PC 5.1 audio to surround receiver on new build

[twjdeboer]

Hello everyone,

 

this is my first post here, but I have been watching the WAN-show for quite some time now. It even inspired me to finally replace my 5,5 year old Core2Quad rig. I would like to explain that I'm from Europe, so aside from my english (please correct me if necessary) the pricing here may vary wildly from the States and rest of the world

 

What I want to accomplish is transmitting either uncompressed stereo or compressed 5.1 audio from my new rig to an Onkyo TX-SR607 surround sound receiver. The uncompressed audio would be for listening to music and stereo sources. The 5.1 audio would be for games. I don't mind switching between settings. This receiver has the following connectings:

 

• Coaxial S/PDIF available
• Optical S/PDIF, but already in use for my flatscreen and X360
• HDMI

That means no multichannel analog sound inputs! 

 

The way I do this now is via an Auzentech X-Fi prelude with DTS connect for 5.1 and uncompressed PCM for stereo. That means I have to switch every time I want either one. No biggie. The problem is that this card has seen its best days and some audio artifacts occur, such as audio falling away and loud static occuring every now and then. Also, the drivers haven't been updated in a while, so I don't think it's a future proof option at all.

 

My options as I see them now, from most ideal to least favourable:

 

• Use the HDMI output. This will allow me to pass 5.1 audio uncompressed with only one cable. Might seem the ideal way to go, but unfortunately due to the way DHCP works it seems I can only use HDMI if I also output a video signal on it. As my screens have a resolution of 1920x1200 and my onkyo only accepts inputs up to 1920x1080 I cannot simply clone a screen. This would also cost me a bit of graphics power, I think? Maybe a workaround can be found for this? This would be great as no extra hardware would be required, no compression occurs and I only have one cable to the receiver. I am planning on buying either a GTX780 or an R9 290, so graphics power is not extremely limited. Maybe AMD or Nvidia has better support? This might be a reason to swing either way, as I am undecided.
• Use the S/PDIF output of the onboard audio chip. This requires the chip to be able to support DTS Connect, as S/PDIF only allows for stereo channels to be transmitted uncompressed. Only ASrock and ASUS provide official support for this out of the box on Z87 models, although the DTS pack available from Creative might enable me to use other brands. I need info, but I can't find it anywhere. Link down below. Another Caveat is that most motherboard manufacturers only include optical out on their products, so a workaround has to be hacked, possibly using the internal S/PDIF out and a RCA connector on a PCI-slot cover.
• Buy a seperate sound card. This is not the best option, as spending the same amount on a better motherboard will probably be a better buy. The second problem is again the lack of Coaxial out and in some cases even the internal S/PDIF, which forces me to disconnect either my Plasma or my Xbox. I would also probably not benefit from better audio hardware at all, because I will only convert the signal in my Onkyo, so better DACs will not make any difference at all.

Is anyone familiar with any of these options? My motherboard of choice would be the ASUS Z87-A, because it is priced reasonably and it has support for DTS Connect. In the case of option 1 I would go for the Gigabyte Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3, as it would save me about $30. I am not sure about any other advantages of the ASUS board, so any and all advice is welcome!

 

In short: What do you think is the best option for me? It could be I missed an option in my research, so be free to give any advice you like!

 

Creative DTS pack: http://software.store.creative.com/software/dolby-digital-live-and-dts-connect-pack/106-18034.aspx

 

edit: Spelling, derp.

[defunkt]

Try the optical on the motherboard and see how it is.

[twjdeboer]

As I don't have the actual motherboard yet, would you say it's better to go with the ASUS or something else in this case?

I don't think gambling on it working is the best thing to do.

[LIGISTX]

That is too bad that you can't pass audio over HDMI without video. That was going to be my advice .

 

Um, you should be able to pass 5.1 no problem over optical, might want to do a bunch of forum searches and see what people have done with optical and 5.1. Besides that, I don't know what you can do, I really dislike how there is no "standard" way to just do things like that. You should be able to pass audio over there and video here and just swap things around with HDMI all over the place. Honestly, its so annoying.

[twjdeboer]

I have searched the internet far and wide, from 'hello world' to Miley Cyrus twerking, but have only found what I typed above.

The thing with 5.1 audio over optical is that you can only send it compressed, with a technique such as DTS Connect. This is due to limited bandwidth.

I could try forcing a higher resolution somehow, but would a cloned display negatively affect performance noticably?

