5.1 confusion

rossf wrote on 3/24/2003, 8:11 PM
hello,I have audiophile2496 soundcard with coaxial S/PDIF digital I/O going to my sony home theatre decoder unit via digital coaxial in.In trying out surround mixing it seems to come out stereo really,not able to truly separate sound effect into one speaker only.Will the home theatre only recognise a rendered ac3 file(still waiting for my update vv4+dvd to arrive so only using demo)If so,what budget options are there to hear your surround mix before rendering.Do I need a computer based speaker system with a decoder as well.Its all rather confusing.thank you in advance

Comments

zcus wrote on 3/24/2003, 8:29 PM
Did you change the audio project settings from stereo to 5.1??
SonyDennis wrote on 3/24/2003, 8:57 PM
To preview a 5.1 surround project while editing generally takes a discreate 5.1 channel soundcard, or a soundcard that does AC-3 encoding in hardware (but they are expensive). If you have Vegas+DVD or the surround plug-in pack, you can render AC-3 in software, and if your soundcard has a SPDIF connection, you might be able to pipe the AC-3 out that into your home theater receiver, which will decode it as Dolby Digital. It depends on your soundcard and utilities that came with it.
///d@
MrEd wrote on 3/24/2003, 9:57 PM
I have soundblaster live and I have been having the same problem. Will this work with 5.1... I know it does but can I preview it during editing? Or what do I need to do to hear it outside of editing?

Thanks

-Ed
rossf wrote on 3/24/2003, 9:57 PM
yes.when setting up the audio preferences it only gives me one option for windows clasic wave driver,that is S/PDIF out,or when using the m-audio delta asio driver it only shows S/PDIF L/R out for front,souround and centre/lfo channels.It doesn't list separate speakers.
rossf wrote on 3/24/2003, 10:02 PM
sorry sonicdennis,does discreate 5.1 channel soundcard mean it has 5 separate outputs or has a dedicated decoder device that goes with it?
MCTech wrote on 3/25/2003, 11:51 AM
Some cards have the physical outputs, but not a driver which supports the discreet channels. Such a card may be able to decode and play 5.1 content in DVDs and games appropriately, but it might not make the discreet channels available for use by programs like Vegas or ACID. For example, the Hercules Muse 5.1 DVD sound card seems to fall into this category (based on personal experience). But we've seen reports here that the Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz has the right kind of driver.