X-fi and surround sound headphones

I'm interested in buying the X-Fi XtremeMusic, but I've been told that it's not good with surround sound headphones. I'm using Genius 5.1 headphones. They do have a switch that enables me to only use 2.1 if I want.
Will the X-Fi work with these?

I don't see why not. They would probably need bass redirection enabled with the +15dB subwoofer boost as one way to get correct channel volumes. This very long thread:
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...essage.id=8533
might give you some useful insights.
Did whoever told you they weren't good tell you anything about why or in what way?
-Dave
[email protected]

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Surround Sound Headphones?

Has anyone here tried surround sound headphones with the SPDIF output on an nForce mobo? If so, how do they work with games?
-r

Quote
Originally posted by Ryu Connor
I've had to read your question a few times to be sure that I'm answering the question right.
I'd have to say the general answer to your question is no.
Setting the panel to headphones is supposed to cause Windows to do something to the output of the sound. I can't perceive any difference when I shift the setting about. I've begun to wonder if the setting is only applicable to analog sound cards.
Furthermore an external DSP is required to use S/PDIF. At minimum you need a DAC to convert the digital signal back into analog. You also have to remember that any DD sound output from the S/PDIF must be decoded before it goes to the DAC. Since it appears that the nForce encodes any sound that passes through it, this too would make a DSP required.
I should have been a bit clearer on the external DSP. I realize a DD decoder is necessary when using the SPDIF output, but a DSP for additional HRTF would not necessarily be needed (if I'm understanding this correctly).
Quote
The adjustment of these settings along side Pro Logic tend to create the necessary HRTF output through headphones. That's for DD content any ways. 3D Sound API's acheive their goal by processing before output through the S/PDIF or analog outs.
But is the 3D Sound API's sound processing "preserved" when encoded to Dolby Digital? In other words, does the EAX and/or A3D positional infomation remain after it is encoded to DD?
Quote
One person who recently listened to a DVD-A song on my rig said the following afterwards, "Wow, the sound felt like it was in the back of my head."
Which I suppose is the result you're looking for.
Yes, exactly! But for games as well as DVDs?
Good info Ryu! Thanks!!
-r

Type at least two letters to find a community Why are some locatiols and THE SOUND headphones DO YOU KNOW NOTHING;

Good afternoon. When I HTES upgrades TIN has been lowered to 5.1 calls and THE SOUND headphones DO YOU KNOW NOTHING;

Perhaps it is a translation issue, but your post makes no sense.
Please try again.
x

Optical audio and surround sound speakers for my Mac Pro

In the back of my Mac Pro there's an in and out for Optical Audio. What is this and are there any surround sound speaker systems out there that will plug into it? Most surround sound speakers seem to require a PC-style triple-input, with three jacks (Green to front, Orange to centre and Black to rear channels). Very few surround sound systems have the additional option for a single headphone socket-style jack, and I'm not sure if they will work terribly well with this single connection.
Can anyone recommend some speaker choices, particularly in the UK, that will give me good surround sound from the optical audio or single headphone jacks? Many thanks.

You might want to look at a device called the Griffin FireWave: [http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave]
It connects to your MacPro via firewire, and has the green/orange/black jacks out to a standard 5.1 speaker system.
It comes with a software application that lets you customize the sound, and also synthesize surround from mono, stereo, etc., sources.
It would definitely open up your choices for speaker systems. I'm using one with a Klipsch 5.1 Promedia set of speakers. Works and sounds great.

Using sky go from Mac air to TV and surround sound speakers

I have skygo, and want to watch it on my tv through HDMI cable, can I use logitech surround sound pc speakers too somehow?

As your TV has HDMI inputs which will support sound as well as video, use a MiniDisplay port to HDMI cable (Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Cable by Cablesson works great) or a MiniDisplay port to HDMI adaptor and HDMI to HDMI if not. Just make sure the adaptor supports audio as well as video. Just select HDMI in the Preferences Sound
And yes, you could use your surround sound speakers via the 3.5 mm headphone jack, just make sure you select this option in Preferences Sound if you're not using the HDMI for sound

Mac Pro and Surround Sound

I cannot get 5.1 channel sound out of my Mac Pro (or my PM G5 for that matter).
So what are my options for bringing out the surround content of Windows games to my Logitech Z-5500 5.1 system?
I investigated the M-Audio Revolution 5.1. It's not compatible with the PCI-Express slots or with MacOSX 10.4.8.
Is the Mac Pro too new for any such products to be available for it yet?

