5.1 audio 5 speaker jacks

[icon_of_sin]

i have a 5.1 surround sound system
has 3 audio jacks
1 for center and subwoffer
1 for front pair
1 for rear/side pair

are the spaker jacks on this motherboard compatable

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X470-GAMING-PLUS

according the a spec (found on a retailer site)
the jacks are

1 x Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out
1 x Line In
1 x Line Out
1 x Mic-In
1 x Rear Speaker Out
1 x S/PDIF-Out (Optical)

i dont see front/side in that list

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

Well, basically any Creative product that carries the SBX label is a good start. I have the Soundblaster Omni, though it and it’s counterpart, the Soundblaster Xfi-HD, only use optical and transmit that way to a home theater setup. They’re external audio cards and for what you’re wanting they should work perfectly.

I’m not sure what ASUS Xonar calls their products that have the same feature I mentioned.

[Revelene]

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

Messaggio originale di Revelene:

The individual audio tracks you speak of is PCM. GPUs fully support this up to 8 channels.

Only if samples and/or files are encoded first will it be able to do that do that IIRC. The GPU will otherwise push 2 channel PCM srereo.

Haslf-Life 2 uses AC3 Encoding so it will be heard as 5.1 surround sound if set as such using HDMI audio. Doom 3 however requiresa the use of 3.5mm jacks to provide surround sound. It will not play the EAX4.0 samples and only sample 2.0 stereo if HDMI Audio is used through the GPU.

Find me an example that isn't an old title that relies on the depreciated DirectSound API. Also, EAX isn't surround in the sense of traditional surround. It is based on processing multiple "voices", each with individual effect processes.

In modern titles, if it supports any surround at all, it will have standard PCM output.

Optical and EAX are old school. I understand that you are using these based on what you already have, but it shouldn't be pushed to someone that doesn't have these or has something newer.

Also, there are ways to get EAX working via software and can be used over any format.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di Revelene:

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

Only if samples and/or files are encoded first will it be able to do that do that IIRC. The GPU will otherwise push 2 channel PCM srereo.

Haslf-Life 2 uses AC3 Encoding so it will be heard as 5.1 surround sound if set as such using HDMI audio. Doom 3 however requiresa the use of 3.5mm jacks to provide surround sound. It will not play the EAX4.0 samples and only sample 2.0 stereo if HDMI Audio is used through the GPU.

Find me an example that isn't an old title that relies on the depreciated DirectSound API. Also, EAX isn't surround in the sense of traditional surround. It is based on processing multiple "voices", each with individual effect processes.

In modern titles, if it supports any surround at all, it will have standard PCM output.

Optical and EAX are old school. I understand that you are using these based on what you already have, but it shouldn't be pushed to someone that doesn't have these or has something newer.

Also, there are ways to get EAX working via software and can be used over any format.

OP wants something that does both over a single line to a home theater system for any game so good luck finding an alternate solution to that.

Creative does what you mentioned via a wrapper called “Alchemy”...RealTek has that too only it’s called “3D Sound Back”. However, if that is pushed through straight to digital on RealTec, it still only outputs to 2.0 tereo regardless of quality of sound. Go ahaead and test it for yourself to see what it is like.

"To be perfectly clear, your system will only play the audio based on its source.

If you play a file with 2 channel audio your system will only output stereo. Most notably in music
If you play a file with 5.1 audio your system will output 5.1 sound. Most notable in movies with Dolby digital or DTS sound

The only way to play stereo sound from all 5 speakers is to enable software controls such as Pro Logic II which sucks because all it does is clone the front 2 speakers to the rear 2 speakers. There will be depth of sound or difference in the range."

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2960687/windows-playing-audio-stereo-surround.html

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

[Revelene]

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

Messaggio originale di Revelene:

Find me an example that isn't an old title that relies on the depreciated DirectSound API. Also, EAX isn't surround in the sense of traditional surround. It is based on processing multiple "voices", each with individual effect processes.

In modern titles, if it supports any surround at all, it will have standard PCM output.

Optical and EAX are old school. I understand that you are using these based on what you already have, but it shouldn't be pushed to someone that doesn't have these or has something newer.

Also, there are ways to get EAX working via software and can be used over any format.

OP wants something that does both over a single line to a home theater system for any game so good luck finding an alternate solution to that.

Creative does what you mentioned via a wrapper called “Alchemy”...RealTek has that too only it’s called “3D Sound Back”. However, if that is pushed through straight to digital on RealTec, it still only outputs to 2.0 tereo regardless of quality of sound. Go ahaead and test it for yourself to see what it is like.

"To be perfectly clear, your system will only play the audio based on its source.

If you play a file with 2 channel audio your system will only output stereo. Most notably in music
If you play a file with 5.1 audio your system will output 5.1 sound. Most notable in movies with Dolby digital or DTS sound

The only way to play stereo sound from all 5 speakers is to enable software controls such as Pro Logic II which sucks because all it does is clone the front 2 speakers to the rear 2 speakers. There will be depth of sound or difference in the range."

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2960687/windows-playing-audio-stereo-surround.html

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

Again, mention modern titles. If you want to talk old school surround and surround emulation, we can go even further back... Kind of a pointless, to be honest.

I've yet to find anything surround that cannot be played in some way over HDMI. I do this a lot and enjoy my 7.2.4 Atmos setup and it works rather well with anything I throw at it.

[Talby]

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

Unfortunately there is no "magic setup" that works with all games that support surround

There is a really good summary of various games that support surround here[satsun.org] that compare varying surround encoding techniques and they are anything but consistent.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di Talby:

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

Unfortunately there is no "magic setup" that works with all games that support surround

There is a really good summary of various games that support surround here[satsun.org] that compare varying surround encoding techniques and they are anything but consistent.

