Can you use SPDIF (Optical) out for gaming in 5.1 - on Nforce 680i

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by Revs

Not quite. If your mobo has an spdif out (optical or coaxial), it can and will output DD or DTS from it. Because the digital signal is not being encoded by the PC, it's already encoded on the disc you're playing. Therefore all your mobo is doing is sending the (pre-encoded) signal down the spdif. All you need is software like PowerDVD that can output using spdif.

VLC, SMPlayer, FFDshow and others will all output DD or DTS through spdif but need more fiddling with to do it than PowerDVD.

I was referring to Dolby Digital Live (DDL) and DTS Connect. Any digital output on a sound card is capable of outputing a DD or DTS signal to a digital reciever for decoding- but DDL and DTS Connect are used to encode whatever audio is being played back on your PC into 5.1 channels- something not all soundcards can do. It's not on the same level as that of a DVD or what you hear in the theaters, but it's better than what you'd get from Dolby ProLogic.

Upon further research, it seems support for DTS Connect has been dropped as I'm unable to find any real info about it from the DTS website. Interesting.

[Revs]

My mobo aint got DDL, but I can output DD or DTS to my AV amp and I get propper DD or DTS 5.1. The screen on the amp says 'DTS Direct'. My point was, it's nothing to do with DPL.

Or are just solely refering to non-DVD sources? I think I misread this bit;

'....5.1 over digital will only be possible with DVDs or via using a reciever that supports DBPL 1 or 2.'

I'm gonna go now....

[Sowk]

Well looks like the Creative PCI-Express Fatality EAX5 Sound card with DDL is coming to me soon.

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by Revs

My mobo aint got DDL, but I can output DD or DTS to my AV amp and I get propper DD or DTS 5.1. The screen on the amp says 'DTS Direct'. My point was, it's nothing to do with DPL.

Or are just solely refering to non-DVD sources? I think I misread this bit;

'....5.1 over digital will only be possible with DVDs or via using a reciever that supports DBPL 1 or 2.'

I'm gonna go now....

I was mostly referring to non-DVD sources. You can play pretty much anything over a digital connection (2 channel, 2.1, 3, 4, 4.1, 5, 5.1, 6, 6.1, 7, 7.1, etc)- that's not the issue. The issue is Sowk wants to playback everything in Dolby Digital 5.1. You can do this if your sound card supports Dolby Digital Live encoding, if it does not, then the only time you'll get the Dolb Digital surround sound is when playing a DVD pre-encoded with it. Your games and music would never play back in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. Hope that makes sense.