5.1 From PC

[Fabio999]

Does anyone know a way for me to be able to output 4.1 audio from my GIGABYTE GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 to my altec lansing ada880? I've spent hours trying to find a way and I'm not sure if I'm just missing something or if its just not possible. On the flip side, if that isn't possible is there any 5.1 system that i would be able to easily connect to my mobo, preferably under $200.

 

[alcoholbob]

After doing some research on google, it appears the ADA880 does not have 4.1 analog input, only stereo, and it's optical input only accepts Dolby Pro Logic upsampling. It does not appear your multimedia speaker system was ever designed for 4.1 discrete audio at all.

There's plenty of 5.1 home theater in a box systems you can purchase for $200 or so at your local electronics stores that should be able to hook up to your motherboard or video card quite easily.

 

[Alamat]

I think you can get 5.1 or 7.1 out of onboard mobo sound through analog only. If you are thinking of using optical or coax, you have to get a dedicated sound card. I have one connected to an AVR to output DD/DTS.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Your motherboard has optical output supporting up to 7.1 and your speakers have coaxial digital input. You'll need to buy a optical to coaxial converter. Then you'll need to configure the SPDIF output on your system to do 4.1/5.1/7.1 or whatever. All outputs will usually default to stereo output. You need to go into Sound and click on the SPDIF output and hit configure then switch it to 5.1.

https://www.amazon.com/Optical-Tend...id=1513351921&sr=8-3&keywords=optical+to+coax

 

[Alamat]

I tried that but it would never output DD or DTS. Found out later that mobos didn't pony up the money to pay for the licenses? I maybe wrong though....

 

[sdifox]

Your mb has spdif out, so just an optical cable ought to do it.

 

[sdifox]

I tried that but it would never output DD or DTS. Found out later that mobos didn't pony up the money to pay for the licenses? I maybe wrong though....

Pass through doesn't need licensing.

 

[XavierMace]

HDMI from video card to AVR.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Game audio or DVD/blu-ray movies?

Game audio - most motherboards can only do this using analog and maybe HDMI, except when playing the few games that got their own license to encode to Dolby or DTS. A few high-end motherboards include the drivers for real-time Dolby/DTS encoding. So optical/coax will be stereo.

Movies - those were pre-encoded so the optical just needs to pass through the signal, so nothing special is needed.

 

[Alamat]

I guess I was talking about game audio as it does do the pass through on movies and the like.

 

[Malogeek]

Well the game itself has to support and output the right encoding as well.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Well the game itself has to support and output the right encoding as well.

For optical, yes, and very few games do that since it means paying money to Dolby or DTS.

For analog or HDMI, no. HDMI can pass 5.1 without needing Dolby or DTS.