This.

@OP:
It is actually best to get a dedicated sound card that is capable of handling what you want. Since some games support 5.1 in certain ways cpmpared to others, you will have to find a card cabaple of doing both at the same time as it were, and I am not aware of any other brands that actualy natively allow this outside of ASUS Xonar and Creative Sound Blaster. Most onboard audio chipsets are done through RealTek and do not allow the feature described here

[pasa]

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

The only way to play stereo sound from all 5 speakers is to enable software controls such as Pro Logic II which sucks because all it does is clone the front 2 speakers to the rear 2 speakers.

It definitely does not.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di pasa:

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

The only way to play stereo sound from all 5 speakers is to enable software controls such as Pro Logic II which sucks because all it does is clone the front 2 speakers to the rear 2 speakers.

It definitely does not.

No what doesn't? I don't think you fully understood what I was actually saying given how you quoted me. I did not even mention Prologic II in that long response I made about what the OP said.

Prologic II clones the sound to the rear speakers when it detects audio samples being played at specific sampling rates. ...from 2 channel stereo. Console games like "Conker's Bad Fur Day" on N64 and "Soul Calibur 2" on Gamecube both used this to emulate 5.1 surround sound. Otherwiuse it basically clones aduido.

[_I_]

stereo to surround requires a surround decoder
pl/pl2 or surround simulation
most players or good sound cards can do that
or a surround receiver

dolby stereo/pl did a method of cloning (additive/subtractive) (center is mix of r/l, left, right, and rear)
its not just cloned from front to center/rear

pl2 decodes stereo to 5ch (4.1, center, right, left, rear, sub)

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di _I_:

stereo to surround requires a surround decoder
pl/pl2 or surround simulation
most players or good sound cards can do that
or a surround receiver

dolby stereo/pl did a method of cloning (additive/subtractive) (center is mix of r/l, left, right, and rear)
its not just cloned from front to center/rear

pl2 decodes stereo to 5ch (4.1, center, right, left, rear, sub)

Exactly.

It also tries to put midtone sounds (like speach), to the center speaker from an unencoded source. IIRC.

[Revelene]

I think we now need to ask the OP what games they play on the regular.

If older titles and titles that do not have standard multi channel PCM or modern surround formats, then you will have to think about legacy support. If modern titles and titles that actually support proper surround, analog and HDMI will be no problem.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di Revelene:

I think we now need to ask the OP what games they play on the regular.

If older titles and titles that do not have standard multi channel PCM or modern surround formats, then you will have to think about legacy support. If modern titles and titles that actually support proper surround, analog and HDMI will be no problem.

They have.

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

[EnclaveEyebot]

any modern graphics card with an hdmi out, can be hooked to a modern amplifier that can decode into 5.1 in a multitude of ways. Old games may need further amplifier decoding to get you 5.1 surround, but newer games straight from the source will automatically decode into dolby/dts/etc.

[Revelene]

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

Messaggio originale di Revelene:

I think we now need to ask the OP what games they play on the regular.

If older titles and titles that do not have standard multi channel PCM or modern surround formats, then you will have to think about legacy support. If modern titles and titles that actually support proper surround, analog and HDMI will be no problem.

They have.

Messaggio originale di icon_of_sin:

Is there any hardware/setup which will give surround sound in any gamke which actually ouytputs surround

That isn't an answer to my question. I want to know what the OP actually plays on the regular, so we can give a better answer.

And even then, there are ways to get surround out of legacy titles. There is a work around for just about anything legacy to work over HDMI.

I know you want to keep trying to support that old optical format, but it doesn't make sense for modern day audio setup. It can only support 2 channel PCM 24bit/96khz or lossy compressed 5.1 via DDL or DTS. It is a low bandwidth solution that was never designed for more than 2 channel audio. Surround support was brought in way later as a work around, not really a permanent solution. To invest your entire setup into this dated format is silly.

HDMI can support 8 channel (7.1) 24bit/192khz PCM and a boat load of other digital formats ranging from lossy compressed to lossless uncompressed.

I see no reason to go with optical, unless that is all your setup supports. HDMI or analog is a way better solution.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Messaggio originale di Revelene:

Messaggio originale di 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

They have.

That isn't an answer to my question. I want to know what the OP actually plays on the regular, so we can give a better answer.

And even then, there are ways to get surround out of legacy titles.

I know you want to keep trying to support that old optical format, but it doesn't make sense for modern day audio setup. It can only support 2 channel PCM 24bit/96khz or lossy compressed 5.1 via DDL or DTS. It is a low bandwidth solution that was never designed for more than 2 channel audio. Surround support was brought in way later as a work around, not really a permanent solution. To invest your entire setup into this dated format is silly.

HDMI can support 8 channel (7.1) 24bit/192khz PCM and a boat load of other digital formats ranging from lossy compressed to lossless uncompressed.

I see no reason to go with optical, unless that is all your setup supports. HDMI or analog is a way better solution.

There is a work around for just about anything legacy to work over HDMI, too.

They said any game. I also suggested the ASUS Xonar card with HDMI out that would transmit the audio meant for 3.5mm jacks over HDMI, but that got blocked by “you don’t need a dedicated sound card” rhetoric.

Messaggio originale di EnclaveEyebot:

any modern graphics card with an hdmi out, can be hooked to a modern amplifier that can decode into 5.1 in a multitude of ways. Old games may need further amplifier decoding to get you 5.1 surround, but newer games straight from the source will automatically decode into dolby/dts/etc.