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question about 5.1 sound from PC

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  • question about 5.1 sound from PC

    hi,
    i don't know much about sound. what i'm wondering is, i want to get altec lansing 251 5.1 speakers. my computer has a soundblaster live, and i use windvd as a dvd player. now do i need any special decoder to get the 5.1 surround sound in my movies? or does software do it on it's own? sorry if my question is not quite clear. thanks for any help provided.

  • #2
    Is it a sound blaster live or a sound blaster live 5.1? And yes I'm almost positive you don't need any decoder the sound card will handle everything.

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    • #3
      found out my card is not a 5.1 sb live.. so i'm going to buy a turtle beach santa cruz. think this is a good choice?

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      • #4
        heh I dunno I haven't done much research on it. I'm a creative fan anyway. Basically though the only limitation of a standard sb live over a live 5.1 is the lack of center channels support. I'm not sure though so someone may be able to correct me on that.

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        • #5
          well i'm leaning away from creative is because i like to use headphones, and with creative, even the audigy, is that i always notice a constant hiss. i tried my friends pc fro has turtle beach and there is no hiss even when the headphones are at high volume.

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          • #6
            really?? this I didn't know I notice when I'm blasting stuff from my speakers and then the song or whatever was playing ends I notice there is a small his. I thought that was just the power of the amp comming through the speakers and not being able to play anything it plays that. Also as a matter of fact I notice that on my stereo in my bedroom as well. There is a small hiss when nothing plays. Does the hiss sound while there is a signal comming through or only in dead silence.

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            • #7
              well that could be just the amp. but with headphones and sb live, the hiss is very audible, even at low volumes. but then again this could be just me. but on my stereo system, i have no audible hiss with headphones even at high volumes.

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              • #8
                could it be a bad set of head phones. Cause I remember back in the walkman days that hissing sound was quite an annoyance. Though I didn't mind back then cause I was alot younger and much more tolerable.

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                • #9
                  nope. the two i use are pretty good. one is a sennheiser hd590 and the other phillips hp890(great pair of cans for the price, by the way).

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                  • #10
                    With VIA chipsets being used on so many motherboards, I tend to lean away from Soundblaster these days becasue of compataility issues. For value for money I don't think you can go past a Leadtek 6X 3D. It has optical & coaxial SPDIF inputs and outputs for Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, as well as six independent channels for analog output. For under $60 you can't go wrong. I've just put one of these cards in my home theatre PC and am very happy with it.

                    You won't need any special decoder, the soundcard you end up getting will just need a SPDIF output, and your speakers will need a SPDIF input. Then in your DVD software, just set your audio to use SPDIF out.

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                    • #11
                      :cool: I don't have anything against sounblaster/audigy etc, but my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz has been a real pleasure to set up and use. The Santa Cruz control panel is a simple and effective tool. The programable outputs give you many options. :wave:

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                      • #12
                        I have never owned a SB live or Audigy for myself, I have gotten them for friends, but I can't believe what I am hearing !!!

                        They buzz, and there is a card out there on the market with OPTICAL connections for one FOURTH the price of an Audigy???

                        WOW !!! :eek: :eek:

                        I'll be an audio geek for the price.

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