Optical out sounds aweful for voices

right now i have my card connected to an onkyo integra series receiver through the optical out and i plug in a headphone to the receiver. when i play a movie, background noises sound absolutely perfect. heck?i can hear a door squeek like it was right next to me and leaves russling in the wind. however, the voices seem to sound muted for some reason. i can barely understand anything. if i plug?the?headphone into the front panel?the problem goes away.
i'm assuming it's some sort of conversion from surround sound mode to stereo headphones issue. i've already set the sb control panel to headphones..
vista 64
soundblaster x-fi titanium

where is the "dolby digital li've" setting? looked everywhere in the creative audio control application..
dwh wrote:
Do you have Dolby Digital Li've turned on while you're doing this? I'm guessing that might be a factor. It sounds to me a lot like you're only hearing the front left/right channels of a 5. signal, since my understanding is that the voices usually are mostly in the center channel.
-Dave
?[email protected]

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Which external sound card with optical out is compatible for macbook

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dude, i think i can get u ur signal, but currently i can only get silent recordings, u may have better luck.
on the minidisc, there should be a switch or button that will toggle synchronised recording on and off, turning it off should get u a signal, but it wont be in sync wiv the cd, ie u cant trust it to form track gaps.
hope that helps, done flame me if it dont, if i manage to get substance to my recording, i will send u the info just in case.
take it easy

7.1 audio in Games with Optical out/Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium

Hi All,
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So in an interesting turn of events, I went to plug my old 7. inspire speakers in, and the problem i was having with low audio moved from a back speaker to my front speaker. So after testing moving centre speaker to the left input , and that worked for both, i moved them back, and now all of my speakers work fine! I was doing this before I bought the Onyko setup, and it wasn't making a difference at all, I was still getting low sound from the back speaker.. Strange. You've got to love technology. Well, no loss, I needed a good home theatre setup anyway. If anyone could still answer my question that would be great though?

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Digital or analog output is determined by the connector inserted into your now-damaged socket. There is no way to 'turn off' digital output in such a manner that analog output will then be 'turned on.'
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I've just started to look into an issue I'm having with my DAC and my new iMac. There are some serious issues with using a DAC with USB3.0, so you may not even be able to use your DAC on your USB port. I'm getting a lot of popping noises when going through my USB 3.0 ports. I've had some success my hooking my DAC up to a UDSB hub (which is USB2). Problem there becomes power supply issue, whereas the problem with USB3 is data transfer.

Creative inspire t6300 5.1 surround on mac pro 1.1, optical out to 5.1 audio gear (digital sound decoder).

Hi there,
Been searching and trying a lot but no luck so far. I have a surroundset Creative Inspire t6300
to be able to add some more fun to movies and a few games on my mac.
I own an upgraded Mac Pro 1.1 under Snow leopard, 2.33 gHz, dual processor, 8 core, 8 gb memory.
Even though it`s a piece for the museum, it works very well for designwork I do for work. No real need
to update for me, so....
As I understand, the optical out is standard 5.1. (By the way, the only other ports are the basic sound ports out
and in on the Mac). So after some research I found and got the 5.1 audio gear decoder. I connected this with
an opticle cable and used the 3,5 jackets from the surroundset to connect to (from left to right) cen/sw, (yellow
jacket) fl/fr (green jacket), sl/sr (black jacket) on the decoder. All perfectly understandable and it seemed to work well.
But when I tested with some of the testfile you find when googling on that, I think there is something wrong,
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I`ve tried Soundflower and JackPilot, but couldn`t get it right. With Soundflower I was able to choose 5.1 setting
(was not possible before) but testing it didn`t work.
There is an extensive test of the decoder on the net by someone who really is deep into the technics of it all but
no luck there either.
Back to basics: is it right that the optical out is truely 5.1 on the mac? With several tests the unit SFE does not react.
But when I play some music with iTunes, it works (loud and clearly :-)). Maybe I need a visit to the audiologist ;-) ?
Anyone?
tested with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9-sIZRDHg&channel=alexnosenko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMh_zvCw6us
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html

