DFI Lanparty NF4/3 sound issue SPDIF 5.1?

lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
edited July 2005 in Hardware
I have both a DFI Lanpart UT NF3 250GB and a NF4 Ultra-D. Both boards seem to only output two channel stereo sound to my Logitech Z-680 speaker system via the digital coax output (spdif). They both have onboard Realtek ALC850 7.1 channel audio.

On my a7n8x-e with NF2 soundstorm, I used to connect via digital coax, and get digital surround output, where it is in turn, decoded by the Z-680's onboard decoder.

As it stands now, I have to use the direct 6-ch analog minijacks for surround sound.

I have tried the following:

Realtek ALC850 drivers
Nvidia codec
Setting speaker config in ALC850 or Nvidia mixer
Setting 5.1 speaker config in Windows control panel
Tried setting the jumper (NF4) to switch spdif from nvidia chipset to alc850 karajan audio module.

Still only getting stereo output from the SPDIF out. I asked around on DFI street, but nobody seemed to have an answer for me. I'm wondering if this is just an ALC850 chipset limitation, or a simple driver/software/bios issue of some kind?

If anyone has any other ideas that they could share, it'd be really appreciated :thumbsup:

Thanks

Comments

  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    I think I got similar issues, I had to switch a couple cables, I think the black and orange colored plugs had to be switched, I don't recall the colors either too well. But something way in the back on my PC is switched to get surround sound. But I don't have SPDIF either. I have the Z-640's
  • daveinsurgentdaveinsurgent
    edited July 2005
    This is because these boards do not encode Dolby Digital Live.

    Only the SoundStorm NF2 did this, it was (sadly) discontinued afterwards.

    Not even the most expensive Creative Labs sound card will encode DDL and give you 5.1 over optical or coax digital. You can get 5.1 but the source has to be already ENCODED (ie. a DVD movie). If your source (for instance Winamp) is not DDL encoded, you will not get any more than 2 channels.

    One of the (only? few?) cards that will do DDL encoding is the HDA X-Mystique 7.1.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2005
    daveinsurgent wrote:
    Only the SoundStorm NF2 did this, it was (sadly) discontinued afterwards.

    Oh how I miss the MCP-T. Nvidia should have kept it alive. I posted this back in February, and I've learned to live with the analog 5.1. The sound is not quite as good as my NF2, but it's still quite good :thumbsup:
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Good question, ll. I never would have known this. Thanks for saving me money on a digital coax cable. It is disappointing that Nvidia didn't just keep Soundstorm.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    lemonlime

    Have you tried not installing the Realtek drivers and just use the NF drivers? I have not used the SPDIF but in my 5.1 set-up I can tell a difference in favor of just using the NF drivers. ;D
  • daveinsurgentdaveinsurgent
    edited July 2005
    Yeah I noticed you posted this a long time ago but I came across it in a google search so I figured some people may still read it and benefit from my advice :)

    I really must reccomend the HDA X-Mystique. It's a great card and it's nice to have something other than Creative.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2005
    mtgoat wrote:
    lemonlime

    Have you tried not installing the Realtek drivers and just use the NF drivers? I have not used the SPDIF but in my 5.1 set-up I can tell a difference in favor of just using the NF drivers. ;D

    Yeah I tried the realtek drivers when I first got it. Was not impressed :D Narsty interface as well. I've just been using the NF drivers. The sound is quite good, no real complaints from me.

    I kept hearing mixed reports from nvidia about soundstorm 2. Never really happened, I suppose it's off the drawing board now
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2005
    daveinsurgent wrote:
    I really must reccomend the HDA X-Mystique. It's a great card and it's nice to have something other than Creative.

    Cool, I'll have to check that one out. I've never been a big fan of creative cards to be honest. I found their software side of things to be weak. Driver quirks and the like..

    Most of the onboard sound is quite decent now-a-days. Maybe someday I'll spring for something better. :D
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