Feeding my Logitech Z-5500 5.1 system from the optical out, only gives me DPL2, (I think) from DVD movies. For games on the Mac, I needed to take a feed to the Logitechs from the headphone out as the optical feed didn't yield any audio from games. What does the optical out give us then? Nothing more than sound for DVDs and some MacOSX alert sounds.
Now I'm guesssing this but my intuition tells me that the optical path is a direct feed from the DVD player. Well, perhaps not really direct but certainly a different path to that of the integrated audio hardware.
Now we have one most serious problem here. Nearly all games ported to the Mac are encoded 2-channel only. Aspyr admitted this to me. I do not watch DVD movies on my Mac so the Logitechs are serving no purpose apart from providing stereo audio.
Aspyr says that since Apple only provides for 2-channel audio in hardware and software, game publishers never bother with surround information in their games. Aspyr says, if it did it could cause instability and crashes because the Mac is a 2-channel computer. Games with surround sound will be more common if Apple builds the feature into its computers.
Unless Apple changes it's policy we are stuck with 2-channel. And similarly, Windows on Intel Macs is hobbled because the same hardware is used by Windows.
Can a Firewire or USB decoder extract surround sound from Windows games? It certainly can on a PC. But what about an Intel Mac? I'm about to learn the answer when the Audigy2 NX arrives.

How do I connect Apple TV and surround sound to my projector?

My current set up is that I have a projector connected to my Blu-Ray player. My surround sound speakers connect to my Blu-Ray player. They all came in the box together and the speaker wires all go into the Blu-Ray. Everything works perfectly.
However now I have bought an Apple TV and although I can play it through the projector, the sound is only through the projector and not the surround sound. I tried plugging the Apple TV in the HDMI in the projector and then connecting the Apple TV to the Blu-Ray via optical cable, but that didn't work.
In the back of the projector there is 1 HDMI port and an audio port but no optical port
In the back of the Blu-Ray, you have the speakers, the HDMI, the audio in and the optical port.
How can I connect everything so that I can use my Apple TV with surround sound?

The manual doesn't say anything an optical port on the BD ?

ITunes and surround sound internet streams

Hi all,
I'm looking to broadcast internet streams in surround sound and I want to select an audio codec which iTunes will play.
Does anyone know which surround audio codecs are supported for internet streaming?
Best regards,
Daren.

Thanks for your reply Dave.
I had suspected that this was the case. I've been exprimenting with iTunes and haven't even been able to receive a stereo AAC stream. AAC and AAC+ only seem to be supported for files and not internet streams.
If anyone disagrees, please feel free to correct me.
Does anyone know if there are plans to support AAC and AAC+ in internet streams? ..and in particular for surround sound broadcasts?
Best regards,
Daren.

Blu ray and surround sound

I just purchased a Sony Bravia kdl-52v4100 and a ps3 to watch blu ray. Now I want to buy a surround sound but watch blu ray at the same time with out buying a blu ray dvd player. Is there any way I can connect my PS3 with the surround sound to play together.

Assuming you don't already have a surround system, and plan to use the PS3 for DVD and Blu-Ray playback:
1) Buy surround system with an optical audio input. Most have this. Since you have a PS3 you don't need one of the ones that has a built-in DVD player. I'm partial to the Yamaha HTIB (Home Theater in a Box) systems.
2) Buy optical audio (TOSLINK) cable
3) Connect TOSLINK cable from PS3 to surround receiver
4) Leave existing video connection between PS3 and TV in place
No need for a separate DVD player, the PS3 handles this.
You will have to change some options of the PS3 to enable the optical audio output. I can't help you here as I don't own a PS3.
*disclaimer* I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee of Best Buy, Geek Squad, nor of any of their affiliate, parent, or subsidiary companies.

AirPlay and surround sound

Hi, set up my apple tv . I have managed to get everything working ok but when I use the AirPlay option I cannot get my surround sound to work, it only comes thought the speakers on my tv. My current scary lead goes from my sky tv box to the DVD player that has the surround sound. However, when I set my scary from tv to DVD p,Ayer there is still bNo surround sound- do I need ton change a setting?
Thanks

I have no idea what your current setup is, despite your brief description. Go back a few steps to 'troubleshooting 101'. If your using the HDMI only, your ATV will output audio to whatever device the HDMI is connected to (uh, your TV?)
If you want audio sent to any other device, you must use the digital optical connector. It is always active, so no changes in your ATV are necessary - just hook the optical cable to your surround receiver, configure your receiver to work with the optical input you have the ATV connected to, and it will work.

Tv and surround sound

im trying to figure out which surround sound i need -- i want to use it for dvd and my cable -- so i can use surround soound for both ..

The Yamaha HTIB systems are cheaper than $500 and quite excellent - I own two (one in the "office", one in the living room).
*disclaimer* I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee of Best Buy, Geek Squad, nor of any of their affiliate, parent, or subsidiary companies.

