Hey guys.

So the other day I finally build myself a gaming PC. Everything works out great and I am already enjoying some fine gaming on it. Now I have been out of PC gaming for a looooooong time, and as a long time console player I am used that games come with surround sound.

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

Also I found an old but in mint condition E-MU 0404 PCI sound card in my garage and I'll try to see if that will work but from what I remember that card is not really designed for gaming.

Any help would be appreciated.

PS: I am using the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 motherboard and the XFX Radeon HD 6870, the double fan edition, as my GPU.

PSS: I know that graphics card has support for 7.1 through the HDMI output but my receiver is old and does not have an HDMI input/output.

I think now sound cards are fairly redundant unless you're an audiophile or something. My understanding is most motherboards/video cards can do the trick to such an extent where it doesn't really matter. Personally I'm using an old SoundBlaster which my brother gave me to try out and I haven't noticed a difference and I'm too lazy to take it out...

That said my speakers are only the old generation of Logitech Z 5500s and I have to use the 6ch direct input for any sort of surround sound in games on my pc and I'm thinking that might be the only way to get it working(?). I know I spent a whole day wondering why there was no voices coming out of all the games I was playing and was getting really frustrated and even got to the point of formatting to see if that helped. Turns out all I had to do was change the settings on my speaker receiver to direct input rather than one of the DTS or Dolby settings.

So in essence I don't think it's a matter of which cable you use but what setting you have it on but then I might be completely wrong! It is well worth a try though to just set your receiver to direct instead and see how that goes.

@caska: Thanks for the reply. I will some experimentation and I will let you of the results.

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to. You want a multiple analog cable output to go to your sound device for a true 5.1 signal.

speakers like this can output it.

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-audio/home-pc-speakers/devices/speaker-system-Z906

and a sound card like this can provide the oooomph without all of the fluff and crap a creative x-fi comes with.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271007

@137 said:

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to.

What's the long explanation? I'm surprised that you can't get true 5.1 via optical out on PC

@Lunar_Aura said:

@137 said:

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to.

What's the long explanation? I'm surprised that you can't get true 5.1 via optical out on PC

This should shed some light.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1635772

@137 said:

@Lunar_Aura said:

@137 said:

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to.

What's the long explanation? I'm surprised that you can't get true 5.1 via optical out on PC

This should shed some light.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1635772

Sorry, but optical audio does pass true 5.1 surround, along with 6.1 and 7.1. There is nothing in that link that says otherwise. What do you think was used before HDMI existed? Coax and Optical.

You need to make sure you told Windows you are using 5.1 speakers. More than likely your movies are always sending out 5.1 signals, but because games are all about performance they checked your Windows settings and capped the signals off of what was found for the active playback device which more than likely is 2 speakers.

Headphones.

Problem solved.

@TyCobb said:

@137 said:

@Lunar_Aura said:

@137 said:

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to.

What's the long explanation? I'm surprised that you can't get true 5.1 via optical out on PC

This should shed some light.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1635772

Sorry, but optical audio does pass true 5.1 surround, along with 6.1 and 7.1. There is nothing in that link that says otherwise. What do you think was used before HDMI existed? Coax and Optical.

You need to make sure you told Windows you are using 5.1 speakers. More than likely your movies are always sending out 5.1 signals, but because games are all about performance they checked your Windows settings and capped the signals off of what was found for the active playback device which more than likely is 2 speakers.

I do computers for a living, I wouldn't tell someone the computer is not capable of something unless I was 100 percent sure. If I have to go as far as providing screenshots for you I would be more than glad. The only true 5.1 signal your pc is going to pump out is through the analog audio outputs if you're using onboard sound. That is how the onboard sound is DESIGNED, you can use optical and it sends out 11010010101010101's it does not send out information on different channels, an amp can encode a dts 5.1 simulation such as the astro a40 mix amp (which amplifies the weak signal) but it is not true surround and will change based on the application presenting the sound. You will not get any type of true 5.1 sound out of an optical output.

The HDMI output is a completely irrelevant comparison because that is just a cleaner analog signal, still dts simulated.

I understand what you're talking about with telling windows you're running 5.1, 7.1, etc audio but that only works..... with the analog 6 jack box on the back of the pc, not with the optical and not with hdmi. Those are both hardware simulated dts.

