Nforce2 5.1 Audio?

As I understand the Nforce2 motherboards, you can encode normal stereo sound to 5.1 digital using the SPDIF output as long as the board has the MCP-T southbridge. Is anyone using the Nforce2's 5.1 SPDIF encoding ability in games eg GPL, Nascar 2003 others? Does it work Ok or not at all - specifically encoding from a stereo (game) source to 5.1 sound? Do any racing sims yet support SPDIF 5.1 audio directly? I have Abit NFS-7 rev2 with just 2 speakers, but looking to upgrade to 5.1. -- Pete H GPL, N2003, LFS all suck .... you in

Or any similar comments on the Nvidia Dolby Surround encoding which I guess is the analog encoded version of the SPDIF 5.1 output? PeteH "Pete H" <blah@don'tsendspamhere.com> wrote in message news:BaBvb.21400$[email hidden]...

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> As I understand the Nforce2 motherboards, you can encode normal stereo > sound to 5.1 digital using the SPDIF output as long as the board has the > MCP-T southbridge. > Is anyone using the Nforce2's 5.1 SPDIF encoding ability in games eg GPL, > Nascar 2003 others? > Does it work Ok or not at all - specifically encoding from a stereo (game) > source to 5.1 sound? > > Do any racing sims yet support SPDIF 5.1 audio directly? > > I have Abit NFS-7 rev2 with just 2 speakers, but looking to upgrade to

5.1. > > -- > Pete H > GPL, N2003, LFS all suck .... you in > >

Hey man, 5.1 sound is 5.1 sound. That is 6 channels (sometimes 5 with the Sub not having it's own track). SPDIF is just an output jack. It outputs the audio digitally to something that converts it to analog and then amplifies it. You can have 2 channels of audio through SPDIF, etc. It doesn't matter. As for games, if you play GPL through that motherboard or any setup with 5.1, you will only get 2 channels of sound (the front two). Unless you have setup in your soundcard options to use those 2 channels to fake a 5 channel mix. What you'll be hearing won't be proper 5.1 since GPL doesn't support it. You'll just be hearing a faked version, where it's basically the same thing played through 5 speakers and a sub. There are a few methods for mixing up to fake 5.1, my soundcard specifically has CMSS and CMSS 2. I disable both because I think upmixing a stereo source to 5.1 sounds worse than the fake stereo mixes of mono Beatles and Beach Boys songs.. Mike http://mikebeauchamp.com "Pete H" <blah@don'tsendspamhere.com> wrote in message news:ZuBvb.21429$[email hidden]... > Or any similar comments on the Nvidia Dolby Surround encoding which Iguess

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> is the analog encoded version of the SPDIF 5.1 output? > > PeteH > > "Pete H" <blah@don'tsendspamhere.com> wrote in message > news:BaBvb.21400$[email hidden]... > > As I understand the Nforce2 motherboards, you can encode normal stereo > > sound to 5.1 digital using the SPDIF output as long as the board has the > > MCP-T southbridge. > > Is anyone using the Nforce2's 5.1 SPDIF encoding ability in games eg

GPL, > > Nascar 2003 others? > > Does it work Ok or not at all - specifically encoding from a stereo(game)

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> > source to 5.1 sound? > > > > Do any racing sims yet support SPDIF 5.1 audio directly? > > > > I have Abit NFS-7 rev2 with just 2 speakers, but looking to upgrade to > 5.1. > > > > -- > > Pete H > > GPL, N2003, LFS all suck .... you in > > > > > >

Uh - Ok. So you reckon the SPDIF encoding would just be still 2 channel. Just that the really helpful? Nvidia help file below is not very clear. I guess real 5.1 sound in games will happen sometime prob on FPS games first. Pete H ------------------------------------------------- Dolby� Surround Encoding Enables audio to be encoded for playback on home theater receivers (using analog stereo outputs only) Dolby� Digital Encoding Enables audio to be encoded for playback on 5.1 home theater receivers (using digital SPDIF output only) ----------------------------------------------------- "Mike Beauchamp" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Hey man, 5.1 sound is 5.1 sound. That is 6 channels (sometimes 5 with the > Sub not having it's own track). SPDIF is just an output jack. It outputsthe > audio digitally to something that converts it to analog and then amplifies > it. You can have 2 channels of audio through SPDIF, etc. It doesn'tmatter. > > As for games, if you play GPL through that motherboard or any setup with > 5.1, you will only get 2 channels of sound (the front two). Unless youhave > setup in your soundcard options to use those 2 channels to fake a 5channel > mix. What you'll be hearing won't be proper 5.1 since GPL doesn't support > it. You'll just be hearing a faked version, where it's basically the same > thing played through 5 speakers and a sub. > > There are a few methods for mixing up to fake 5.1, my soundcardspecifically > has CMSS and CMSS 2. I disable both because I think upmixing a stereosource > to 5.1 sounds worse than the fake stereo mixes of mono Beatles and Beach > Boys songs.. > > Mike > http://mikebeauchamp.com >

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 08:03:16 GMT, "Pete H" <blah@don'tsendspamhere.com> scribbled:

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>Uh - Ok. So you reckon the SPDIF encoding would just be still 2 channel. >Just that the really helpful? Nvidia help file below is not very clear. > >I guess real 5.1 sound in games will happen sometime prob on FPS games >first. > >Pete H

Well if the game you're playing supports some kind of DirectSound3D positional audio, the nForce 2 will "up-mix" it into a DD 5.1 stream, presumably to be decoded again at a receiver into 5.1 surround. If the game supports stereo, you'll get stereo. -Slash -- "Ebert Victorious" -The Onion