blu
Step on my cubes.
Joined: 19 Mar 2003
Posts: 4638
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A digital audio signal contains specific audio for all 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. It is sending a specific feed to the sub, not just finding the bass out of the left and right channels and feeding that to the sub.
There are many ways to combat this, all of which have requirements.
1. Have a receiver that is capable of emulating surround sound and splitting up the left and right channels to all 5.1 or 7.1 channels. This is pretty uncommon. Usually, a nice receiver will be able to take a left and right analog signal and emulate full surround, but not take a digital signal with only left and right audio and emulate full surround.
2. Have a receiver that is capable of using an internally set crossover frequency to send bass to the sub and higher freq. to the satellite speakers (still would be only left, right, and sub in your case.)
3. Have a sub that has front inputs and outputs and a crossover freq setting for extracting the bass out of the front left and right signals (still would be only left, right, and sub in your case.)
4. Have the computer software/hardware that will be able to create a digital audio signal that has surround emulation and send out a full 5.1 digital signal.
In my setup, I have found a mix of 3 and 4 to be my favorite.
My Klipsch sub has front left and right inputs/outputs and a crossover freq that allows it to "suck" bass out of the front signals. This is good for front left and right and sub, but doesn't make any use of the other speakers when listening to music from a typical computer digital feed.
My HTPC setup includes a Sound Blaster Fatality that can do surround emulation and send 6 analog signals out with bass going to sub, and all 5 other speakers having appropriate levels and freq's. (Note: I have only found the cards that will do this analog, I have not ever found a card that will actually encode a digital audio signal in this way. Being able to output a dolby digital signal from a DVD or similar is entirely different than encoding one from scratch). Now, this is a long ways from a digital signal that is easy to put into a system, so there is another piece of hardware Creative sells that is needed to encode the separate analog signals to a digital signal capable of being decoded by your receiver. The one I have is called a Creative Home Theater Connect DTS-610.
With the DTS-610, you can take the analog feeds from the card, and encode a DTS signal that can be output via optical or coax that includes exactly what you want going to the speakers you want.
I would be happy to sell both my DTS-610 and my Fatality card, as I have switched to apple TVs for all my HTPC needs, if you want. I had all of this running via a windows 7 media center for several years.
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