Now if you bought an aftermarket card which advertises such then that is a different story. But the OP clearly stated his was asking about onboard audio

@Canteu said:

Headphones.

Problem solved.

Not to sound too demeaning but headphones are only good at night or when you want to disconnect. I enjoy playing in surround. Plus, I see "surround" headphones as the biggest ripoff in the audio world.

@137 said:

@TyCobb said:

@137 said:

@Lunar_Aura said:

@137 said:

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to.

What's the long explanation? I'm surprised that you can't get true 5.1 via optical out on PC

This should shed some light.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1635772

Sorry, but optical audio does pass true 5.1 surround, along with 6.1 and 7.1. There is nothing in that link that says otherwise. What do you think was used before HDMI existed? Coax and Optical.

You need to make sure you told Windows you are using 5.1 speakers. More than likely your movies are always sending out 5.1 signals, but because games are all about performance they checked your Windows settings and capped the signals off of what was found for the active playback device which more than likely is 2 speakers.

I do computers for a living, I wouldn't tell someone the computer is not capable of something unless I was 100 percent sure. If I have to go as far as providing screenshots for you I would be more than glad. The only true 5.1 signal your pc is going to pump out is through the analog audio outputs if you're using onboard sound. That is how the onboard sound is DESIGNED, you can use optical and it sends out 11010010101010101's it does not send out information on different channels, an amp can encode a dts 5.1 simulation such as the astro a40 mix amp (which amplifies the weak signal) but it is not true surround and will change based on the application presenting the sound. You will not get any type of true 5.1 sound out of an optical output.

The HDMI output is a completely irrelevant comparison because that is just a cleaner analog signal, still dts simulated.

I understand what you're talking about with telling windows you're running 5.1, 7.1, etc audio but that only works..... with the analog 6 jack box on the back of the pc, not with the optical and not with hdmi. Those are both hardware simulated dts.

Now if you bought an aftermarket card which advertises such then that is a different story. But the OP clearly stated his was asking about onboard audio

Whoops. Looks like I was mistaken. Your post made it sound as though you were saying Optical Audio in general wasn't capable of sending 5.1 and up. Although, I will admit I thought onboard optical would still be able to send the signals, it just wouldn't be able to decode the more advanced bitstreams and would most likely require an external decoder. Checked my own optical settings on my PC and it does appear as though I am able to only send L & R signals. That's good to know if I ever decide to dump money back into computer audio. Past few years I have grown to really enjoy using the Logitech "Surround Sound" headphones. Audio quality isn't great, but decent and mimics 5.1 very well. My last PC build a month ago I didn't even put in my X-Fi card.

@Mordukai: Some people use headphones exclusively (like me), i bought a pair of ad-700s a 5 months ago after reading so many positive reviews. Headphones are: easy to setup/plug, make no compromise in terms of sound quality (given the right purchase and research), convenient in terms of space and excess noise. Your are right about surround headphones, they totally defeat the purpose of having them, the feature often makes sound echo-y and fake, we have two ears and so most audiophiles only take stereo headphones seriously. Mine were $120 off amazon ( I live in Australia). Not all pc games will support surround sound, just a thought. Good luck with your new rig, I bet its pretty exciting!

@phampire said:

@Mordukai: Some people use headphones exclusively (like me), i bought a pair of ad-700s a 5 months ago after reading so many positive reviews. Headphones are: easy to setup/plug, make no compromise in terms of sound quality (given the right purchase and research), convenient in terms of space and excess noise.

Yeah if you're a night time gamer like me or live in an apartment headphones will always be the optimal audio experience. I had a nice 2.1 setup a long time ago and demo'd prey for a friend, the neighbors complained that the sound from my apt knocked pictures off of their fireplace so ever since then I've never bothered having the dream 5.1 pc audio solution since I don't live in a place that would allow me such enjoyment. Especially co habitating with the girl unit I'd probably get butthurt I'd have to put my cans on.

The Astro A40's were good enough for me although all of my audiophile friends are a tad butthurt I didn't buy some grado's or senni's womp womp!

