New Sound Card from Creative with full optical out?

Hello,

Any word on Creative Labs next gaming PC sound card?

I noticed the review on Tom's Hardware of the EMU from creative labs with
sports full standard optical connectors. I would love to hook up my PC to
my preamp and get full surround out. I currently have the Audigy 2ZS which
does not have a true optical out for standard preamp decoding. I can get
some 2 speaker out or if I was one of the few people whose preamp had read
inputs, I could get surround.

I really wouldn't be interested in buying a speaker system for my PC since
I've already invested thousands in my preamp, amp and speakers. I'd love to
be able to take advantage of them.

Any word on Creative Labs next gaming PC sound card?

Nothing that I know of. They didn't show any new stuff at E3 or Comdex to my
knowledge, so they wanna milk their ZS line a bit more methinks.

I currently have the Audigy 2ZS which
does not have a true optical out for standard preamp decoding.

Dunno exactly what you mean by that. The ZS doesn't have optical out at all,
and what is "standard preamp decoding" anyway? Creative's cards have no
hardware ENcoder, so the only way you'd get surround out of any of them
using digital outputs is if you have material with pre-encoded surround
sound on it (such as DVD movies or music). That's regardless of wether you
use coaxial or optical; these are exactly the same type of connection
except - obviously - one of them carries sound electrically and the other
via a beam of light.

Yep - the optical out will only give me stereo unless as you say it has been
encoded for the special speakers that decode the surround out. The standard
optical cable is used in their music emu card. Hopefully the next round
will let all of us with a receiver or preamp have a decent gaming pc for our
TV's.

"Lenny" wrote in message
...

Any word on Creative Labs next gaming PC sound card?

Nothing that I know of. They didn't show any new stuff at E3 or Comdex to
my
knowledge, so they wanna milk their ZS line a bit more methinks.

I currently have the Audigy 2ZS which
does not have a true optical out for standard preamp decoding.

Dunno exactly what you mean by that. The ZS doesn't have optical out at
all,
and what is "standard preamp decoding" anyway? Creative's cards have no
hardware ENcoder, so the only way you'd get surround out of any of them
using digital outputs is if you have material with pre-encoded surround
sound on it (such as DVD movies or music). That's regardless of wether you
use coaxial or optical; these are exactly the same type of connection
except - obviously - one of them carries sound electrically and the other
via a beam of light.

Am Sa 15.06.04 schrieb Lenny:


Dunno exactly what you mean by that. The ZS doesn't have optical out
at all, and what is "standard preamp decoding" anyway? Creative's
cards have no hardware ENcoder, so the only way you'd get surround out
of any of them using digital outputs is if you have material with
pre-encoded surround sound on it (such as DVD movies or music).

I don't know of a Creative card with a encoder, but there exists a Asus
motherboard called A7N8X-X Deluxe (A-Socket) which got a internal Dolby
Digital Encoder. The positioning in games works good, but there are less
effects. Also you could not use DVD-Audio, but this doesn't care on
digital connections, because it is disabled anyway when playing DVD-
Audio.

By the way, i also would like to have a Audigy 2 with a internal Dolby
Digital Encoder...


--*
Grüße, Pierre

I sent them a tech request because I couldn't find any better way of
contacting them. I also asked about it at Comdex last year. I'll bug them
again at Comdex this year.

Are there any Creative Labs forums that people from Creative read?

"Pierre Wasser" wrote in message ...
Am Sa 15.06.04 schrieb Lenny:


Dunno exactly what you mean by that. The ZS doesn't have optical out
at all, and what is "standard preamp decoding" anyway? Creative's
cards have no hardware ENcoder, so the only way you'd get surround out
of any of them using digital outputs is if you have material with
pre-encoded surround sound on it (such as DVD movies or music).

I don't know of a Creative card with a encoder, but there exists a Asus
motherboard called A7N8X-X Deluxe (A-Socket) which got a internal Dolby
Digital Encoder. The positioning in games works good, but there are less
effects. Also you could not use DVD-Audio, but this doesn't care on
digital connections, because it is disabled anyway when playing DVD-
Audio.

By the way, i also would like to have a Audigy 2 with a internal Dolby
Digital Encoder...


--
Grüße, Pierre

Am Sa 19.06.04 schrieb boe:

I sent them a tech request because I couldn't find any better way of
contacting them. I also asked about it at Comdex last year. I'll bug
them again at Comdex this year.

Are there any Creative Labs forums that people from Creative read?

I don't know.

