Sound Card question

[Kaspian]

Anyone here using this card? Its under $25 at newegg. I need a new sound card. I was going to order the Audigy 2 till I stumbled across the AV-710. Any feed back on the card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829120103

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I was using it before I got my X-Mystique.

It's a nice card for stereo analog or digital output.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you want to send 5.1 _game_ audio over a digital connection then you need a card with Dolby Live like the X-Mystique (Creative cards do not offer Dolby Live).

If you plan to use the analog outs, onboard audio might be good enough and costs $0.

 

[SonicIce]

im confused. if you need dolby live to get 5.1 in games, how does anyone get 5.1 with an audigy 2? is there some sort of upconverting or what about eax?

 

[7earitup]

You need Dolby Live to get 5.1 sound with a digital connection, not analog.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
im confused. if you need dolby live to get 5.1 in games, how does anyone get 5.1 with an audigy 2? is there some sort of upconverting or what about eax?

They get 5.1
(a) through digital using passthrough of pre-encoded DVD sound
(b) through analog using 6 analog channels (3 stereo miniplugs)
(c) through nonstandard 2-channel digital proprietary to some Creative speakers

Game audio through a standard digital connection to a receiver or other speakers is PCM 2-channel stereo not 5.1.

(To finish confusing you, a few games do their own real-time Dolby encoding purely in software, then pass that signal on to the card to pass through just like a DVD player would)

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: SonicIce
im confused. if you need dolby live to get 5.1 in games, how does anyone get 5.1 with an audigy 2? is there some sort of upconverting or what about eax?

They get 5.1
(a) through digital using passthrough of pre-encoded DVD sound
(b) through analog using 6 analog channels (3 stereo miniplugs)
(c) through nonstandard 2-channel digital proprietary to some Creative speakers

Game audio through a standard digital connection to a receiver or other speakers is PCM 2-channel stereo not 5.1.

(To finish confusing you, a few games do their own real-time Dolby encoding purely in software, then pass that signal on to the card to pass through just like a DVD player would)

that makes sense. what are some games can u get 5.1 with? i meant how do you get the 5.1 positional audio in games like UT2004. like a guy fires a gun behind you and you hear it in your rear speakers, that cant be preencoded.

 

[DaveSimmons]

through analog outs -- the card has spearate analog outs for left / right front, left / right rear, front center and subwoofer. 3 stereo miniplugs on card = analog 5.1

A game sends the sound to the card to "render." (e.g. "play gunshot.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 1 foot", "play d'oh!.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 10 feet")

For a Creative card, it can only render the sound as analog 5.1, digital 2.0 (stereo), or as their own proprietary digital format that is _not_ Dolby or DTS so a receiver can't understand it.

For the X-Mystique and other "Dolby Live" cards, they can "render" game audio to a true Dolby 5.1 signal and send it over the digital connector to a receiver or home theater in a box.

 

[Kaspian]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
through analog outs -- the card has spearate analog outs for left / right front, left / right rear, front center and subwoofer. 3 stereo miniplugs on card = analog 5.1

A game sends the sound to the card to "render." (e.g. "play gunshot.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 1 foot", "play d'oh!.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 10 feet")

For a Creative card, it can only render the sound as analog 5.1, digital 2.0 (stereo), or as their own proprietary digital format that is _not_ Dolby or DTS so a receiver can't understand it.

For the X-Mystique and other "Dolby Live" cards, they can "render" game audio to a true Dolby 5.1 signal and send it over the digital connector to a receiver or home theater in a box.

So, is the main difference between the Creative and the Mystique is that I can have true 5.1 digital signal to be sent to a receiver?

Now, if I were to just use a regular 5.1 speaker setup without sending it to a home theater receiver any of the 2 cards will fit the bill...rigth?

I mainly play games on this rig.

By the way thank you all for your input :thumbsup:

 

[shroud]

If your passing a digital signal to a receiver you can use the SPDIF output on the soundcard or most onboard motherboards and let your receiver process the signal to whatever it is, DTS, DD5.1, DD2.0, etc...
If you mean a regular 5.1 setup as analog audio yes, they both output 5.1 as analog to the speakers.
If the game is using special audio, such as EAX, etc, then you will have to pass it as an analog signal as your receiver will not handle proprietary audio streams.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
through analog outs -- the card has spearate analog outs for left / right front, left / right rear, front center and subwoofer. 3 stereo miniplugs on card = analog 5.1

A game sends the sound to the card to "render." (e.g. "play gunshot.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 1 foot", "play d'oh!.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 10 feet")

For a Creative card, it can only render the sound as analog 5.1, digital 2.0 (stereo), or as their own proprietary digital format that is _not_ Dolby or DTS so a receiver can't understand it.

For the X-Mystique and other "Dolby Live" cards, they can "render" game audio to a true Dolby 5.1 signal and send it over the digital connector to a receiver or home theater in a box.

so what is "dolby digital" or "DTS" anyway? if games can get you positional audio like that then what does dolby do for you? (im not talking about just the cables, i know analog comes over the 3 minijacks and digital is the coax or optical in stereo unless x-mystique)

 

[DaveSimmons]

Dolby and DTS doesn't make game sounds better in any way, they are just compression schemes for sending surround sound over a digital cable.

So if a game creates surround sound, having Dolby Live just lets you send the surround over a digital cable, but it is the same surround you would get from the analog outs.

First, a game creates surround. Then:

a. any soundcard sends out the surround by analog as surround

b. Creative gets lazy and for digital only sends out 2-channel stereo

c. "Dolby Live" cards compress the surround into a Dolby 5.1 digital signal so you can just use 1 cable instead of 6. It's the same surround as (a) though.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SonicIce

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
through analog outs -- the card has spearate analog outs for left / right front, left / right rear, front center and subwoofer. 3 stereo miniplugs on card = analog 5.1

A game sends the sound to the card to "render." (e.g. "play gunshot.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 1 foot", "play d'oh!.wav placed at 45 degree angle and distance 10 feet")

For a Creative card, it can only render the sound as analog 5.1, digital 2.0 (stereo), or as their own proprietary digital format that is _not_ Dolby or DTS so a receiver can't understand it.

For the X-Mystique and other "Dolby Live" cards, they can "render" game audio to a true Dolby 5.1 signal and send it over the digital connector to a receiver or home theater in a box.

so what is "dolby digital" or "DTS" anyway? if games can get you positional audio like that then what does dolby do for you? (im not talking about just the cables, i know analog comes over the 3 minijacks and digital is the coax or optical in stereo unless x-mystique)

DD and DTS are how DVDs are encoded for audio. It allows each speaker to get its own dedicated track for sounds (like 6 or 7 signals depending on the format). So, receivers are designed to decode these signals and play them on the speakers intended.

I bookmarked this article but didn't get a chance to read it yet. It looks like it has some nifty info on each technology
http://www.spannerworks.net/reference/10_1a.asp

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Dolby and DTS doesn't make game sounds better in any way, they are just compression schemes for sending surround sound over a digital cable.

ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh ok thanks.
so dolby live means its able to compress it in realtime? would that mean that there would be any lag between when something happens and where u hear it? or it doesn't take that much power to encode DD? wait why would u need dolby stuff in games since its all made in realtime and doesn't need the compression since its not being stored anywhere?

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I bookmarked this article but didn't get a chance to read it yet. It looks like it has some nifty info on each technology
http://www.spannerworks.net/reference/10_1a.asp

sweet thanks