@TyCobb said:

Whoops. Looks like I was mistaken. Your post made it sound as though you were saying Optical Audio in general wasn't capable of sending 5.1 and up.

Yeah I was a little bummed about that when I discovered it myself, moreso the fact that I simultaneously cannot have analog and optical hooked up at the same time so I can just turn my speakers off and put on my headphones, I have to plug swap or go into the control panel and hardware swap (which again co cohabitating with a girlfriend who's not pc adept this is an unacceptable solution). But such is life with computers. The sound card I originally posted will allow what I want if I plug my mix amp into the front panel audio but like the op I don't think dropping 160 bucks on a sound card is going to make the slightest difference in my audio experience like it did back with battlefield 2 when onboard audio wasn't as capable as it is today.

@Mordukai: Just so you know for future purchases/it's always good to know more, the technology you want (that takes a 6 channel audio mix from the game and encodes it to a compressed 5.1 signal for sending down an optical cable) is called Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect (obviously one is for one standard and the other for t'other). DDLive is usually now referred to by the umbrella term Dolby Home Theatre when you look at the specs of an audio card (integrated or discrete).

Because the optical cable is a dumb digital wire (0s and 1s go in, 0s and 1s come out) you can send any bitstream down it. This means your computer can simply route the audio stream from a DVD to it and if the DVD has a DD5.1 or DTS stream then your amp will pick it up and you've got 5.1 audio from your movie. But games are different because audio is being generated in real-time (based on where the camera is etc) so the final mix for surround is 6 channel audio and not compressed (optical doesn't have the bandwidth for sending a 6 channel uncompressed signal, which is where DD and DTS come in, saves space on the DVD and can fit down the cable) so you need to buy something that can encode the audio to DD or DTS to send it optically and maintain the 5.1 mix (if you downmix to stereo then optical does have the bandwidth to accept that).

You're a bit unlucky in your purchase, Gigabyte ship more DDLive mobos than most but you ended up with this and not this. Notice they're both Z68 mobos with a Realtek 889 audio chip but only the second one has Dolby Home Theatre support (called out in the feature list and the specs) and so can do the DDLive encoding to turn 6 channel uncompressed audio from the game into a DD5.1 stream for pushing down the optical cable for your amp. The really stupid thing, chances are the 889 chip in your mobo is identical silicon to the one in the XP-U3 motherboard, but due to licensing costs it has the DDLive disabled (welcome to artificial market segmentation). Unfortunately it does mean you either need to buy a discrete audio card, use analogue (if you have a 6 channel analogue input for your amp free), or buy a new amp with HDMI in so you can use one of the surround formats HDMI provides and that the audio chip on your graphics card will encode to.

@caska said:

I think now sound cards are fairly redundant unless you're an audiophile or something.

Really not true, I never believed in sound cards until I bought one a few years ago.

Dolby Headphone alone makes it worth it. You can get a Xonar DG for so cheap it's crazy to not get one if you have half decent headphones and/or speakers.

@phampire said:

@Mordukai: Your are right about surround headphones, they totally defeat the purpose of having them, the feature often makes sound echo-y and fake, we have two ears and so most audiophiles only take stereo headphones seriously.

Amnesia + decent stereo headphones + Dolby Headphone = mind blowingly good.

@Mordukai said:

@Canteu said:

Headphones.

Problem solved.

Not to sound too demeaning but headphones are only good at night or when you want to disconnect. I enjoy playing in surround. Plus, I see "surround" headphones as the biggest ripoff in the audio world.

Dolby Headphone is surround sound on headphones that actually works. You use stereo headphones with it which means you can use good quality headphones instead of the shitty "pro gaming" headsets.

My setup right now is Onkyo amp/speakers + Sennheiser HD595s, if I turn on my amp my PC automatically uses that for audio, if I turn it off it switches back to my headphones. It's perfect if you're lazy like me, I only really use my speakers when I'm on the sofa playing a game with a controller or watching TV/films, if I'm at my desk I'll use my headphones of course.

@Sooty: most people use surround sound virtualisation (such as dolby headphone) to increase the perception of distance and direction which I get by default with my ad 700's, but I'll give Dolby headphones a shot.

Yeah, I also wondered about this when I get my new Klipsch speaker system. I ended up hooking it through a digital optical cable to my reciver. It's not true 5.1 but my receiver does a good enough job at imitating it.

