If you need more help, please email me at [email protected] .


Thanks!


-Don

 

[Valnar]

I had a problem getting the Fortissimo II to pass DD too. I passed 2-channel audio just fine through the S/PDIF, but my receiver never actually saw any DVD's as Dolby Digital surround.


I put my Zoltrix Nightingale back in, and it worked fine.


I sold the Fortissimo.

Robert