How much better is the game with digital 5.1 ?

[NJspeed]

I play HL2 on my 32" flat screen TV with full surround.

I outputted the sound to my home theater receiver, however it's only analog stereo with a simulated surround effect. It sounds loud and awesome coming at me from 7 different speakers (5 surround, and 2 on TV). While the sound moves around me, it's really only left and right.. meaning for example, if Alyx is to my left, I'll hear it from my left. But if she's behind me, I'll hear it on both sides.. not from behind... Now I'm imagining it must be a lot crazier to hear some zombie sneak up on me and hear it actually behind me!

Basically my home theater receiver is pretty old, although decent enough for what I generally use it for.

I have the option to spend $100 today and get a digital receiver... this will allow me to output the sound to it with a real digital signal.. giving me real, digital, 5.1. Oh yeah this guy is willing to throw in a free subwoofer, but I don't really need it because I have some huge full range fronts anyway..

The question I have is whether or not it's worth my time and effort to buy a new receiver just so I can play a game in 5.1. I imagine it would be good for stuff like movies and what not, but I don't really care about that too much.

Let's here opinions from those of you who made the switch to 5.1

 

[v1p3r]

*shivers at the thought of ravenholm on your setup*

 

[the_lone_wolf]

in short, yes, not too sure about 5.1 but 6.1 is amazing

my kit is in the sig but the game is excellent in real surround, especially the "spookier" levels

also makes a difference in movies too, as long as they've been encoded with 5.1 sound

 

[NJspeed]

If I buy this thing today I'm going to wake up early on Saturday and play the whole damn game from start to finish... I hope I can make it in one whole day.

More opinions please?

 

[Ahnteis]

You can't go straight digital out from your computer for games. Best you can get is compressed digital and in the end, it's all converted to analog for your speakers anyway.

Get a good sound card and good speakers. That's all you need.

 

[NJspeed]

What do you mean you can't go "straight digital out?" My sound card clearly has a digital output.. and the digital receiver clearly has a digital input. I just haven't used my sound card in this manner because I haven't had a receiver with a digital input. I already have a good sound card and my home theater speakers are awesome. Even if the signal is converted to analog for the speakers, the receiver is still getting a superior digital signal and the output will be true surround, not stereo. Please expand on what you mean versus what I've already stated.

 

[The Brick]

Did you set the audio to 5.1/7.1 speaker setup in options menu?

 

[NJspeed]

Not yet cause I don't have the speakers for it. Even my computer just has two regular stereo speakers and a subwoofer. Obviously I will set it to 5.1 if I end up buying the receiver I need.

 

[the_lone_wolf]

well after seeing what i'd written up there a while back i went and played ravenholme all the way through again with my new Audigy2, it was far more scary than on my onboard 5.1 sound, probly cause the settings were on high, every little detail like the birds calling and the little tink tink tink as the zombies run over the rooftops was there, clear as crystal.

not sure exactly what hardware you have now but my soundcard and speakers cost me less than £100 for both, not too shabby at all, i doubt you'l notice massive differences in having your decoder on the card or the extaernal box

 

[Lahire149]

If you are only geting simulated 5.1 just like me, by using a home theater receiver *cough* mines over 600watts *cough* you can easily get true 5.1. All you have to do is to make sure that you have a toslink fiberoptic input on your reciever and make sure you have a toslink fiberoptic output on your sound card. If your soundcard doesn't have optical out you can get the Audigy2 ZS Platinum. I'm sure there are other ways to get true 5.1 but this is just my favorite. (I'm pretty sure this method works)

 

[Ahnteis]

Games don't output digitally. Your soundcard will only output digital for dvd's, etc.

Only the soundforge or whatever that thing is called (the upper-end onboard nforce2 sound) will output games in digital 5.1 and it's compressed. Some new company just announced a new digital out sound card that will do digital for games.

It's a common complaint. Why won't my digital output do surround sound in games?

 

[Milkman]

Its pretty cool with just stereo and subwoofer, I would really like to get a hold of a 5.1 system.

 

[archvilell]

Hmm. I have a problem with my surround sound. I have a jerry-rigged system here. My computer is setup up for a 4 speaker out put (I don't have a subwoofer ) and I have an amplifier hooked to the front jack that is hooked to two massive home theater speakers. I just got a car amplifier hooked up to the rear jack that is hooked up to the minor speakers behind me. Now, when I go to the Speaker Tester in Windows, all speakers work and are at the right sound level. However, when I play HL2, only the front two speakers work. The rear speakers dont even make noise. Anyone have ideas?

