How do I plug in my Surround Sound?

[Andrewf]

I have this that an old friend gave me as a hand-me-down

 

samsung surround sound ht-z320

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HT-Z320-Theater-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B001XCX9K2

 

I have this audio card.

Xonar DGX 5.1

Perfect combo right?

 

The I/O confuses me and I've had it set up on my xbox with the optical cord but whenever it comes to my PC it gets really confusing and I don't think the optical port will work for full true surround sound.

 

Do I have to get a converter from optical to analog for the 3.5mm jacks on the audio card?

 

Something like this maybe?

[Stagea]

You should be able to get discrete surround sound when playing movies with Dolby Digital or DTS tracks.

 

You probably won't get discrete surround sound when gaming simply because your sound board does not support Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. You can set the Samsung HTIB to "PLII" during this scenario to at least get a good effect.

 

https://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-pro-logic-ii.html

[Andrewf]

5 minutes ago, Stagea said:

You should be able to get discrete surround sound when playing movies with Dolby Digital or DTS tracks.

 

You probably won't get discrete surround sound when gaming simply because your sound board does not support Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. You can set the Samsung HTIB to "PLII" during this scenario to at least get a good effect.

 

https://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-pro-logic-ii.html

That's the thing, I need it for gaming, it worked so perfectly on my xbox one, I don't see why it shouldn't in other games. Notably PUBG.

[Marshnt]

22 minutes ago, Andrewf said:

I have this that an old friend gave me as a hand-me-down

 

samsung surround sound ht-z320

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HT-Z320-Theater-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B001XCX9K2

 

I have this audio card.

Xonar DGX 5.1

Perfect combo right?

 

The I/O confuses me and I've had it set up on my xbox with the optical cord but whenever it comes to my PC it gets really confusing and I don't think the optical port will work for full true surround sound.

 

Do I have to get a converter from optical to analog for the 3.5mm jacks on the audio card?

 

Something like this maybe?

 

Toslink, look in the setting and change output to 5.1.

[Andrewf]

3 minutes ago, Marshnt said:

Toslink

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L3KO5WK/ref=asc_df_B00L3KO5WK5128413/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B00L3KO5WK&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167146065113&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14332836929856530424&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9020767&hvtargid=pla-159382335435

Would you mind actually reading the post? I have the cable I need...

[Marshnt]

Just now, Andrewf said:

Would you mind actually reading the post? I have the cable I need...

I edited my post and finished it.

[Andrewf]

2 minutes ago, Marshnt said:

I edited my post and finished it.

You're trolling right? Just leave.

[Stagea]

28 minutes ago, Andrewf said:

That's the thing, I need it for gaming, it worked so perfectly on my xbox one, I don't see why it shouldn't in other games. Notably PUBG.

The Xbox One does on-the-fly surround audio transcoding to Dolby Digital or DTS (depending on what you choose), while your sound card does not. On PCs, that feature is called Dolby Digital Live (real-time transcoding to Dolby Digital) and DTS Connect (real-time transcoding to DTS).

[Andrewf]

4 minutes ago, Stagea said:

The Xbox One does on-the-fly surround audio transcoding to Dolby Digital or DTS (depending on what you choose), while your sound card does not. On PCs, that feature is called Dolby Digital Live (real-time transcoding to Dolby Digital) and DTS Connect (real-time transcoding to DTS).

So all I need is a card that has Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect, could you recommend a few?

[Stagea]

4 minutes ago, Andrewf said:

So all I need is a card that has Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect, could you recommend a few?

I honestly cannot, because support for this feature is quite broken in Windows 10 (you can search online about the troubles). The Xonar DX used to be an affordable option with this feature (worked well with earlier versions of Windows).

[Andrewf]

2 minutes ago, Stagea said:

I honestly cannot, because support for this feature is quite broken in Windows 10 (you can search online about the troubles). The Xonar DX used to be an affordable option with this feature (worked well with earlier versions of Windows).

That's ridiculous, so basically I'm kind of SoL? That Dolby Pro Logic sounds basically like just good virtual headset surround. I tried the Logitech G430s and compared to my Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones, they just sound awful and in games like Pubg my M50Xs are much better.

What do you think will give me the best advantage? Sticking to my current headset, or going for the samsung surround sound with Dolby Pro Logic?