[TheMooDude]

I must admit I hate the way there are no real acceptable ways of doing things like this at the moment. I am currently forced to have my video signal passed through my AVR simply so that I can send the 5.1 multichannel audio through the HDMI. Ideally I'd rather send video directly to my display but that would restrict me to sending only two channels to the AVR and having it upmix.

 

From what I know about these things (which is far from a comprehensive knowledge, but enough to get by) you're pretty much spot on above. You have the option of accepting the resolution limitations of the AVR and running at 1080p, or you accept the channel limitations of Coax / Optical and trust your AVR to upmix using DD/DTS.

 

To be honest, were I in your position, I'd probably go for a Coax / Opt audio connection. Have video fed directly to your display at its native resolution, and trust the AVR to upmix the audio. 99% of any content you'd want to experience in surround sound will most likely support DD/DTS. If not, the AVR will have features such as DD ProLogic2, or DTS Neo:6 which are capable of upmixing any stereo source without the additional matrix information supplied with DD:L / DTS:C. If you trust the algorithms behind ProLogic and Neo, you'll get surround sound from 100% of sources.

[twjdeboer]

Thank you very much for commenting. It is good to know where I stand and have some confirmation on my findings. It could be a good idea to have some sort of guide somewhere, because these things are not really common knowledge. Maybe Linus could do a part on the WAN-show

[loony979]

Hey: twideboer

 

Not 100% sure if this will help you but ill try any way no point in having a little knowledge

& not sharing it .

 

How ive got my audio set up .

PC - Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series - Sound Card Optical cable (Red Laser light)

to Sony Receiver then ( .1 ) output to Ashton PM-6300 Professional Powered Mixer. 550w RMS .

The Towers i use are Boston Acoustics same with the center .

Not that any of that last bit was needed but still .

 

Settings :

Clock: 48khz

Flixijack: Line in (probably not needed to say but what the hell)

Headphones:  (Nothing selected don't use them)

Bit-Matched: (again not selected)

SPDIF I/O: (again not selected)

DIGITAL I/O: (again not selected) But in the past i selected it to allow me to play stereo mix . Not now since the update.

Encoder: DTS Connect (Always) Note: it will send 5.1 directly to my Sony Receiver ,& even if the audio is 2 channel the blue light

indicator showing blue will always stay on,

 

Hope this helps if not - all good . :) Also this thread aims @ External Audio ,i started it but im not even sure if it will ever boom up ,as lets face it most users use Headphones these day. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/102493-external-audio-solutions/

It's great to see people using external audio tho. Hope you get you'rs sorted out.

[TheProfosist]

Well generally S/PDIF cant do uncompressed 5.1 so easiest and best option is hdmi.

[Hypnotoad]

I am running sort of a weird setup due to my financial situation when I was shopping for audio equipment. I have a franken-5.1 setup, in which I am using an Asus Xonar DGX, with an optical audo cable going to my Sony STR-K790 receiver that I bought new a long time ago. My center, left, and right channel speakers are Bowers & Wilkins Prism series speakers that I got at my local Goodwill for $15. The surround left, surround right, and subwoofer are the stock Sony speakers that came with my receiver. Here is a screenshot of my Asus Xonar audio center application:

 

The whole setup sounds amazing in my opinion. As you can see I am running 5.1 PCM audio to my receiver with no issues.

[TheProfosist]

I am running sort of a weird setup due to my financial situation when I was shopping for audio equipment. I have a franken-5.1 setup, in which I am using an Asus Xonar DGX, with an optical audo cable going to my Sony STR-K790 receiver that I bought new a long time ago. My center, left, and right channel speakers are Bowers & Wilkins Prism series speakers that I got at my local Goodwill for $15. The surround left, surround right, and subwoofer are the stock Sony speakers that came with my receiver. Here is a screenshot of my Asus Xonar audio center application:

 

The whole setup sounds amazing in my opinion. As you can see I am running 5.1 PCM audio to my receiver with no issues.

I thought this was possible but havnt done it in for ever and unless you have a card like that or a program that can bitstream right through the card skipping widows itll only be 2ch unless you use DD, DTS, and I think widows supports 5.1 wma but what receiver is going to play that . I see you have a virtual speaker graphic. Is it possible to click on a specific speaker and make sound com out or do a test where it checks 1 by 1?

[twjdeboer]

I'm pretty sure that The Profosist is right. You can either bitstream (and compress) your audio for 5.1 or send 2 channel over PCM. If you are able to do this without bitstreaming, I wouldn't know how.