[?]PC soundcard for xbox360 5.1 optical surround


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Does anyone have any confirmed or first hand experience with:

Using a PC sound card to take the optical sound output from the xbox360, into the optical sound input on a PC sound card? Therefore, enabling 5.1 sound from their PC surround sound system?

If so, what sound card do you have, or know that works in this way?

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I have an X-Fi elite pro and does everything you mentioned... also upmixes to 7.1 :)

It is a bit expensive for that one purpose, so any soundcard with a digital in will do it.

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... so any soundcard with a digital in will do it.

Well that's the thing... alot of cards with an optical in, will not encode that to 5.1 output. Some will only output this back in 2.0 dolby.

For example my Audigy 2 NX will not do this, even though it has optical in on the external sound card.

I read that it needs AC-3 encoder or Dolby Digital Live to do this for the xbox 360.

So can anyone confirm with first hand experience specifically on the 360?

The alternate is to buy a more expensive sound system with multiple optical inputs (such as the z5500 from logitech) which I could do, but don't want to resort to just yet.

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^^^^

Open up your Creative Audio Console, SPDIF Bypass.

it will stop all other sounds coming from your sound card, and only use SPDIF in and SPDIF out, so you can get 5.1 sound.

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^^^^

Open up your Creative Audio Console, SPDIF Bypass.

it will stop all other sounds coming from your sound card, and only use SPDIF in and SPDIF out, so you can get 5.1 sound.

Only the ring of light sounds, then once in the dash board and games...silence. :(

edit : i don't use SPDIF out from the sound card because my creatives only take 3x mini jacks for 5.1 sound.

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Only the ring of light sounds, then once in the dash board and games...silence. :(

edit : i don't use SPDIF out from the sound card because my creatives only take 3x mini jacks for 5.1 sound.

then you cant get true 5.1 using that setup, you need SPDIF for both ways. even the new video cards are the same way... It's your setup.

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then you cant get true 5.1 using that setup, you need SPDIF for both ways. even the new video cards are the same way... It's your setup.

Well I have analog 5.1 sound in games on my PC, and the same would suffice for my xbox360. It's good enough for me at the moment.

I think I'll try getting a sound card with the cmi8768+ chipset and see how I get on, before I go upgrading to tru-optical 5.1 speakers.

or are you saying that even with another sound card with optical SPDIF in, I would get the same (disappointing) effect?

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correct. The reason you are getting 5.1 for your PC is because of EAX. EAX is not utilized with the 360, as it has it's own power to do the audio, thus it is Dolby Digital.

To get Dolby Digital to your speakers, you would have to do SPDIF bypass (one optical cable from 360 to optical in) and then use one optical cable from optical out to either your speakers or a receiver.

That's the only way it can be done through your computer.

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correct. The reason you are getting 5.1 for your PC is because of EAX. EAX is not utilized with the 360, as it has it's own power to do the audio, thus it is Dolby Digital.

To get Dolby Digital to your speakers, you would have to do SPDIF bypass (one optical cable from 360 to optical in) and then use one optical cable from optical out to either your speakers or a receiver.

That's the only way it can be done through your computer.

I guess I'll be upgrading my speaker set then. :D

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thats what I did. I got the z5400's (a wired version of the 5450's) and plug the xbox into the back of the control unit along with the PC and you can just switch inputs as you please. Just need to buy the optical cable which I'm sure you already have by the sounds of it. Works a treat.

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thats what I did. I got the z5400's (a wired version of the 5450's) and plug the xbox into the back of the control unit along with the PC and you can just switch inputs as you please. Just need to buy the optical cable which I'm sure you already have by the sounds of it. Works a treat.

can you confirm how many toslink / optical audio inputs that has please? Am I correct to say it has 2 opticals?

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Yeah 2 optical inputs on the Z5400. I believe the Z5500 only has one but.

yeah, I thought that too. weird that they would "downgrade" the more powerful model. cheers smigit

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No problem. Yeah I also find that odd about having fewer optical inputs. Infact it was one of the reasons I went for this model, that and to save some money seeing as originally I had planned to just use my old speakers myself also (for pc + xbox) but like you got stuck. I really hadn't planned to be buying new speakers so I figured I'd save some money and get the 2nd model down. I suppose theres still the Coax connection if the user had a sound card that supported it.

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