[Stagea]

Just now, Andrewf said:

That's ridiculous, so basically I'm kind of SoL? That Dolby Pro Logic sounds basically like just good virtual headset surround. I tried the Logitech G430s and compared to my Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones, they just sound awful and in games like Pubg my M50Xs are much better.

What do you think will give me the best advantage? Sticking to my current headset, or going for the samsung surround sound with Dolby Pro Logic?

If you have Realtek onboard audio, you may wanna check this out:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/unlocked-realtek-hd-audio-drivers-for-windows-10-dolby-digital-live-dts-interactive.228612/

 

It may be a free solution in case it works for you.

[Andrewf]

2 minutes ago, Stagea said:

If you have Realtek onboard audio, you may wanna check this out:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/unlocked-realtek-hd-audio-drivers-for-windows-10-dolby-digital-live-dts-interactive.228612/

 

It may be a free solution in case it works for you.

Very interesting! I'll read through after I ask you one more question. What is stopping my from getting a digital/optical to analog converter, and simply plugging in each 3.5mm jack from the sound card into it then optical cord into my Samsung system? Wouldn't it essentially convert each discrete channel from the sound card to where it needs to go? Or is it that the problem lies within the sound card unable to separate each channel from a video game?

You've been such a big help by the way, I greatly appreciate it!

[Andrewf]

HDMi apparently can do up to 7.1 PCM, I know there's an option of sorts on the Samsung sytem, and with the pass through maybe there's a way through my graphics card? Sounds complicated and pretty sketchy to pass an HDMI from GPU though a 7 year old system haha.

[Stagea]

20 minutes ago, Andrewf said:

Very interesting! I'll read through after I ask you one more question. What is stopping my from getting a digital/optical to analog converter, and simply plugging in each 3.5mm jack from the sound card into it then optical cord into my Samsung system? Wouldn't it essentially convert each discrete channel from the sound card to where it needs to go? Or is it that the problem lies within the sound card unable to separate each channel from a video game?

You've been such a big help by the way, I greatly appreciate it!

You're welcome man. As for using an external Decoder/DAC, there would be two problems: 1. The PC's optical out is not spewing out surround sound information because the PC is not encoding the audio in surround sound. 2. Even if you get a surround stream from the PC, the Samsung system only has a 2-channel analogue input (Aux In 2).

 

21 minutes ago, Andrewf said:

HDMi apparently can do up to 7.1 PCM, I know there's an option of sorts on the Samsung sytem, and with the pass through maybe there's a way through my graphics card? Sounds complicated and pretty sketchy to pass an HDMI from GPU though a 7 year old system haha.

Your PC's HDMI port should be able to do that (those that cannot are at least 10 years old). You can try the HDMI input in your Samsung. I didn't notice that it had one in the photo (the ht-z320 links that were provided did not show any HDMI input)

[Andrewf]

2 hours ago, Stagea said:

You're welcome man. As for using an external Decoder/DAC, there would be two problems: 1. The PC's optical out is not spewing out surround sound information because the PC is not encoding the audio in surround sound. 2. Even if you get a surround stream from the PC, the Samsung system only has a 2-channel analogue input (Aux In 2).

 

Your PC's HDMI port should be able to do that (those that cannot are at least 10 years old). You can try the HDMI input in your Samsung. I didn't notice that it had one in the photo (the ht-z320 links that were provided did not show any HDMI input)

The HDMIs are there on the bottom right, to the right of the optical port.

 

My computer is very new, but the ht-320 is pretty old, so who knows, I'll just have to try the HDMI method. I have a GTX 1080 so perhaps it's able to send surround sound audio to the speakers somehow.

[Andrewf]

3 minutes ago, Andrewf said:

The HDMIs are there on the bottom right, to the right of the optical port.

 

My computer is very new, but the ht-320 is pretty old, so who knows, I'll just have to try the HDMI method. I have a GTX 1080 so perhaps it's able to send surround sound audio to the speakers somehow.

Also the Samsung system has the optical S/PDIF port, the decoder/dac would hopefully be converting the multiple analog channels from the PC, assuming I can find a way to get it to do 5.1, and I can plug that into the Samsung system with the S/PDIF port.