Hello John, I figured it was a signal issue. All the speakers fire and the sound is great. I was running the speakers thru a Dell PC with a Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, THX Certified, 7.1 soundcard using a fiber optic from the Mac Pro to the Z906's, it worked great until the Dell died!!! When I bought the soundcard from Creative I also bought the GigaWorks S750, THX Certified, 700 watt, 7.1 speaker system, used the speakers for 11 years and then the woofer/amp said "I QUIT" Creative quit making the speaker system and the sound card. The satellite speakers from the Creative GigaWorks speaker system still sound great (rated at 78 watt each) and are a little better speaker than the one's that came with the Z906 and the wattage from the 906 is sufficient to drive the satellites without any distortion. Thank you for addressing my issue, you confirmed what I suspected all along, just needed to hear it from someone with the same setup.
One last question, I purchased a Diamond Multimedia USB Soundcard, can't use the fiber optic(not supported by Mac) but the green, tan and black RCA's plug in and produces adequetly. When you plug your 906's into the Mac Pro using the fiber optic how do you set your speaker configuration? When I plug into the mac pro with fiber optic the 'Audio Midi Setup' does not seem to see the 5.1 configuration. Any thoughts there?
Carl

Added SPDIF Optical out to MSI A75-G35 and I get no sound

Hello, I connected a TOSLINK cable to my Onkyo receiver in lieu of 2 channel analogue. I know I'm configured correctly on the receiver's end. I set up my realtek HD audio manager to send music via WMP to the receiver using the PC's optical output. The receiver is not recognizing any PCM signals from my PC. I even popped Skyfall in the PC optical drive. It plays the video just fine but the receiver doesn't even pick up the Dolby Digital signal from the movie. I get no sound from the optical output, period.
When I configure audio manager for an analogue signal output through my headphones, all is good. I change the settings to employ the optical output, and nothing happens.
I just want to play music on my home audio system via my PC mobo's add-in optical output. 1st, I had the latest HD audio drivers from the MSI website, which didn't work. Right now, I'm using audio driver version 6.0.1.7083, dated 11/5/2013
Also, I tested the optical cable on my cable receiver box to the onkyo receiver. No problemo.
Any other info about my system hardware or software that you need, just let me know.
Thanks for reading
MSI A75-G35 mobo/ BIOS VERSON 1.7, dated 11/07/2012
Win7 x32 bit
Audio controller hd Audio by realtek
Audio codec is ALC887

LOL No, I modified a toslink header bracket provided for an old DFI mobo. It's a simple 3 wire config(ground, optical out, +5V). Trust me when I say I got it right when I rewired the pinout. I have a red light passing through the end of the cable. The SPDIF header is a $15 option from MSI and shipping cost is $16 and change.

Optical audio out, sound equalizer?

Hi all.
I am using a dual core mac mini with a surround sound system as a media centre type thing.
One thing I like about iTunes is that it has a sound enhancer function which stops the music sounding so tinny with my relatively small speakers that came with my one box surround system.
It would be nice to have the same effect when watching a DVD however. But the equalizer function in DVD player doesn't work when using optical out. In fact it would be nice to alter the sound for my entire system sound output when using optical out.
So, is there an equalizer plugin or something similar I can use with my mac mini to alter the entire sound output? Unfortunately my surround system doesn't have sound adjustment.
Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your replies.
And I can definately see where you're coming from. My system is a fairly decent Yamaha one with a powered sub woofer, but there's no real adjustment on the sound other than the bass level.
As with most one box systems, the speakers are very tinny really so was hoping there was a quick workaround.
Funnily enough, playing with it today I found that if I set the sound output to sytem sound output (although still connected optically) I can use the graphic equalizer within DVD player and get the sound how I want it.
But, when I play a DVD in front row the sound doesn't work, unless optical out was selected in DVD player before hand.
Oh well!

No optical out on Creative sound blaste

I am looking for?a new sound card but cant find an optical out on any model. Why?

dude, i think i can get u ur signal, but currently i can only get silent recordings, u may have better luck.
on the minidisc, there should be a switch or button that will toggle synchronised recording on and off, turning it off should get u a signal, but it wont be in sync wiv the cd, ie u cant trust it to form track gaps.
hope that helps, done flame me if it dont, if i manage to get substance to my recording, i will send u the info just in case.
take it easy

Can you use surround sound with the built-in optical out on dual 1.8 g5?