 

[Lahire149]

Hmm. I have a problem with my surround sound. I have a jerry-rigged system here. My computer is setup up for a 4 speaker out put (I don't have a subwoofer ) and I have an amplifier hooked to the front jack that is hooked to two massive home theater speakers. I just got a car amplifier hooked up to the rear jack that is hooked up to the minor speakers behind me. Now, when I go to the Speaker Tester in Windows, all speakers work and are at the right sound level. However, when I play HL2, only the front two speakers work. The rear speakers dont even make noise. Anyone have ideas?

Arch

1. Can you try to go to your sound card controls? (not windows controls) and check to make sure that you have front and rear output enable. *if you have sound card contorls*

2. Go to the half-life 2 audio options and make sure your speaker selection is "4 speakers"


Now back to the main topic...you don't actually need "true 5.1 output." Make sure your cound card properties are set for 2 channel output to your reciever. Now go into half-life 2 and choose audio options, make sure your speaker selection is "5.1" And half-life 2 will provide all of the 5.1 except it will be compresses into the 2 channels to your reciever; then your reciever will split the channels back to the original 5.1 output from half-life.

 

[archvilell]

Yeah I tried that. Thats why I'm confused.

I'm thinking of dismantling it though. I'm getting tired of this giant power supply by my feet (it's a car amp so it needs one) and the wires strewn everywhere. And since it doesn't work....

 

[Tantalus]

5.1 is awesome. How I wish I even had 2.1--my headphone jack only does mono, and my speaker-jack isn't working at all. But I went to my friends house and played DM with his 5.1 speakers, and I was much more effective. And Ravenholm kicked ass.

 

[filmguy123]

I have Logitech z680's, a 5.1 surround sound system. I have an Audigy 2zs. And I have the options menu turned to 5.1 surround. For my connectors I am just using direct input, not digital or coax cable.

Is this setup right? Am I getting true 5.1 surround? Because sometimes it doesn't really seem that noticeable... could I have missed a setting or is there anything I need to do?

 

[NJspeed]

Well I bought a digital receiver last night, and let me tell you, the difference I've seen is incredible versus my previous setup.

Without going into details, let me say that I now have everything running through this receiver.. my svideo from the PC, digital coaxial from PC, my svideo and sound from PS2, and digital sound from my cable box...

One of my first tests was actually to watch a James Bond .avi running off my computer, not an actual DVD. I don't even know if avis have digital sound.. but the sound card outputs it as digital..

Anyway it was Thunderball.. in the beginning there is a part where a jet crashes into the ocean.. Well I live right outside NYC.. this is kinda funny... I was in the kitchen making myself something when this particular sequence came on.. the kitchen is right next to my home theater.. The way the jet came in on one side of the room and swept around to the other 4 speakers totally blew me away! I swear my heart jumped, I really thought there was a jet crashing into New York!, it really sounded that good and realistic. I was half way to my front door to see whats going on, when I realized what happened! LOL Thats how good the sound came out! My last receiver never would have fooled me.

I haven't had a chance to play Half Life 2 yet, I will tomorrow... However with Half Life 2 outputting real digital 5.1 it has to at least sound as good as that James Bond avi.

Playing PC games on the home theater is where its at. I am devoting all of Saturday to playing Half Life 2 from beginning to end! This should be a whole new experience.

 

[Ahnteis]

All sound on a computer is digital. Think about it.
.AVIs typically have stereo sound, BUT they CAN have surround sound. AVI is just a wrapper. You can have different audio/video codecs inside.

 

[Kubrickian]

I haven't had a chance to play Half Life 2 yet, I will tomorrow... However with Half Life 2 outputting real digital 5.1 it has to at least sound as good as that James Bond avi.

Read the reply from earlier:

Games don't output digitally. Your soundcard will only output digital for dvd's, etc.

He is right. The only way you can get 5.1 is if your receiver has a
5.1 multi/channel analog inputs (usually people use them for DVD Audio or SACD). You will need three 1/8 inch stereo to RCA stereo adapters.

What is your model and brand of TV, receiver, and speaker setup?

 

[Sid Burn]

Cool man!!! I think you'll be having a great time!

 

[the_lone_wolf]

I have Logitech z680's, a 5.1 surround sound system. I have an Audigy 2zs. And I have the options menu turned to 5.1 surround. For my connectors I am just using direct input, not digital or coax cable.

Is this setup right? Am I getting true 5.1 surround? Because sometimes it doesn't really seem that noticeable... could I have missed a setting or is there anything I need to do?

set up your speakers using the calibration tool that came on the installation CD for the audigy2, that'll make sure your speakers are set up right, to see that the game is sending out surround sound go to a scripted sequence where someone is talking and just use the mouse to rotate your screen, the voice will clearly move around the speakers if it's set up right

edit: i think creative optimise their cards for creaticve speakers, i'm using creative 6.1s and the surround sound is very noticable - but you should still get good sound on logitech or any other manufacturer's speakers, also make sure all your windows settings in the control panel are set to 5.1 speakers