Surround Sound Setup Question

[walker450]

Hello everyone. I am hoping someone can answer my question. I have done a little searching on the topic but have just confused myself further.

 

I have a HT Omega Stiker 7.1 sound card http://www.htomega.com/striker.html hooked up to a Logitech Z550 5.1 system via an optical cable.

 

My sound card setup has three options for the digital (optical) output: PCM, Dolby Digital Live, and DTS Interactive. Anyone know which I should leave it on for DCS?

[MadDog-IC]

Hello everyone. I am hoping someone can answer my question. I have done a little searching on the topic but have just confused myself further.

 

I have a HT Omega Stiker 7.1 sound card http://www.htomega.com/striker.html hooked up to a Logitech Z550 5.1 system via an optical cable.

 

My sound card setup has three options for the digital (optical) output: PCM, Dolby Digital Live, and DTS Interactive. Anyone know which I should leave it on for DCS?

 

pcm is stereo only, so use Dolby digital or DTS, as dcs does have / use 5.1 surround sound channels.

[The_Nephilim]

Well just use Dolby Digital as If you set it to DTS you probally will get no sound as I do not believe any game uses DTS..

[Brisse]

Well just use Dolby Digital as If you set it to DTS you probally will get no sound as I do not believe any game uses DTS..

This is wrong.

 

Games do not matter becouse they are not part of the equation. The soundcard recieves the audio data from the game in multichannel PCM and then encodes it to Dolby Digital or DTS in "realtime" and sends it out through the SPDIF output. The reciever then decodes the signal.

 

What you should choose depends on what your receiver is compatible with. If it's compatible with all the formats, then I would recommend to set your soundcard to PCM for listening to stereo music in as high quality as possible, and either Dolby or DTS for games where you need surround sound. For movies, I recommend bypassing the SPDIF output so that the original Dolby or DTS stream from the movie reaches the reciever without the soundcard interfering. If you were to set your soundcard to Dolby while looking at a movie encoded in Dolby Surround, then the stream is converted from Dolby to PCM and then to Dolby Live before it's outputted though PCM. This severely degrades the quality.

 

Remember, PCM is lossless, while Dolby and DTS uses lossy compression but is necessary to get more channels than stereo.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Brisse

[The_Nephilim]

This is wrong.

 

Games do not matter becouse they are not part of the equation. The soundcard recieves the audio data from the game in multichannel PCM and then encodes it to Dolby Digital or DTS in "realtime" and sends it out through the SPDIF output. The reciever then decodes the signal.

 

What you should choose depends on what your receiver is compatible with. If it's compatible with all the formats, then I would recommend to set your soundcard to PCM for listening to stereo music in as high quality as possible, and either Dolby or DTS for games where you need surround sound. For movies, I recommend bypassing the SPDIF output so that the original Dolby or DTS stream from the movie reaches the reciever without the soundcard interfering. If you were to set your soundcard to Dolby while looking at a movie encoded in Dolby Surround, then the stream is converted from Dolby to PCM and then to Dolby Live before it's outputted though PCM. This severely degrades the quality.

 

Remember, PCM is lossless, while Dolby and DTS uses lossy compression but is necessary to get more channels than stereo.

 

Well that is not the way a home theater works. I do not know if it does or does not do a live decoding but in say like a Blu ray movie it has to have the Audio track in that format either Dolby or DTS. then you need to select said track in the options menu and then the reciever decodes it..

 

Now if games work different that is news to me but I don't thin it does.. most games back in the late 90's where the Dolby Difgital logo popped up because it was encoded in the stream..

 

Now if you had a DTS Recorded CD and tried playing it in your PC and if no decoder is there you will just get static..

 

Dolby and DTS used lossy because the audio cables of the day can not pass the lossless data.. MNow with HDMI we have the Lossless tracks in Movies.. they can contain up to 11.2 channels with Dolby Atmos..

 

It has to be encoded in the stream for the receiver or sound card to decode it if it is even available.. which DTS is not in any game I am aware of

Edited May 27, 2015 by The_Nephilim

[Brisse]

You are correct about home theater, but games are indeed different. There have been a few games that worked like you descibe but they are very old. I don't know of a single game since the release of Windows Vista that can encode a Dolby or DTS stream. You might see the Dolby logo sometimes, but that's usually because the game has Dolby Headphone or similar technology built into it, and that's something entirely different.

 

Anyway... You have to read the original question once more, because we are discussing things that won't help the original poster. Here was the question:

My sound card setup has three options for the digital (optical) output: PCM, Dolby Digital Live, and DTS Interactive. Anyone know which I should leave it on for DCS?

I marked some important details in bold. Note that it says "output". This is reffering to the soundcards output, not the game. Also note that it says "Live", and "Interactive". These are not decoders. They are encoders. Last thing: It say DCS, and I can assure you DCS does not have any encoders build into it.

