AlienZombie
May 19, 2002, 11:52 AM
I've been having some audio issues with my computer going back a long time. I have only crappy on-board sound capabilities, which never really bothered me as I'm no audiophile. But a while back I updated the drivers through the MS Windows Update. Doing this rendered AvP2 unplayable (freezes a few sec's into booting up everytime) and crippled RTCW (game plays fine, but audio is a full 3-4 sec's behind the actual game). These are the only games I have which have audio problems. As a result, I tried to remove the new drivers and reinstall the old ones, as I could at least play these games then. This was quite a headache, but once I did it, I found there was no change from before, both of these games had the same issues. I played around with the audio settings on my computer, but nothing changed. I even deleted and reinstalled AvP2 (saving my saved games of course), but again, no dice. So I figured, if I can't get the old drivers to work, I might as well have the newest ones, so I went back to windows update and got the new ones. There is a possibility that the drivers didn't install right in the 1st place, because I think my computer froze or something during the installation.
As a result of this headache, and a desire to get good audio when watching dvd's, I have decided to get an actual soundcard. My dvd setup is as follows: I watch them on my dvd drive and output them to my tv through a Hollywood+ card. The audio I have sent to my 5 speaker stereo (Kenwood RXD-A83). What I desire is something that I can get at least 5.1 (maybe DTS, depends how hard it is) audio with through my current setup (w/o a subwoofer). To do this, I believe that I need a soundcard with S/PDIF outputs (to stereo) and inputs (from H+) because the H+ card only has a S/PDIF output. So I have to output it from the H+ to the soundcard and then send it from the soundcard to the stereo. But when I was checking out the Creative Audigy series of cards, the only card that has both S/PDIF input and output is the Platinum, not the lesser models (gamer and MP3+) as they only have the output. The Platinum is more then I wanted to spend, especially not being an audiophile. So am I correct in assuming that the Audigy Platinum is the only card that I can get 5.1 audio with using my current setup, or would it be possible with the lesser cards?
I have tossed around the idea of just bypassing the H+ card to avoid some confusion, but I'd REALLY rather not.
Thanks, AZ
PS: Mods, I understand if this gets moved to the 'Consumer Opinion' forum, but I felt that it was much more involved than just a "which is best?" post, so that's why I put it in the "All Topics" forum.
As a result of this headache, and a desire to get good audio when watching dvd's, I have decided to get an actual soundcard. My dvd setup is as follows: I watch them on my dvd drive and output them to my tv through a Hollywood+ card. The audio I have sent to my 5 speaker stereo (Kenwood RXD-A83). What I desire is something that I can get at least 5.1 (maybe DTS, depends how hard it is) audio with through my current setup (w/o a subwoofer). To do this, I believe that I need a soundcard with S/PDIF outputs (to stereo) and inputs (from H+) because the H+ card only has a S/PDIF output. So I have to output it from the H+ to the soundcard and then send it from the soundcard to the stereo. But when I was checking out the Creative Audigy series of cards, the only card that has both S/PDIF input and output is the Platinum, not the lesser models (gamer and MP3+) as they only have the output. The Platinum is more then I wanted to spend, especially not being an audiophile. So am I correct in assuming that the Audigy Platinum is the only card that I can get 5.1 audio with using my current setup, or would it be possible with the lesser cards?
I have tossed around the idea of just bypassing the H+ card to avoid some confusion, but I'd REALLY rather not.
Thanks, AZ
PS: Mods, I understand if this gets moved to the 'Consumer Opinion' forum, but I felt that it was much more involved than just a "which is best?" post, so that's why I put it in the "All Topics" forum.