Audio question

[sudyke]

Hi All!
I have an Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard, that has an SPDIF/Optical onboard soundcard (SoundMAX). It is connected to my Yamaha HomeTheater amp by an optical cable. On the box of WoW it says that it supports Dolby. So why don't I get 5.1 sound? :listen: Why only stereo? :ponder: My soundcard drivers are up to date, but the manual says that IF I have SPDIF on my soundcard, then the (SPDIF)settings panel will be activated in the control panel of the card. But it isnt activated. The only time I ever hear 5.1 sound is through Nero Media Player, 'cos there I can manually set it to use SPDIF.
Any ideas are welcome (no I dont really want to throw it in the garbage:grin: )!!!
Thanx in advance!
Sudyke

[rottentomato]

consider getting a seperate soundcard....you may be having issues because it isnt the best option for sound, and you may or may not have ALL the software needed. nero media player lets you adjust the sound, but do you have a seperate decoder for your 5.1? also what yamaha system is it?

[sudyke]

Thank you for your quick reply!

I have all the software installed from the MB install DVD, and also upgraded the sound driver from the SoundMAX site. I'm not exactly sure what u mean by seperate decoder... The Yamaha system is a ysx1300. It supports DTS NEO:6, DolbyPrologicII.

I remember that when I play a movie with nero that supports 5.1CH then the speaker config is displayed on the amp, if it isn't supported, then it displays only the front left-right (which i guess is normal), but the sound is awful. Then I have to go to the control panel of the soundc. and set the speakers to stereo. I end up setting the speakers 100x a day, but surround sound only comes when I play 5.1ch vids on nero.

[rottentomato]

maybe an upgrade on the audio card is in order...i know cretive labs has a few sound cards for reasonable prices that can play 5.1 or 7.1 sound

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=SC-XFI-FAT&c=pw comes to mind as one....

[Kalos]

You're not going to get 5.1 Sound on Onboard audio. It's intergrated, it can't afford to be too high quality else it will drag the price of the whole motherboard up with it, the manufacturer's would stand for it, and the majority of people who use onboard wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

[moopy]

Hi All!
I have an Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard, that has an SPDIF/Optical onboard soundcard (SoundMAX). It is connected to my Yamaha HomeTheater amp by an optical cable. On the box of WoW it says that it supports Dolby. So why don't I get 5.1 sound? :listen: Why only stereo?

Because your sound hardware lacks a Dolby Digital 5.1 encoder. The only motherboard audio that I have seen that actually had this is the now defunct Nvidia Soundstorm stuff or maybe the Asus P5AD2 Premium's cheap and nasty C-media chipset (also outdated, P4 stuff). There maybe be some others, but Soundstorm was the only decent onboard one that I am aware of. The 5.1 woirks when you're playing DVDs because it's using the 5.1 audio track on there which is already encoded.

Definately time for an extra card, sorry :)

[sudyke]

:( Well thx 4 the help guys...







This sux...