5.1 sound for XBOX
Hear me now!!!
I'm an authorized looser, a deep throat sucker, and an honest poor fella!
I won't bother you now with the story of "How to suck buying a discman" ... though that's a story, in addition with the "Bad luck with DVD writers" one, which could have teach me, that I shouldn't touch anything that it has anything to do with optical devices.
Anyway, this story is about exploring my Xbox's full sound capability. I wanted surround sound! Lovely!
Step 1: buy an advanced scart cable. Surprisingly no problems at all at this level - though it's a device which it has an optical output - might be that the curse just passed?! (How naive!) The image on the TV is even better, no 'waves' which had been present with the s-video cable, and the picture became slightly brighter.
Now I had the digital optical S/PDIF output, and I wanted to make it sound having a very restricted budget - so no receivers could have come in discussion; I had to find something to adapt/decode the optical signal to my 5.1 analog active speakers - used previously with my PC.
Step 2: buy a sound card with optical input, preferably an external one to be as much as possible independent from the PC. First try: Terratec Aureon USB MKII.
Got it! I was so happy on my way home having the hardware! Connection done, driver installed, and enjoy the silence. Damn! Gambling with settings, made hundreds of tests, research on the net... it came up, that it is not made for my purposes... I should have done it earlier: RTFM! Now it's late - I have an USB sound card good for nothing. The only thing I managed it was to record an uncompressed PCM stereo signal trough its optical input, and play it back after. Unfortunately it is not suitable even for real-time playback from the optical input (just passtrough). AC3 compressed Dolby sound: no way!
I called their customer support, and after five time disconnected, and listened to some music, and twenty minutes patience: the noob has been informed, that the hardware is not capable to do such thing... it might be a solution with some hardware monitoring software which may help to make a sofware-decoded-loopback from the optical input to the analog output of the device, with some latency of course. Shit!
Step 3: Very well! No problem - it won't happen again... yeah, sure! Stuck with the external sound cards I have chosen a slightly more expensive one: Creative Audigy 2 NX - still cheap. Cool! By the way, in the meantime I sold the other one (Aureon) for 66% of the original price - good deal for the buyer!
Anyway, I went to the manufacturer's site, and it talks about un-fucking-believable DD EX engine, Dolby logo, THX logo, EAX, bling-bling, nevertheless optical S/PDIF input and 24 bit DAC. That's my man!
They just forgot to mention, that this piece - which it supposed to be the redeemer for the discontinued Extigy - unlike its predecessor, does not include a hardware AC3 decoder. Those highly qualified professionals dare to put them on a comparison chart, and it looks like that NX is even better than the Extigy! They say clearly that it supports Dolby Digital playback - well, let me tell you something: it doesn't, at least not trough the optical input; only trough USB and driver (software) based. In my opinion this is called none other than conscious misinformation! I've been had! So, lot of you people out there, watch out, and keep it real!
My luck it was that they're very kind in the store I bought this excellent piece of engineering and honest advertising, and I've got back my money without any problems.
Oooh, I almost forgot: the top of the iceberg of their impudence is that they bloody put a picture of a game console on the box cover of the sound card - nicely connected via optical cable!!! That's what I call the non-plus-ultra of the advertising!
The only thing I could have done with the optical signal is playing uncompressed PCM stereo - this is slightly more than just recording. That's all for a double price.
Step 4: no more soundcards! I decided to buy a Dolby/DTS decoder, obviously not from Creative! Taking the word of one of my friends, I went for a JAZZ DE006 decoder. Unfortunately there is very few description of this product, but I have read a very positivistic review of it, and I thought that I have nothing to loose.
And it works - I still don't believe it! (If I'm sleeping and it's just a dream, please don't wake me up!) I connected my xbox to it trough an optical cable, my PC's digital output trough a coaxial cable, and also my TV in the line-in... and it works perfectly! I am a happy man... it's been a long way...
(It is unbelievable that some stores sells the coaxial cable at so high price - saying that it is "digital cable" - come on! It's a normal RCA video cable used for a different purpose! ... on the other hand: the guy in the store wanting to sell me the most expensive optical cable ever existed, advertizes it that it has "golden jack connection" for the best quality! This is an optical cable, man, it has nothing to do with electricity, where connection surface might be important! I might be a looser, but not that much! I bought the cheepest one - it's light!!!)
