Want to mix 5.1 - have Audiophile & Audigy - will it work?

CodePoet wrote on 4/16/2003, 1:10 AM

I keep reading that the Audiophile 2496 supports 5.1 output for surround mixing via the SPDIF output. However, I just don't see how you can get the 6 outputs out of the one card - I get no other output options from the driver than the stereo analog out and the stereo spdif. Anyone else have ideas?

Also, will the Audigy output the 5.1 stream to the coax SPDIF out? I can't seem to get it to send it to the optical out. Or does the 5.1 output stream have to be done with the analog outs?

Thanks for any help.

Comments

JohanAlthoff wrote on 4/16/2003, 9:35 AM

Where did you read that? AFAIK, the Audiophile has four outputs (two analogue, two digital), not six.

What you have been reading, probably, is that the Audiophile is capable of tunneling an AC3 stream through its SPDIF output, which is a totally different ball park. To do this from Vegas you would need a real-time AC3 encoder, which virtually no soundcard has except for the nVidia Soundstorm chips available on certain mobos, and I doubt they have ASIO drivers. Same thing with Audigy.

However, you CAN mix in 5.1 on the Audigy by connecting the center/sub channel to the digital output (but with an analogue cable; the output has dual functionality), and the front / rear speakers to the line out 1 and 2, respectively. This is how I managed before I grew tired of Creative's crap cards and purchased a M-audio Delta 410 which has been working flawlessy ever since. This is also what I recommend you to do.

CodePoet wrote on 4/16/2003, 9:47 AM

Thanks for the info - that's what I was figuring.

This is what is on the Delta site: "AC3 and DTS output over S/PDIF for surround sound applications" - but I guess they mean just passing it through.

My problem come in that my 5.1 inputs in my receiver are taken up already. I guess I'm just stuck with swapping cables around.

pwppch wrote on 4/16/2003, 1:10 PM

>>This is what is on the Delta site: "AC3 and DTS output over S/PDIF for surround sound applications" - but I guess they mean just passing it through.
<<
Correct. Many surround capable cards are implying that they can take a raw AC3 digital signal and pass it through to a decoder. Vegas (and ACID) don't encode on the fly and require 6 discreet analog channels to monitor surround.

>>My problem come in that my 5.1 inputs in my receiver are taken up already. I guess I'm just stuck with swapping cables around.
<<
Consider a patch bay. The Behringer patch bays are cheap and functional.

CodePoet wrote on 4/16/2003, 3:13 PM

Concerning the patch bay - I haven't set one up before. Will a single 24-port patch bay do what I want? Can you summarize how I'd set one up for this scenario of 2 5.1 outputs going out to a receiver with a single 5.1 input? Thanks for the info!

pwppch wrote on 4/16/2003, 9:49 PM

The simplest set up would be:

- Set the first 6 channels of the patch bay to half-normal.
- Connect the main surround source to the rear upper 6 positions of the patch bay
- connect the read lower 6 positions to your reciever

When nothing is connected to the front jacks of the first six channels, the main source will be "normally routed to the reciever".

To "patch" in your secondary source, plug the 6 source channels into the lower 6 points on the front of the patch bay. This will "break" the connection from the main source to the reciever. The reciever will then get its input from the secondary source.

The Behringer makes setting normal/half-normal/(and all the other) modes easy as it uses switches on the top of the patch bay. Granted, the Berhinger PX2000 is not a "great" patch bay, but it can be had for $39. Note it is also unbalanced connectors.

Peter