How do I get DTS and/or Dolby Digital from my PC ??

[ccoltas]

Now that I have the new Matrox DVD player Software, what do I need to playback DTS or Dolby Digital from a receiver? Assuming the receiver has the decoder?

Right now I have a SB PCI 128. What is the minimum soundcard I would need, and what cable would I need to use?

[az]

Best bet (in case your receiver does have discrete analog 5.1 inputs but no decoder) would be a Creative SB Live! player/platinum 5.1

The player is cheaper, and for most users it will more than suffice (especially if you were happy with your current soundcard).

Alternatively, you could use a Hercules Game Theater XP (there's a thread here about it, don't know what's in there though).

If your receiver has a built-in decoder than it has at least a digital in, which means you could use all of the plus SB Live! player 1024, SB Live! Platinum (both without the "5.1", Videologic Sonic Fury, Terratec DMX XFire or, even cheaper, a Terratec 512i Digital.

If your receiver does have a buillt-in decoder and sound quality is your main concern and cannot be high enough, buy a Terratec EWX 24/96. It's more of a musician's than a gamer's card (lacking EAX and A3D), but it's signal-to-noise ratio is 96dB with 44.1kHz/16bit and with 96kHz/24bit it's 110 dB!

AZ

[Joel]

I just recently bought this setup and it is sweet. 5.1 surround sound even in UT, now that is sweet.



You can find out more about them at the following URLs.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/xgamer5.1/

http://csw.creative.com/products/dtt2200/

Joel

[Marshmallowman]

I do believe if you have sound blaster live value, and power dvd(maybe others as well)
you can get ac3 out of the digital out port.
(also out of hoontech digitial io if you have one)
It is implemented as some kind of pass thru as the the SB live value does no processing it just shuffles the bits straight to the digital out
Should also work in win 2k, but an
"unofficial patch" is neccessary (which I can't find), the patch is "supposed to be included in SP2 for win2k.

have not tested it yet, but if I ever find somewhere to download the patch I'll let you no.
(I suppose if your sound card has a digitial IO port it is remotely possible it can do some sort of passthru as well)

[az]

Marshmellowman: That is in fact just what I meant with all the soundcards I listed that need an external decoder

AZ

[Tempest]

Marshmallowman, lick my feet clean and I'll lead you to...
http://trix.mine.nu/html/ac3.html

Works fine for me...

Edit: I have a Live! Platinum though. Read more about the AC3 passtrough @ http://alive.singnet.com.sg/tech/passthrough.htm

[This message has been edited by Tempest (edited 23 April 2001).]

[Marshmallowman]

Thanks tempest,
The patch worked well. I now have ac3 pumping through SBlive value/hoontech digital IO when playing DVD's through PowerDVD 3.0

Just set the audio mode to SPdif in audio options in powerdvd even though the signal is actual coming out of the optical/rf on my hoontech card.

PS: win2k sp1