"Wishkah" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:ecQv5.1467$[email hidden]...
> Anyone know a newsgroup for sound related issues. There is something wrong
> with my newsgroups server and I can't search for any.
>
> I might just as well tell you guys my problem now, you never know. I havea
> Altec Lansing ADA-880 speaker set and a SoundBlaster 512. I got them them
> with my Dell system and I have become suspecious on the regards of their
> true surround sound capibilities. I normally have the two smaller rear
> speakers plugged in the two bigger front ones which should give me avirtual
> surround sound effect. There is a dobly surround button on my speakers and
> remote control that should turn dobly surround on, but when I turn it on I
> just get a distorted sound.
You have to be running something that's encoded with Dolby surround for it
to work, natch. Most of the time you should probably have your setup on
"quad". Make absolutely sure your connections are right.
I have a Dell-supplied ADA-885 system and Live Platinum that works fine,
except the subwoofer bellied up and I had to return it. I also uninstalled
all the Dell-installed speaker drivers, etc. and replaced them with
downloaded ones from Creative's site.
Jerry Morelock
Wishkah wrote:
>
> ...dobly...
Another Spinal Tarp fan!
Sorry, couldn't resist...
Anyone know a newsgroup for sound related issues. There is something wrong
with my newsgroups server and I can't search for any.
I might just as well tell you guys my problem now, you never know. I have a
Altec Lansing ADA-880 speaker set and a SoundBlaster 512. I got them them
with my Dell system and I have become suspecious on the regards of their
true surround sound capibilities. I normally have the two smaller rear
speakers plugged in the two bigger front ones which should give me a virtual
surround sound effect. There is a dobly surround button on my speakers and
remote control that should turn dobly surround on, but when I turn it on I
just get a distorted sound. When I go to Liveware 3 and test the speakers I
only hear "front left and front right" but never left rear or right rear no
matter how I play with them, even if I put the two smaller speakers on their
two little stands. I can get the rear channel by plugging my speaker set in
another output plug but when i do i only the rear right and rear left when
i test the speakers. In my sound card there are two outputs for the
speakers, one of the holes for it is green and the other i can't remember.
Does this mean that to have surround sound the front and rear speakers need
to be plugged into two different channels? If this is so can I just buy a
another set of stereo speakers and plug them in the rear channel and keep
this essiting set in plugged in the front channel to get surround sound?
A friend of mine told me that the surround sound only works when using the
digital output which is used for DVDs which I don't have, so did i get
ripped off from Dell when they said that I the ADA-880 was a true surround
sound speaker system? That's makes me feel pretty bad when in the past 3
years we have spent about 13,000 dollars in all on dell desktops and
laptops.
Yes there are 2 channels and you plug the front speakers into one and rear
speakers into the other. Are you sure your speaker set doesnt have 2 plugs
or places for plugs to come out to go to the computer? I would think that
the speaker set would have 2 plugs coming out, one to go to front and one to
rear.
JB
"Wishkah" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:ecQv5.1467$[email hidden]...
> Anyone know a newsgroup for sound related issues. There is something wrong
> with my newsgroups server and I can't search for any.
>
> I might just as well tell you guys my problem now, you never know. I havea
> Altec Lansing ADA-880 speaker set and a SoundBlaster 512. I got them them
> with my Dell system and I have become suspecious on the regards of their
> true surround sound capibilities. I normally have the two smaller rear
> speakers plugged in the two bigger front ones which should give me avirtual
> surround sound effect. There is a dobly surround button on my speakers and
> remote control that should turn dobly surround on, but when I turn it on I
> just get a distorted sound. When I go to Liveware 3 and test the speakersI
> only hear "front left and front right" but never left rear or right rearno
> matter how I play with them, even if I put the two smaller speakers ontheir
> two little stands. I can get the rear channel by plugging my speaker setin
> another output plug but when i do i only the rear right and rear leftwhen
> i test the speakers. In my sound card there are two outputs for the
> speakers, one of the holes for it is green and the other i can't remember.
> Does this mean that to have surround sound the front and rear speakersneed
Quoted text (14 lines)
> to be plugged into two different channels? If this is so can I just buy a > another set of stereo speakers and plug them in the rear channel and keep > this essiting set in plugged in the front channel to get surround sound? > > A friend of mine told me that the surround sound only works when using the > digital output which is used for DVDs which I don't have, so did i get > ripped off from Dell when they said that I the ADA-880 was a true surround > sound speaker system? That's makes me feel pretty bad when in the past 3 > years we have spent about 13,000 dollars in all on dell desktops and > laptops. > > > >Try the server news.soundblaster.com and the NG
creative.products.sound_blaster.live
Wishkah wrote:
> Anyone know a newsgroup for sound related issues. There is something wrong
> with my newsgroups server and I can't search for any.
>
Dolby Surround Sound and Dolby Pro Logic do not need digital output, but
Dolby Digital (5.1 channels) does. Only DVD movies will use Dolby Digital
though. Games with Dolby support usually use Dolby Surround, although it is
more usual these days for games to simply use DirectSound3D, which only
requires 4 channels and no Dolby Decoder.
You should check your speakers, maybe by looking at the Altec Lansing
homepage on the net to check they actually do have a Dolby decoder in them.
And if they do, you only need to press that button if your game is using
Dolby Surround (as opposed to DirectSound3D) or if you are playing a DVD
movie. Also there should be a label on your speakers somewhere saying
either "Dolby Surround", "Dolby Pro-Logic" or "Dolby Digital".
I don't know exactly how all the wires connect on your speakers, but my
speakers connect into both the Green and Black outputs on my sound card.
The sound card will send the signal for the rear speakers through the Black
output, so this is where your rear speakers should be connected.
I then have a seperate lead going from my DVD decoder card to the back of my
Decoder unit (which is the centre piece of the speaker set and fairly
sizeable in itself) which carries the digital output so I have can have
Dolby Digital for the full 5.1 channels.
If your speakers don't do Dolby Digital (many speakers only do Dolby
Surround), or you haven't got a DVD drive/decoder card, then all you need to
worry about is getting your rear speakers connected to the Black output on
your soundcard.
Hope some of that helps :)
Simon.
"Wishkah" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:ecQv5.1467$[email hidden]...
> Anyone know a newsgroup for sound related issues. There is something wrong
> with my newsgroups server and I can't search for any.
><snip>
