OT: surround sound.

[topeira]

hey everyone. marry x-mas too.

i bought a 5.1 speaker system. however when i plug them all in (to just 1 PL output in my computer) when i turn the 5.1 option in my "sound and audio devices properties" i cannot hear sounds coming from the rear speakers.
when i play music (mp3's for example) i can hear through the rear speakers (sound is low but hearable). they are working and connected.

however ingame i can only hear sounds from the front\sides.
i have an on-board sound device.

1)is it possible that my sound card doesnt support 5.1, even though i can set it via windows (sound and audio devices properties) to 5.1 scheme?
2)can i test volumes in specific speakers in some sort of software on my HD?

can anyone help?

[BazOokaKing]

As it's 5.1 that's why. For rear speakers you need 7.1. 5.1 uses five speakers (left side, left centre, centre, right, right side) five speakers=5.1. 7.1 uses those plus left rear and right rear(seven speakers hence the 7.1 name).

[topeira]

ok. i didnt explain myself right -
i have a 5.1 speaker system - i have sub + center + 2 front speakers + 2 surround\rear speakers.
the surround\rear speakers dont function.

when i use the volume sliders of the front left\right all 6 speakers (including the subwuffer) change their volume. changine the surround speakers volume doesnt change anything.
it's like my computer only generate 2 channels.
it's weird cuz i DO have an option to set to 5.1 and i DO hear from all 6 speakers. it's just that they dont get seperate signal dedicated to each and every one of them.

how can i tell if my on board sound card support 5.1?

[dannyboy1026]

One PL output? What the hell is a PL output?

If you're trying this in MP, I've heard that MP doesn't have proper 3d sound support, so that might be the reason (someone correct me if I'm wrong). If you had a Creative APU, you would be able to hear something because of CMSS Upmix, but you don't...

Using onboard for 3d sound makes the game take a serious perf hit, so I'd suggest you not.

[BazOokaKing]

Originally posted by dannyboy1026:
I've heard that MP doesn't have proper 3d sound support, so that might be the reason (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

It should support 5.1 as the 360 has 5.1. Also it has the Dolby Digital logo on the back of the box.

@topeira: What card have you got?

[nebojsa_o]

Well, I have 3 questions for you, and 1 suggestion for you.

Questions:
1. Which motherboard do you have?
2. Which 5.1 speakers did you buy?
3. Is your onboard sound card 5.1 or 7.1?

Suggestion:
1. I had the exact same problem as you with my Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers... I never had 5.1 before, so I followed the instructions in the booklet and connected the Orange cable to Orange slot in sound card. Black to Black, and Green to Green. After a little bit of monkeying around, I plugged the Black cable into the Gray slot on my soundcard, and the rear speakers immediatly became active.. It might be something you can try if you have a Gray slot on your soundcard. My onboard soundcard is 7.1, if yours is 5.1 you might not have that Gray one... Also, different drivers for your onboard soundcard might make a difference. I tried 2 versions for myself, and the rear speakers were more active, and louder with the newer drivers... Wow, this turned out kind of long... http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about here, but I know it sounds a lot better, and I can hear hand granades go off behind me, my team reloading, Tangos yelling, and all the good stuff in surround sound.

BTW, my motherboard is a ASUS A8N-E...

[topeira]

what card? u mean audio card?
as i said - it's on-board.
it should be realtek HD audio definition, but i can't seem to find any relation to realtek products on my harddisk.
i had a "search" with the word "realtek" and nothing was found.
strange.
i wish i knew how to DL the latest driver but i dont know how to check my motherboard's name since my dad lost the book that came with it.

[scavenger67]

one thing to try is open up the side panel and see if you can find the mobo type on it. they normally have it around the cpu to agp slot or pci slot.
like on mine here's a picture of it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/SCAVENGER1/My%20Gaming%20PC/100_0624.jpg
just to give you an idea were to look for it and what it could look like. if you look in between the cpu and the 1st ram stick you will see the *A8N32-SLI*<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/co/type/0/scavenger67.png (http://profile.xfire.com/scavenger67)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/SCAVENGER1/12_1jpg.jpg

[nebojsa_o]

Download a small program called Belarc Advisor. It will show you your motherboard info, CPU, memory, HDD, Multimedia, just about everything...

[RLCSeMPeRFi]

BTW, the readme file says a sound card is "required" to play Vegas. Anything else is unsupported. Not trying to flame you bro but it may be why you're having surround sound issues, not to mention onboard sound uses your processor and can really cause a performance drop when running in 5.1.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

http://www.RaVeNLaNCLaN.com
Home of the ??????T??FTH????????T*cL????????c*M??????* servers
http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/sf/type/2/thajuggaloz.png (http://profile.xfire.com/thajuggaloz)
n????b?? p????n3d http://ravenlanclan.com/images/counter.gif http://ravenlanclan.com/images/counter.gif http://ravenlanclan.com/images/counter.gif http://ravenlanclan.com/images/counter.gif

[topeira]

first i wanna say "big thanks" to all of yall trying to help out.
specially u, scavenger67, for going as far as sending this pic.

*warning - very bad joke ahead!*
by the way, scavanger, the jedi store called. they want their light sabers back.

told you it is very bad....
but i wrote it anyway. go figure....

anyways - i looked in my motherboard installation CD , which claimed to have installed the realtek audio driver.
apparently - it didnt.
i found the realtek audio codec driver on the net and installed it and it prompet me to plug in the RCA cables i got with the speakers to 3 of the 5 exits i have in the motherboard.
after done that and playing around a bit with the realtek driver i managed to get everything to work fine.

your ideas helped me to figure out what was missing so thanks a lot for trying to help.
marry x-mas and god bless http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/partyhat.gif

[scavenger67]

well i thought a picture would help more then trying to type it out were to look. but yeah i told jedi to stfu !! lol im keeping them<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/co/type/0/scavenger67.png (http://profile.xfire.com/scavenger67)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/SCAVENGER1/12_1jpg.jpg