About HT and Creative's EAX (1 Viewer)

[Sandra B.]

Hi all!
Well, i have a question that mixes PC gaming and Home Theater.
You know that with Dolby Pro-Logic II and NEO:6 modes, you
can make surround audio with 5 or 6 channel from a stereo or
surround source. But, ¿if i connect the audio outputs of the
Sound Blaster Audigy to the receiver, will it process the
multichannel EAX sound mode that most games use with Pro-Logic II or NEO:6 and achieve good results?.
That i want, as you supposed, is to use a Home Theater system with my pc for gaming. ¿Will this work well? No one in my local Home Theater stores give me a good answer.
Thanks!

 

[Seth_L]

You have a few options.

1) Run analog 5.1 out from the card to your reciever. Use your multichannel input and get "discrete" 5.1 from your games and apps.

2) Set your Audigy to 2 channel mode and enable the CMSS (I think the Audigy has this) which is supposed to encode pro-logic data into the 2 channels which your reciever can then pull out.

Seth

 

[Scott Simonian]

1) The audigy should have a coax/optical digital included on the card. Use this on a digital imput on your receiver and there ya' go.
2) The audigy might also have a mode called "Surround".
Hook up the stereo cable to the receiver and use DPL2 or dts:NEO.

 

[Rory Buszka]

This belonged in the Home theater Basics section, IMHO, but no harm done.

 

[John Parris]

I used to do the exact same thing actually... here's what I found out:

Your best bet will be to use the 5.1 analog outputs on the audigy card and go to your reciever that way. Using optical, coaxial, or 2-channel mode will NOT result in true EAX 2.0 gaming. Only the audigy has EAX capabilities, so the signal will have to be broken down there. Even CMSS won't give you the real effect. This is particularly noticable on FPSs that make heavy use of the rear channels... you'll be able to tell rear left from rear right ONLY with the analog outputs... may not be a huge issue, but it's what works the best for EAX gaming. Since I lack 5.1 inputs on my current reciever, I had a make-shift 4.0 system using two external amps and two old sets of speakers-- it will essentially work the same on a reciever with 5.1 inputs... and you can even still make use of the audigy's built-in decoder for Dolby Digital DVDs if you use your HT for that as well.

Hope that helps.

 

[Sandra B.]

Thanks to everybody for the answers.
Its good to see that someone has done it, thanks John!