Asus Xonar DGX. How to setup it and having 5.1 system through the digital output

[ajirebardyn]

Hello

I got one of these sound card and I'm having an issue with it. Mainly, I plug it into my motherboard, install drivers from CD which was inside the box with card, everything proceed smothly without any errors. Then I plug my AMP with digital output in card. I configured a little in Xonar software (8channels, system 5.1, PCM enable, turn on SPDiF in windows sound option). But when I turned up movie I didn't get 5.1 sound;/ It was still 2.0. My Amp didn't change icons on digital screen. There was stiil little icons of L and R channels, there wasn't rest of it - Central, and both rear speakers and subwoofer. What should I do to fix it? I'm using kmp-player and there is visible DTS and 5.1 system in the left corner but my amp could't encode it properly...Any solutions, advices?

Thank you in advance for interest

 

[gamerk316]

The root issue is optical can send only three audio formats:

1: Stereo PCM
2: 5.1 Dolby Digital
3: 5.1 DTS

Almost all PC audio is not encoded using Dolby or DTS, so to get 5.1 via optical, you need to convert a 5.1 audio stream to either of these formats.

However, the DGX does NOT have the ability to do real-time encoding to either format, so only audio that is already encoded (say, watching a movie through a media player) will output as 5.1. The rest of the time, you'll get 2.0.

The cheapest soundcard in the Xonar line with the ability to do realtime encoding is the DS(X), which can encode to DTS in realtime. All the other cards, DG(X) aside, can encode to Dolby.

 

[ajirebardyn]

Ok, I understand it, but I don't want to encode sound to 5.1 I just want to pass this sound from PC to AMP and let the amp do his job. Watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA7ytyLioEU
This guy present how to make it on intergrated sound card, and it's working, look carefully on right corner in about 1:40. Could anyone tell me what should I do to make it on my xonar card?

 

[ajirebardyn]

I thought that motherboard which a selected have got a optical out...but when it came to me, I sorely disappointed. So what now? Is there any sollution? It's rather impossible...Why on earth intagrated optical out it's better than optical in xonar which is even more expenssive... I can't figure it out:/. I begging you help with this issue, it's really important to me. Thank you one more time for interest 😉

 

[gamerk316]

Oh, OK, you want to pass through audio ALREADY in Dolby/DTS formats. That's doable easily enough.

First off: Ensure that "Speakers", and not "Optical Output" is selected as your default audio output device from the Sounds tab of the Windows Control Panel. This is REQUIRED.

Then, from the ASUS Control panel, make sure the "SPDIF OUT" checkbox is selected, which will send all audio out to the AMP.

Now, it's been a while since I've done this, so I forget if you have to set the number of speakers to 6 or not for Dolby/DTS to work right; the easy test is likely to run the Windows speaker test, which should have Dolby/DTS audio files you can test with.

And as an aside: From a technical standpoint, MisterSprinkles is right. Digital is digital.