Ok here's the thing, I just got the new version of Final Cut Studio, and was wanting to set up my g5 to utilize the surround mixing capabilities of SoundTrack Pro 2.
I have verified that i'm getting 5.1 sound via Apple's DVD Player, but when i go to Applications-> Utilities->Audio MIDI Setup, I cannot configure the system for multiple channels. It only allows me to output stereo.
Is my assumption of being able to use the built-in optical out for 5.1 monitoring incorrect? Do I have to go buy a firewire/usb audio interface?
Info about my system:
I have a Bose Acoustimass 10 5.1 Speaker setup.
I have a Onkyo DR-C500 5.1 Receiver, which does dolby pro logic 2 and dts decoding.
The Onkyo Receiver is hooked up via the spdif optical output of my G5.
I have a Dual 1.8 G5 with this info about the Built In Sound Card:
Devices:
Texas Instruments TAS3004:
Inputs and Outputs:
Line Level Input:
Controls: Left, Right
Playthrough: No
PluginID: TAS
Headphones:
Controls: Mute, Left, Right
PluginID: TAS
Internal Speakers:
Controls: Mute, Master
PluginID: TAS
Line Level Output:
Controls: Mute, Left, Right
PluginID: TAS
Crystal Semiconductor CS84xx:
Inputs and Outputs:
S/PDIF Digital Input:
Controls: Mute
Playthrough: No
PluginID: Topaz
S/PDIF Digital Output:
Controls: Mute
PluginID: Topaz
Formats:
PCM 16:
Bit Depth: 16
Bit Width: 16
Channels: 2
Mixable: Yes
Sample Rates: 32 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz
PCM 24:
Bit Depth: 24
Bit Width: 32
Channels: 2
Mixable: Yes
Sample Rates: 32 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz
AC3 16:
Bit Depth: 16
Bit Width: 16
Channels: 2
Mixable: No
Sample Rates: 32 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz
Dual 1.8 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Dual 1.8 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Dual 1.8 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Dual 1.8 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

NZane-
Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards.
The Mac puts out encoded 5.1. It is the function of the amplifier, receiver or decoder to take that signal and turn it into something useful. At minimum you will need a device that can accept that output and turn it into something useful.
Most studios that I am familiar with want to be able to use their own 5.1 decoder, amp and speakers. Juicier sound!
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Apple tv 2 and 1 not playing sound through optical out.

Hello all, just bought a new atv2. Thought I'd stress the difficulty i had in getting it to stream from the main Mac in the house. What a pain. Silly home sharing, why it couldn't be as simple as atv1!
Anyway it's working now. My issue is this; I want to use the atv2 as a music streaming device and not attach it to a screen. I will control it from my iPhone remote.
After connecting it to 2 hifis with optics I can't get sound to come out. In fact none of the 3 atvs seem to work by simply connecting directly to the optical out. Sure they are all fine when connected by hdmi. But I don't always want the tvs left on.
Also, I'm having difficulty in getting the atvs to act as remote speakers systems when i operate the main music library. I guess this will all be resolved when i work out how to get the optics to work!
Thanks in advance.

Apple TV may or may not work without a screen. Some devices will not function unless they "sense" a display. This is particularly likely to be the case with a HDMI device, which uses a communication protocol that requires handshaking with the display.
The most common reason why optical inputs might not work with a receiver is that the receiver is not configured to take the sound off the optical port. Most modern receivers can accept sound from multiple ports, and optical is often not the default. Note that you can tell whether the AppleTV is generating a signal by unplugging the optical cable from your receiver and looking for the red light. at the tip of the cable.

Worn-out headphone jack as optical out for computer audio via external DAC

I have been using my iMac's headphone output jack to connect with a DAC and my audio system for some time now, but I apparently have inserted and removed the optical plug connector so many times to switch between DAC and internal iMac speakers that it has worn out: pulling the plug out of the jack no longer always switches the sound output back to internal speakers - Built-in. I have to pull it in and out several times and even this doesn't always work. Is anyone aware of a switch I could install to do this without constantly pulling the plug out and plugging it back in?

My suggestion to work around this problem would be to hook up an Airport Express. The AE also has an optical out the same as your iMac. As long as your wireless connection is robust enough you should be able to stream from your iMac to your AE and then have the optical cable connect between your AE and your DAC, which then connects to your Integrated Amp/Receiver/Pre-Amp (depending on your system configuration).
I assume because you are using the optical out and connecting to an external DAC that you are looking for a high level of Audio quality ?

What is the SPDIF Optical Out meant for?

