Achieveing 5.1 sound from htpc - advice needed!

[raousel]

Hi,

I've specced out the below for an HTPC. Main uses are going to be watching films, ripping dvd/blu ray, playing music and surfing the web. May be a little light gaming but nothing heavy.

My question is, will I be able to achieve 5.1 sound from this rig if I output audio via HDMI to my Onkyo Av reciever?

PC Specialist are saying that some people have problems outputting 5.1 sound via HDMI. They say that I could acheive 5.1 if I use S/PDIF but would need to upgrade to one of the Creative X-Fi cards to get 5.1 sound. I'm not an audiophile and don't want to pay an extra £30 to £60 unnecessarily but an htpc that can't output 5.1 seems a bit pointless.

Would be grateful for any advice.

Cheers

Case
Silverstone SST-GD04B Black Brushed Aluminium Case + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3-2120 Dual Core (3.30GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H77-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 610 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB (Special Offer)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x LG BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£65)
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£19)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £766.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[tom_gr7]

hey, I think i can shed some light on this for you,

PCS are right in wht they are saying. The soundcard you have chosen will not do this, so I suggest thta you drop that soundcard.

If you were to use a optical cable (spdif) into the spdif out port on the motherboard then you could send the 5.1 signal to the av receiver. BUT the motherboard cannot encode Dolby digital 5.1 from games/media to send via spdif, you will need a soundcard for this. I haven't actually found any motherboards that can.

Another but, if say you are watching a dvd, call it saving private ryan for example, as DD 5.1 is already encoded onto the dvd, the motherboard can send that DD 5.1 via optical cable to your av receiver (that i assume is connected to a 5.1 speaker setup?) then you will get dd 5.1 whilst watching dvd's only.

So if you were to get a soundcard, a good sound card will encode 5.1 Dolby Digital from all media, games, movies, music etc etc, and send it via spdif with optical cable to ya av receiver.

I'd suggest getting a ASUS DX PCI-E sound card, cost about 50 quid, it will do everything you require. I have one and its flippin fantastic!- (best upgrade I have ever made) unfortunately I cant recommend creative sound blaster cards myself, I had a x-fi and i could never get it to work properly without interference. If ya ask me, an extra 30 quid for a better soundcard is well worth it, esp if you already have a good sound setup!

I assume that your av receiver can decode Dolby digital 5.1? You will need to check this before buying the soundcard.

I hope this helps,

if it doesnt let me know

 

[raousel]

Hey, thanks for your help on this!

So, with a proper soundcard, could I use HDMI to output 5.1 sound then or would I still have to use optical cable?

Cheers

 

[tom_gr7]

hey,

no worries,

you will still need to use optical cable from the soundcard spdif port to ya receiver.

If ya need any more help, dont hesitate to ask

 

[raousel]

Unfortunately PCS don't seem to do the soundcard you recommend and I agree with what you say about the creative ones - have mostly seen bad feedback in the forums. Maybe I can fit it myself afterwards - how hard can it be!

I'm currently using an old laptop as my htpc and on some films and iPlayer, 4OD etc the sound isn't that good - voices seem really quiet and I struggle to hear them over music and sound effects. Hopefully a decent soundcard will solve this problem.

Thanks again.