Another Story: Yesterday I wrote them a E-Mail because everytime I start
the "Speaker Setup" Applet, my settings in the "THX Console" are set to
default values.
They wrote me back that I should install the THX Console Update. OK I
thought, I have it already installed, but to eliminate all doubt, I
installed it again.
No change, it is still that when I open the "Speaker Setup", on the next
opening of the THX Console, all my settings that I made are lost.

Narf! I hope they will do some bugfixing, it is annoying to make all
this settings again and again on a soundcard I payed 80 Euro for.
Additionally there are games (the ones from Rockstar which uses the
Miles(?)-Engine like GTA III and GTA:VC or Manhunt) which resets my 5.1
configuration to 4.1, then the bass redirection is also disabled. Which
needs me to go into the "Speaker Setup", then I must start the THX
Console again, and so on... Really annoying this obliviousness.

Greets, Pierre

Thank you. Does this resolve the encoder issue? Will I be getting the true
surround with my preamp or will it be stereo split into more speakers?


Woger MKII @wogerbox.co.nz wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 21:55:26 GMT, "boe" wrote:

Hello,

Any word on Creative Labs next gaming PC sound card?

I noticed the review on Tom's Hardware of the EMU from creative labs with
sports full standard optical connectors. I would love to hook up my PC
to
my preamp and get full surround out. I currently have the Audigy 2ZS
which
does not have a true optical out for standard preamp decoding. I can get
some 2 speaker out or if I was one of the few people whose preamp had
read
inputs, I could get surround.

I really wouldn't be interested in buying a speaker system for my PC
since
I've already invested thousands in my preamp, amp and speakers. I'd love
to
be able to take advantage of them.






Creative makes a Add on card and so do these people


http://www.hoontech.com/english/products/index.html

Thank you. Does this resolve the encoder issue? Will I be getting the
true
surround with my preamp or will it be stereo split into more speakers?

Like I said, Creative's cards don't have on-board surround encoders so your
decoder has nothing to decode. If you have to use optical out, you will have
to settle with stereo for material that is not pre-encoded in some way (that
typically being DVD movies).

I believe you are correct. I don't know what the issues are. I want to be
able to hook my PC to my Preamp through an optical connector. I want my
Preamp to play back Call of Duty, Jedi, Q3, etc as well as DVD's in surround
sound. I want it to know in Call of Duty if the shot is coming from behind
me by the speaker it is coming from. I know this is possible if I buy the
cambridge speaker system for pc's because of something within the cambridge
system. I want to know if it is possible with a standard preamp /receiver
and speakers.

Thank you
Woger MKII @wogerbox.co.nz wrote in message
...
On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 19:27:00 GMT, "boe" wrote:

Thank you. Does this resolve the encoder issue? Will I be getting the
true
surround with my preamp or will it be stereo split into more speakers?





I don't think you understand what you are on about at all you DO NOT USE a
ENCODER at all, and it does not go into a Pre amp..


Your Amp will Decode the Digital stream from the Tos Link..



Woger MKII @wogerbox.co.nz wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 21:55:26 GMT, "boe" wrote:

Hello,

Any word on Creative Labs next gaming PC sound card?

I noticed the review on Tom's Hardware of the EMU from creative labs
with
sports full standard optical connectors. I would love to hook up my
PC
to
my preamp and get full surround out. I currently have the Audigy 2ZS
which
does not have a true optical out for standard preamp decoding. I can
get
some 2 speaker out or if I was one of the few people whose preamp had
read
inputs, I could get surround.

I really wouldn't be interested in buying a speaker system for my PC
since
I've already invested thousands in my preamp, amp and speakers. I'd
love
to
be able to take advantage of them.






Creative makes a Add on card and so do these people


http://www.hoontech.com/english/products/index.html

Am Mi 23.06.04 schrieb boe:

I believe you are correct. I don't know what the issues are. I want
to be able to hook my PC to my Preamp through an optical connector. I
want my Preamp to play back Call of Duty, Jedi, Q3, etc as well as
DVD's in surround sound. I want it to know in Call of Duty if the
shot is coming from behind me by the speaker it is coming from. I
know this is possible if I buy the cambridge speaker system for pc's
because of something within the cambridge system. I want to know if
it is possible with a standard preamp /receiver and speakers.

It is not possible to decode the digital output of a soundcard with a
standard amp while playing games. Because the audigy can't encode the
surround information into the digital output, it's got no encoder at
all.
If you want to play with surround-sound over a digital connection, you
have to by a Motherbard with a Nvidia Soundstorm chipset, like this one:
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm

But for now, there are unfortunately no Creative Cards which can do
this.

Movies and other -6Ch-Output
preencoded material and -TOS-Link

Games -6Ch-Output

Greets, Pierre


--*
Grüße, Pierre