@Mordukai: I didn't mean surround sound headphones. I totally agree they're a rip off.

I meant regular ass stereo headphones. They work just the same. Headphones will always be higher quality than speakers (if you get a comparable pair)

@Shivoa: I was thinking of upgrading the sound system next winter but that would also mean I'll have to re-buy everything. New sub-woofer and speakers. The sub I have now is passive and my speakers are 6ohm. I know you can run a 6ohm speaker on an 8ohm system, given you're not gonna push them too hard, but what's the point in upgrading if you're not going to get the most out of your system. The only thing that detracts me from doing that is that my living room space is A.) Not really designed for a 7.1 setup, and B.) Just not big enough for it. I was thinking about building speakers, could be a nice project for the fall.

@Canteu: Don't get me wrong. I love my headphones too but it's nice to use surround when you can.

@TyCobb: I don't know if it was intentional but in some demented way your username and avatar picture match perfectly. Maybe in the back of my mind I always looked at Walter as the Ty Cobb of the bowling world. Yet another layer to an already amazing movie. DAMN IT, now I really want a White Russian *Looks at the time* hmm 10:40 in the morning...Not too early right?

I don't really have anything to add to this, but I just wanted to say that after skimming over this thread, I'm so glad I'm an ignorant Neanderthal when it comes to sound quality. I just use a pair of $30 Microsoft headphones for everything on my PC and have no problems with the sound quality. Sounds like a nightmare trying to get surround working. Best of luck in your pursuits. I got some rocks to bang together.

@crusader8463: As long as you buy knowing what to get (DDLive, often branded Dolby Home Theatre) then your cheap motherboard audio can do hardware DD5.1 encoding and an optical cable is a great way of pushing that 6 channel surround audio to an amp/receiver. That what the xbox and playstation systems use to drive their surround sound audio (in fact the original xbox was also using the same real-time encoding DD chip as some of the first PC mobos to offer onboard DD encoding, the nVidia nForce SoundStorm audio on those motherboards was the same design as the nVidia design inside the first xbox).

It's just a shame that there is so much segmentation (Gigabyte alone seems to offer about 10 different motherboards just based on the Z68 chipset) that you end up with these situations where the OP ended up buying a mobo that can't do what he wants, even though the silicon of the onboard audio chip is actually likely to support the hardware encoding required. As a fan of driving games, I find actual speakers behind me so I can hear the cars coming up and know which side they're trying to overtake on is really important. It's not the end of the world to use stereo or even a virtual mix that emulates surround (although you can't turn your head as the audio rotates with you and I've found that a bit disorienting in the past) but I prefer to have 5 speakers and a sub when I can and have purchased mobos knowing that I need DDLive support to get a 5.1 output over the optical out.

@Mordukai: haha Thanks. I love the movie and name so it kind of just worked out. Oh, and it is 5 o'clock somewhere so drink up!

Donny, shut the fuck up.

The whole thing about digital cables not being able to offer "true" 5.1 is just semantics. No need to try and confuse this guy with nonsense that will not apply.

@MrKlorox: Reading the poster talking about it, I'd say it probably comes from a fundamental failure to understand the difference between serial vs parallel protocols and erroneously applying that to the serial data stream (if I have four 10mbps streams of bits and a cable which can take 40mbps then I can push all four bit streams down a single cable and get them back to four streams at the other end with no problem (mux-demux); bandwidth is the only constraint, not how many discrete transmission streams you have available vs how many streams you want to transmit). Talk of optical only being a single stream of bits has northing to do with suitability for surround audio transmission.

But maybe I'm reading far too much into that post and the actual point was that Dolby Digital and DTS are both lossy compressions and so they're not a perfect representation of the original uncompressed source 6 channel audio signal. But then analogue output is a minefield of analogue noise that means you're very unlikely to get exactly the same output and input so the perfect transmission (look it up if you think digital cables are lossy) of a digital channel is likely to be a smart move. And hey, it only takes one TOSlink cable rather than three cables for analogue for you 6 channel audio so that's really handy when your amp has several consoles and a PC hooked up to it and you're trying to avoid a cable warren.