Airport Express and Surround Sound Issue

I recently have lost the ability to play music via Airport Express through my surround sound. It was working one day, I synced my IPhone and the option to play music through my surround sound is gone. Same with the "Remote" application for IPhone.
Note: I am able to chose "Computer" and / or "Apple Tv" but not my surround sound. Any ideas how to correct this and why this was changed?

Hello irk26. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Although the Linksys WRT54GL, which is Linux-based and running DD-WRT firmware, is WDS-capable, it can be tricky at times for it to be also WDS-compatible with the AirPort base stations ... as you are probably already aware.
Maybe one of the following articles may be of help:
o How to extend your Linksys WRT54G with AE
o Linksys WRT54G and WDS
o Linksys WRT54G, Airport Express, and WDS
o AirTunes, AirPort Express, and the WRT54G
o Using Airport Express as a range extender/repeater for Linksys Cable/DSL router WRT54G
o Extend a Linksys WRT54G network via AirPort Express

X-Fi Notebook and Surround Sound / Opti

Hey, I was wondering if the X-Fi notebook would accept 5. sound input. I'll explain what i'm trying to do:?I want to conenct my HD TV box to the sound card so that I can use my 5. creative speakers to watch TV and also play DVD. Would this be possible with this card + the surround sound expansion bay?Thanks?(Also, is there an external alternati've to this; with the same quality)

Any thoughts?

ATV and Surround Sound Speakers

Hi gang,
I'm looking to hook up a surround sound system and I'd like to have it so my iPod/iMac/iPad can wifi play over the sound system. I've got a Samsung Plasma TV with the following things hooked up:
- Current gen Apple TV
- PS3
- Wii
- Comcast DVR
- Sony DVD player
I'm thinking I just need something that runs from the TV to the surround sound speakers, but not sure about how to play music by wifi through the speakers. I'm no tech wiz, so I'm looking for an out of the box solution if at all possible. Any thoughts / inputs?

Unless the TV has the option to output surround sound to a receiver (most don't) you would put the receiver in front of the TV in the chain and have all your other devices feed into the receiver, using the receiver to switch inputs to the TV rather than the TV itself.
Your current Apple TV would take care of all the streaming from your iPod, iPhone and iMac.
When considering a receiver take account of all the inputs you require as a result of all the devices you wish to play through it.

Mega 180 and surround sound

I've spent the last week goofing around with surround sound, SPDIF in & out, and lots of other audio type stuff. I haven't seen much discussion in the forum about high quality audio. So I thought I'd describe my experiences.
I've been using my mega for about a month with 2 channel stereo. I have pretty much all the video stuff and MCE 2005 working reasonably well so I decided it was time to tackle 5.1. The onboard sound support works just great for producing 5.1 stereo. Hooking this up to a set of 5.1 computer speakers is straight forward and works just fine. If that is all you want it's very easy.
However I wanted more control of the audio sources in my living room and decided to go the external digital receiver route. So enter SPDIF which I have had no experience with. SPDIF is the same as TOSLINK. When you go to the store looking for connectors I could find no mention of SPDIF. But lots of TOSLINK's - they work just fine. The mega 180 has both input and output SPDIF connectors. The input worked just fine with a DVD player I have. Howver I never could get it to produce anything but ticking noises with my HDTV tuners SPDIF connector. This same HDTV tuner SPDIF connector worked just fine when I went out and bought a reasonably priced ($250) JVC digital receiver. So I guess I didn't have the proper decoders configured in the Mega??
SPDIF is used to support digital dolby and several variants...like dts. It is not just a digital connector. The Mega 180 is very capable in this department however. It supports DVD passthru to SPDIF. It also supports realtime digital dolby encoding of all audio.
You can specify that you want 5.1 digitial dolby out the digital connector. All sound is converted to digital dolby real time and sent over this connector. I was not expecting this. You can also use the 6 analog channel option (speaker out, line in, mic) to attach to a receiver. This is analog output however so you just want the receiver to pass the signals straight thru to the 5.1 speaker configuration. There is a 3rd way to attach the Mega to the digital receiver. You can send 2 channel analog output via speaker out. The digital receiver will then convert this to surround sound using various environmental settings.
At this point I have my surround sound system set up. I tend to like the digital dolby passthru for listening to DVDs. For MP3's I like the 5.1 stereo using the 6 analog outputs. For other videos....like avi files I like the digital dolby realtime conversion out the SPDIF connection.
It is kind of rare to give kudos to MSI on the Mega series. They have done lots of things wrong. However they have done a surprisingly good job of supporting quality audio options.
At least after a week of goofing around I'm happy!

thank nvidia, not MSI! their on-board audio solutions have always been rated quite highly, especially the hardware SoundStorm APU. i used to swear by creative many moons ago, but when onboard audio is as highly spec'd as nvidia's why bother?

X-fi and surround sound headphones

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