No 5.1 support on optical ?

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Greetings all.. I just upgraded my soundcard and speakers . and im a little perplexed as how one enables 5.1 surround through the optical out.

My soundcard is the X-fi Fatality, and the speakers are Logitech Z5500..

Im using the optical out on the front panel for the Xfi {ther is non on teh actual card} and running to the optical input in the back of teh entertainment module for the Z5500s.. Now.. no matter waht i do with the soundcard settings. all the Module on the logitech end will detect is a 2.1 Signal.. .. am i stuck here for this.?? i have the analog jacks plugged in for now .. for some amazing sound in 5.1. but i really would like to lose all those cables and just use the optical.

Ideas anyone ? or am I beating a dead horse here ??

thankyou in advance for any replys.
<S>

 

[t1n0m3n]

I had a similar problem in the past with my SB audigy card.
I had a NForce 1 mobo (MSI one I think) that was connected via SPDIF (coax) to my JVC receiver. I loved it, I got 5.1 sound all of the time.
I upgraded motherboards to a Asus A7V8X... cool it has a SPDIF built in too! However, all I could get was PCM coming out of the coax.
So I got a SB Audigy 2 Plat (my current sound card) I connected it up.... and it only did PCM as well. What the he**??!!?
It turns out that what your sound card needs to support is called 5.1 upmix over SPDIF. The only "card" that I have ever had that supports this was the built in mobo sound of my NForce1.
The other 2 cards (built in via and the SBAudigy2Plat) only support 5.1 upmixing over analog. 🙁
So I went out and bought these retarded creative inspire 6.1 6600 speakers, connected them analog, and I now have 5.1 all the time (or 6.1 if you prefer)

 

[astrallite]

You need a soundcard that can encode Dolby Digital Live such as the Blue Gears X-Mystique or Turtle Beach Montenegro to pass a 5.1 signal through a digital medium.

You should use analog cables if you want to take advantage of your X-Fi. If you use the digital out, you are bypassing the soundcard's digital to analog converter. In effect, the sound card has no effect on the sound at all and your Z-5500s are effectively acting as your sound card, since all a digital cable does is bypass the DAC (digital to analog) process to the next component. There are many cheaper soundcards you can buy if you want to use the optical out only and have your Z-5500s act as your decoder.

 

[danizaken]

Only the soundcards mentioned above can encode dolby digital 5.1 live.
These cards are necessary ONLY if you want dd 5.1 sound in games.
But for movies ,the X-FI and onboard sound chips can send 5.1 signals through the spdif out with either a optical or coaxial cable, and these signals are decoded on your reciever or speaker system (only if supports dd 5.1 decoding) to DD 5.1 . So you should be able to get dd 5.1 in movies.
Make sure your dvd software is configured to ouput 5.1.
I think bundled versions only support 2.1.