Windows sounds through SPDIF

[pilam99]

I'm using the SPDIF out on a DFI Lanparty NF3 mobo, thought I'd be able to use the exclusively for sending sound to my receiver. Even with SPDIF enabled in the audio mixer, I get no sound. If I play a DVD, I do. Can the standard Windows sounds and everything else - games, avi files, etc. only be sent via analog with this board?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[folken]

Something like this came up recently. I'm not a major sound guru yet so someone else might be able to explain it better but I'll give you my understanding of it anyway for the heck of it
DVD audio is in a digital format like dolby digital, dts, etc from the beginging so your soundcard passes that right along to your reciever for decoding. Other sounds such as windows, games, etc are not already encoded into a digital format. Apparently the only soundcard that could encode those into a digital format was the soundstorm on nforce2 motherboards. So if you don't have soundstorm you arn't going to get sound through your digital spdif connection when playing analog audio because your reciever doesn't know wtf to do with this analog coming over the line.

So your choices are soundstorm or all analog. Analog isn't THAT bad, it is just a few more wires

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[Codesmith]

That limitation only applies to 5.1 sound.

All soundcards with digital output are capable of encoding 2 channel digital signals.

Whats unique about the SoundStorm APU is that it does realtime 6 channel encoding. So its the only one that will give you digital 5.1 from a game.

So something is definatley not right with your setup. All I can suggest is to keep playing with the settings, try the latest drivers.