Distinct sound

[EricB]

Room vs space( you will need a big room to enhance the effect). receiver and good home theater speakers vs your setup (which won't get the sound that you want as they are computer speakers)

 

[smileygladhands]

Having the capabilites to play Dolby digital and suround sound and all of that stuff is both hardware and software dependent.
Your sound card must be able to read this and your software must be able to deliver this type of sound.

So, you simply need to make sure that your sound card supports your desired sound scheme and whatever DVD or game you're playing also supports it - and, in the case of DVD's your decoding software supports it. Some are only capable of reading Basic Stereo, even though the DVD manufacturer placed Dolby digital on the DVD. Make sure your drivers are all up to date and, of course, select your desired scheme in the software you are using at that moment.

If anything goes wrong, blame the government. (they're sooo shady)

 

[kavalaton]

Having the capabilites to play Dolby digital and suround sound and all of that stuff is both hardware and software dependent.
Your sound card must be able to read this and your software must be able to deliver this type of sound.

So, you simply need to make sure that your sound card supports your desired sound scheme and whatever DVD or game you're playing also supports it - and, in the case of DVD's your decoding software supports it. Some are only capable of reading Basic Stereo, even though the DVD manufacturer placed Dolby digital on the DVD. Make sure your drivers are all up to date and, of course, select your desired scheme in the software you are using at that moment.

If anything goes wrong, blame the government. (they're sooo shady)

smileygladhands, I think you answered my question.

Let me get this straight... I need to get a DVD movie that has the DTS and/or DD format/encoding (forgive my terminology) - let's say Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones - and then I need to get a DVD drive that doesn't just have the DD logo but is actually capable of playing it (I'll need your recomendation on this). Then I need to make sure that my sound card is capable of processing this sound (I think Audugy2 ZS can, correct me if I am wrong). So then the sound that the sound card will outout will be DD (or DTS?) decoded (so I don't need any additional hardware like a Dolby receiver), correct? And therefore the sound that I will hear through my speakers will be of higher, theatre-like quality? I realize that the speakers are still important, but the Logitech Z-2300 is a high-end, high quality set. Will it be able to play that sound? And yes yes yes I know.... I won't hear surround sound because I don't have 5.1 speakers, so no need to mention that.

 

[EricB]

smileygladhands, I think you answered my question.

Let me get this straight... I need to get a DVD movie that has the DTS and/or DD format/encoding (forgive my terminology) - let's say Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones - and then I need to get a DVD drive that doesn't just have the DD logo but is actually capable of playing it (I'll need your recomendation on this). Then I need to make sure that my sound card is capable of processing this sound (I think Audugy2 ZS can, correct me if I am wrong). So then the sound that the sound card will outout will be DD (or DTS?) decoded (so I don't need any additional hardware like a Dolby receiver), correct? And therefore the sound that I will hear through my speakers will be of higher, theatre-like quality? I realize that the speakers are still important, but the Logitech Z-2300 is a high-end, high quality set. Will it be able to play that sound? And yes yes yes I know.... I won't hear surround sound because I don't have 5.1 speakers, so no need to mention that.

Oh you ask the wrong question.

1. use the soundblaster and your current speakers and set the speaker to 5.1 (or 6.1 etc). it (dvd software like power dvd and windvd) will automatically decode the movie be it DD or DTS.

2. if you were to use a receiver and regular speakers, disable all of you sound card and software DD setting. then the receiver will decode it properly.

you made it sound like you want a true cinema.

it now look likes you just wanted to set your speaker to dolby digital on your computer

 

[kavalaton]

Oh you ask the wrong question.

1. use the soundblaster and your current speakers and set the speaker to 5.1 (or 6.1 etc). it (dvd software like power dvd and windvd) will automatically decode the movie be it DD or DTS.

Sorry for the confusion... but as I said... I know little about this stuff, so even phrasing it correctly was difficult.

What do you mean by set the speakers to 5.1? You mean go to Sound Blaster's control panel and select 5.1 or 6.1 or 7.1 as the output?

Thanks for helping me, I think we are almost there.

Here is what I understand so far:

1. I don't need a receiver to decode DD or DTS, instead:
2. I need to buy a DVD-ROM (or CD/DVD ROM or CD/DVD-RW, etc) that is capable of playing DD and DTS (correct me if I am wrong, do I need to connect the 'Digital' cable or something from the drive directly into the sound card?)
3. Make sure that all drivers are up to date and use DVD software to play a DD or DTS movie that I will put in the drive.
4. Sound that will come out of my 2.1 set (which will obviously not be true surround beacuse there will be 3 channels missing) will be just like in the theatre, except for not as loud and powerful (200Watts versus 20,000Watts)

Let me know if I misunderstood something and what else I need to do.

 

[EricB]

Sorry for the confusion... but as I said... I know little about this stuff, so even phrasing it correctly was difficult.

What do you mean by set the speakers to 5.1? You mean go to Sound Blaster's control panel and select 5.1 or 6.1 or 7.1 as the output?

Thanks for helping me, I think we are almost there.

Here is what I understand so far:

1. I don't need a receiver to decode DD or DTS, instead:
2. I need to buy a DVD-ROM (or CD/DVD ROM or CD/DVD-RW, etc) that is capable of playing DD and DTS (correct me if I am wrong, do I need to connect the 'Digital' cable or something from the drive directly into the sound card?)
3. Make sure that all drivers are up to date and use DVD software to play a DD or DTS movie that I will put in the drive.
4. Sound that will come out of my 2.1 set (which will obviously not be true surround beacuse there will be 3 channels missing) will be just like in the theatre, except for not as loud and powerful (200Watts versus 20,000Watts)

Let me know if I misunderstood something and what else I need to do.

My Bad

I though the Logitech Z-2300 speaker set were 5.1 speakers. buy you a 5.1 computer speaker set

1.no
2.any dvd-rom will do, you don't need to connect that digital cable because the sound is travel through the IDE cable. in the old day that wasn't true, so you had to connect it.
3.Yes (the drivers don't have to be up to date)
4.they have a mode that suppose to give 2.1 speakers a sound comparable to 5.1, but it don't work as good as 5.1 speakers

set it to 5.1 in your sound settings or in the mixer settings

 

[kavalaton]

Alright... I'll do all that first. And then if the sound will be really bad I'll consider a 5.1 set.

But are you sure that ANY DVD-ROM will do?

 

[EricB]

yes it's the software and the soundcard that does the processing. but don't go out and buy a 10 year old dvd rom either

 

[kavalaton]

yes it's the software and the soundcard that does the processing. but don't go out and buy a 10 year old dvd rom either

LOL! I won't... I promise.

 

[kavalaton]

Hmm ok... so I bought a Sony (CRX320E1) 52X CD-RW/16X DVD-ROM. Then I rented Pearl Harbor (it had the following logos/info - Audio Encoding: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1), I hooked everything up and changed the output from my 2.0/2.1 setup to 5.1. But the only thing that I noticed is the volume being lower (which makes sense because only two speakers and a sub are playing whereas the output is meant for 5 and a sub).... other than that the sound is still the same old one. There has got to be something wrong with the configuration or what else could I possible have missed?