The End
I'm an authorized looser, a deep throat sucker, and an honest poor fella!
I won't bother you now with the story of "How to suck buying a discman" ... though that's a story, in addition with the "Bad luck with DVD writers" one, which could have teach me, that I shouldn't touch anything that it has anything to do with optical devices.
Anyway, this story is about exploring my Xbox's full sound capability. I wanted surround sound! Lovely!
Step 1: buy an advanced scart cable. Surprisingly no problems at all at this level - though it's a device which it has an optical output - might be that the curse just passed?! (How naive!) The image on the TV is even better, no 'waves' which had been present with the s-video cable, and the picture became slightly brighter.
Now I had the digital optical S/PDIF output, and I wanted to make it sound having a very restricted budget - so no receivers could have come in discussion; I had to find something to adapt/decode the optical signal to my 5.1 analog active speakers - used previously with my PC.
Step 2: buy a sound card with optical input, preferably an external one to be as much as possible independent from the PC. First try: Terratec Aureon USB MKII.
Got it! I was so happy on my way home having the hardware! Connection done, driver installed, and enjoy the silence. Damn! Gambling with settings, made hundreds of tests, research on the net... it came up, that it is not made for my purposes... I should have done it earlier: RTFM! Now it's late - I have an USB sound card good for nothing. The only thing I managed it was to record an uncompressed PCM stereo signal trough its optical input, and play it back after. Unfortunately it is not suitable even for real-time playback from the optical input (just passtrough). AC3 compressed Dolby sound: no way!
I called their customer support, and after five time disconnected, and listened to some music, and twenty minutes patience: the noob has been informed, that the hardware is not capable to do such thing... it might be a solution with some hardware monitoring software which may help to make a sofware-decoded-loopback from the optical input to the analog output of the device, with some latency of course. Shit!
Step 3: Very well! No problem - it won't happen again... yeah, sure! Stuck with the external sound cards I have chosen a slightly more expensive one: Creative Audigy 2 NX - still cheap. Cool! By the way, in the meantime I sold the other one (Aureon) for 66% of the original price - good deal for the buyer!
Anyway, I went to the manufacturer's site, and it talks about un-fucking-believable DD EX engine, Dolby logo, THX logo, EAX, bling-bling, nevertheless optical S/PDIF input and 24 bit DAC. That's my man!
They just forgot to mention, that this piece - which it supposed to be the redeemer for the discontinued Extigy - unlike its predecessor, does not include a hardware AC3 decoder. Those highly qualified professionals dare to put them on a comparison chart, and it looks like that NX is even better than the Extigy! They say clearly that it supports Dolby Digital playback - well, let me tell you something: it doesn't, at least not trough the optical input; only trough USB and driver (software) based. In my opinion this is called none other than conscious misinformation! I've been had! So, lot of you people out there, watch out, and keep it real!
My luck it was that they're very kind in the store I bought this excellent piece of engineering and honest advertising, and I've got back my money without any problems.
Oooh, I almost forgot: the top of the iceberg of their impudence is that they bloody put a picture of a game console on the box cover of the sound card - nicely connected via optical cable!!! That's what I call the non-plus-ultra of the advertising!
The only thing I could have done with the optical signal is playing uncompressed PCM stereo - this is slightly more than just recording. That's all for a double price.
Step 4: no more soundcards! I decided to buy a Dolby/DTS decoder, obviously not from Creative! Taking the word of one of my friends, I went for a JAZZ DE006 decoder. Unfortunately there is very few description of this product, but I have read a very positivistic review of it, and I thought that I have nothing to loose.
And it works - I still don't believe it! (If I'm sleeping and it's just a dream, please don't wake me up!) I connected my xbox to it trough an optical cable, my PC's digital output trough a coaxial cable, and also my TV in the line-in... and it works perfectly! I am a happy man... it's been a long way...
(It is unbelievable that some stores sells the coaxial cable at so high price - saying that it is "digital cable" - come on! It's a normal RCA video cable used for a different purpose! ... on the other hand: the guy in the store wanting to sell me the most expensive optical cable ever existed, advertizes it that it has "golden jack connection" for the best quality! This is an optical cable, man, it has nothing to do with electricity, where connection surface might be important! I might be a looser, but not that much! I bought the cheepest one - it's light!!!)
The End
posted by szacsa at 4:42 PM
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