[walker450]

Thanks guys. I have it set to DTS Interactive and it seem to be working okay in DCS. One thing that adds to my confusion is while in DCS I can change the "effect" setting on the surround system (Logitech Z550) from stereo, stereo x 2, Dolby Movie, Dolby Music. I've been leaving it set to Dolby Music and it sounds good. I can't tell that I am getting true surround from any settings. It just sounds like the same noise repeated on the rear speakers.

 

Should I just hear engines, for example, on the rear speakers? Can anyone think of a good test I could do to test the surround in DCS?

[Brisse]

Don't use any effects on your receiver/speakers. The "Dolby Music" and other settings you see there are for upmixing stereo to surround. If you set your sound card driver to 5.1 and DTS Interactive, you are already getting REAL surround and using one of those effects on your receiver will only degrade your experience.

 

If you can't tell that your are getting surround, then check if your sound card driver is set to 2 channel or 6 channel. It need to be set to 6 channels, otherwise the game will think you have only stereo speakers and will only output two channels.

[walker450]

It is not optional to not use an effect. Once DCS starts, my receiver display goes from "no digital input" to "pro logic II music" automatically. I can then change to movie, stereo, or stereo x2. It does this no matter what my sound card software is set to (PCM, Dolby, DTS).

 

I'm beginning to think that DCS doesn't have true surround sound and it is just stereo that can be sent to rear speakers also. That's what it seems like to me so far.

 

PS-It is set to 6 channel in sound card settings.

 

Here is a link to my sound system manual, page 8 shows effects: http://www.logitech.com/repository/1411/pdf/13099.1.0.pdf

 

Thanks for all of the help, I appreciate it.

[Brisse]

Oh, so you have the Z5500. I have had them myself for ten years or so, although I don't use them much anymore :)

 

Something isn't right with the output from the sound card. Your receiver isn't receiving a Dolby Surround or DTS stream, because effects would be disabled if it were. Look at page 6 in the manual you linked. You can see two "screenshots" of the LCD there. That's exactly what yours should look like when your sound card is configured properly.

 

It's not the receivers fault. You only have to select the optical input and then everything else should sort itself out. It automaticly detects what kind of stream it receives and it can decode both Dolby Surround and DTS.

 

So as I said, something seems wrong with your sound card driver. It seems to output stereo PCM (judging by what your receiver shows you) no matter what settings you use.

 

DCS does have support for surround. Once everything is set up correctly in your sound card driver it should be fairly obvious that it does. Try moving your head around in the cockpit while listening to the engine sound.

 

Edit: By the way, do you have an option for SPDIF bypass in your sound card driver? If you do, then you need to turn that off, otherwise Dolby or DTS output won't work and it will just be PCM no matter what you select.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Brisse

[walker450]

Thanks for your time Brisse. I won't be able to check on this further for a few days but I'll post back my findings at that time.

 

Thanks again!

[Макс З.]

So, guys, does surround sound work in DCS 1.5? Does anyone have such a good experience?

As for me, I have my receiver set in the direct mode and connected via optical output, that means if I watch a video with 2.0 sound, I can hear it only from front speakers, and if a movie has 5.1 soundtrack, then I can hear it from front, central and rear speakers.

That how it works with the Arcsoft Total Mediatheater 6. But in DCS I never hear surround sound.

Those, who claim, that DCS supports surround sound, I would be very appreciate, if you upload video on Youtube with 5.0/5.1 sound in DCS.

[Grumpy Old Man]

I for myself am using DCS with 5.1 surround sound.

Working just fine here, running with the hdmi out from my gtx 770 to my 7.1 receiver.

Only had to make sure the sound output under windows 10 is configured as surround (-> sound -> select sound device -> configuration), also made sure to disable all built in FX (-> sound -> select sound device -> properties -> enhancements or whatever it's called) or whatever nonsense they're throwing at customers nowadays. ("Create Dummy Channels" anyone?)

 

Sound Quality in DCS isn't top notch but it fits the purpose.

 

If you play back a 5.1 movie on your PC and have actual sound coming out of your entire 5.1 system (centre, rears) DCS should just be the same.

[Макс З.]

I for myself am using DCS with 5.1 surround sound.

Working just fine here, running with the hdmi out from my gtx 770 to my 7.1 receiver.

Only had to make sure the sound output under windows 10 is configured as surround (-> sound -> select sound device -> configuration), also made sure to disable all built in FX (-> sound -> select sound device -> properties -> enhancements or whatever it's called) or whatever nonsense they're throwing at customers nowadays. ("Create Dummy Channels" anyone?)

 

Sound Quality in DCS isn't top notch but it fits the purpose.

 

If you play back a 5.1 movie on your PC and have actual sound coming out of your entire 5.1 system (centre, rears) DCS should just be the same.

Thanks for your answer. I have to check my pc presets one more time, but something tells me I will not discover anything new there. As you noticed, and I'm agree with you, the 5.1 sound in dcs should be the same as in 5.1 movies, but it isn't... for me.

 

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Edited December 21, 2015 by Макс З.