I have connected the optical s/pdif out from my Neo2 Platinum to my Panasonic 5.1 Receiver, but I can´t hear anything. The "red light" reaches the receiver, but it can´t decode the signal somehow. I had this with my Audigy 2 card: When I enabled "96khz" my receiver couldn´t read the signal, but when I changed this option to "48khz" it works perfectly. Unfortunately I can´t see this option within the AC97 drivers. So what can I do?
Yesterday I had PowerDVD and Winamp running side by side. I could actually hear the PowerDVD movie, but not the MP3 from Winamp. So it has something to do with the signal from the mainboard. How can I change this?

Quote from: bassmadrigal on 14-July-05, 15:42:01
The spdif out is only capable of relaying dolby encoded sound to the receiver. It is unable to transfer 2 channel..
Um. No.
Per the original question - the optical connector carries the exact same signal as the coaxial digital.
The funny truth is that SPDIF wasn't intended for listening. It was intended for karaoke. They thought they'd make CDs with the lyrics encoded in the less significant bits of the audio stream, and have the karaoke machine strip them out of the bitstream.
But audiophiles started using the SPDIF digital out on their CD players to connect them to audiophile-grade DACs.
Since it wasn't really designed for audio, there's some occasional (mostly insignificant) bit distortion, and the distortion can be made worse by a ground loop introduced by the shield on the coaxial connection.
The optical connection overcomes those issues pretty well. There's no electrical connection and thus no possibility of multiple paths to ground, and the data latches built into the optical transmitter and receiver guarantee that bits are better defined.
Don't pay a lot for optical spdif ("toslink") cables. The only feature worth anything is strain relief on the connector, to keep you from accidentally yanking the fiber out of the connector. The common plastic fiber works just as well as glass on hookups less than about 150 feet in length.
The relivant specifications are IEC60958 and IEC61937. Google for 'em, it's interesting reading.
ANYWAY, as per the specific question.
Pursuant to IEC60958 and AC97 specifications, and restricted by the choice of the ALC850 codec chip, the digital audio connectors on the Neo2 are capable of 48khz 16 bit transmissions.
This includes 48khz 16 bit PCM stereo audio and Dolby Digital compressed audio up to and including 48khz DTS.
Whether or not the windows drivers are capable of the dolby passthrough, i dunno, I've never booted windows on mine. Linux (with ALSA drivers) surely can.
Some audio codec chips are capable of more rates. IEC60958 and it's extensions allow for 32khz, 44.1khz and 96khz in addition to the AC97-mandated 48khz. 18 and 24 bit resolutions are also allowed.
If you intend to build a system for use as a home-theater PC, i highly recommend finding a motherboard with a codec that will at least do 44.1khz. Resampling the audio to 48khz can do horrible things to it. 32khz is only needed for some videos you might download from the internet, some VCDs, etc. You'd already know if you needed 96khz.
Your games are 5.1 but they are not encoding Dolby surround on the fly, so the digital connector is only going to get you 2 channels unless you are watching a DVD or something.
The exception is nForce2 SoundStorm boards, which have an on-the-fly dolby digital encoder.
Dolby is starting to license out their real-time encoder, so it may be possible in the future to buy a piece of software that will push your 6 channel game audio through your digital output.
This is why most surround receivers have a multi-channel input. You're just going to have to get a bunch of cables and run analog.
I also highly recommend that you invest in ground loop isolators.
Since your computer has a three-pronged power plug, it has it's own route to earth ground. Most stereo equipment does not.
When you plug the analog audio output from your computer into your home stereo receiver, in most cases you will hear a 60hz hum on the speakers. This is a harmless (but annoying) tone generated by the multiple paths to ground in your electrical connections.
I've had good experiences with RCA type ground loop isolators intended for car audio use. This has RCA connectors just like your stereo. You'll plug the isolator into the stereo and the computer into the isolator using normal audio cables.
I've had good experiences with Scosche ESO34 ground loop isolators. I've paid about $10/ea for them on ebay. You may pay as much as $15 or $20 for them at car audio specialty stores. Sometimes you can get them cheaper, especially if you're buying more than one of them.
Other RCA type ground isolators probably work just as well. I actually have a box of half a dozen of some other brand that i haven't tried yet, that i paid about $2/ea for.
Some come with brown wires dangling out of them, for earth ground. Personally i wouldn't connect them to anything.
Some of the nicer sound cards - most of the Audigy line for example - has on-card ground isolation, and won't need an outboard isolator. Motherboard audio almost certainly does not have ground isolation.

Optical out sounds aweful for voices

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