Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DVD 5.1 from computer to reciver

This is topic DVD 5.1 from computer to reciver in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bill Mantz (Member # 754) on 07-11-2003, 02:31 AM:

Dose any one know of a devise that you can hook up to you computer that will decode the 5.1 channel to a home reciver via an optical of coax line to get the full sound from your DVD playing off you computer.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-11-2003, 03:36 AM:

You can get an Apple G5 Mac computer to do this (it has the digital outs built in) or you can get a very special sound card for your PC with optical and/or coaxial digital out. Hook that up to your receiver and watch away. Of course, the software DVD player you are using must support sending the data out the digital out in raw AC3 or DTS form. Actually I am not sure if any software players support DTS at all.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-11-2003, 03:55 AM:

Lots of soundcards for PCs can do that, like the AC97 codec found onboard in many complete PCs, various models of the Soundblaster series, and of other manufacturers. Check the Creative Website for info about the Soundblasters. They used to have a model explicitly called Soundblaster 5.1, but I guess that is outdated now.
Basically I think it is more difficult these days to find a soundcard without 5.1 than with it.
Some soundcards have RCA type outputs which can be configured as analog stereo or coaxial digital (especially on notebooks).
Power DVD seems to support dts decoding, but you have to buy it as an upgrade.

[ 07-11-2003, 06:55 AM: Message edited by: Michael Schaffer ]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 07-11-2003, 12:04 PM:

A couple of years back M-Audio (MidiMan) got great reviews for their pro audio AP-2496 card.
Here's their latest consumer level PCI-based sound card.

Posted by Bill Mantz (Member # 754) on 07-11-2003, 05:07 PM:

Thanks For the link Paul I found just what I was looking for and not have to switch out sound cards it is pretty much a plug and play unit.
http://www.midiman.net/products/consumer/sonica-theater.php
Thanks again

[ 10-28-2003, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: Bill Mantz ]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-12-2003, 08:16 PM:

And how do you get your digital audio data from the PC to that unit?

Posted by Bill Mantz (Member # 754) on 07-13-2003, 02:24 AM:

If you look at the picture of the unit you will see a USB input and in the Tech Specs you will see that you need a USB port.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-13-2003, 05:03 AM:

I see. But it looks a bit expensive to me. It has a lot of functions, but for your purpose you might get away with far less by getting a soundcard with digital out.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-24-2003, 07:55 PM:

PowerDVD XP has DTS pass through support. However, your sound card drivers have got to not monkey around with the bitstream and leave it in raw form.

The Augidgy2 card from SoundBlaster is the leading PC card for surround sound audio. Probably the best combination is using an Audigy2 and the new Creative Labs 6.1 speaker system that features on board DTS-ES and Dolby Digital-EX decoding. Reportedly the Audigy2 card can decode DVD-Audio MLP bitstreams. However, I think the coarse nature of computer speakers takes away any sonic advantages held by DVD-A.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-24-2003, 10:09 PM:

Why would a sound card screw around with the outgoing digital bitstream? It would cost MORE for it to do so, since that would require some sort of task on the card's part.

Posted by Elena N. Solovyova (Member # 1636) on 07-25-2003, 12:56 AM:

At out theatre we use vintage Hollywood Plus DVD decoder card with SPDIF connector.

Works perfectly.