No 5.1 digital sound from SB Live! to Yamaha HTR-5250 receiver.

[Zathras]

Hi. I hope you guys don't mind my posting this here.

I just upgraded my old SB Live 4.1 card to a 5.1 X-Gamer card and I bought a Yamaha HTR-5250 receiver.

You can check out the receiver here:

http://www.yamaha.com/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/DsplyModel/?gAVR00010HTR-5250

The SB Live! 5.1 tour shows that you can take a mini-jack to RCA adapter and send the digital 5.1 signal to an amplifier. I got a mini-jack to RCA adapter (RCA brand from Circuit City) and am using it with a Monster coaxial cable plugged into the receiver's DVD/LD coaxial input. All I get is stereo from the speakers. What am I missing?

When I do the SB Live 5.1 speaker test the center, left rear, and right rear speakers don't work.

I get the feeling this is something in the receiver. I think the receiver thinks it has to decode all incomming signals. I don't know how to turn the docoding off. Maybe I should just get an amp and take the Yamaha back?

I hope someone can make sence of my ignorance. I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks!

[VIV]

Heh, I can't make sense of it, but ya DO have the same reciever I do I have mine hooked upto my Acoustic Edge.

Unfortunately, I won't be going through this process till my speakers come (not Pro's, bookshelves), so I can't really help ya out there. If you're only gonna hook things like Pro's upto the reciever, take it back, but if you have actual HT components hooked upto it, then KEEP IT!! hehe, it's damn saweet

If no responses turn up here, head over to 3dsoundsurge, and ask around in there, since they deal in this type of stuff all da time.

[Shiplemw1]

The way I understand what you have written is that you have a coaxial out going to your 5250. This carries all 5.1 channels of digital data so why are you also running a mini to rca connector to your 5250? I am currently doing this from my laptop to my 1028vbk and all it will provide IS stereo mode unless you want PRO-LOGIC mode which I believe your going for a digital signal. If you have a coaxial input in with the decoded signal that would be the same as having a dvd player which decodes 5.1 or dts and inputting it into your receiver so you don't/can't turn off the decoding ability of your receiver. Here's what you need to do:

1. for my 1028vbk, I have a dvd and dvd digital signal, currently my laptop is in 2 channel mode on dvd and my dvd player is on dvd digital mode. See if your receiver has a button like analog/digital and see if that will change your source to digital (coaxial coming in).

2. Another thing you might try:

If your coaxial coming into your receiver is already pre-assigned to say tv/dbs signal then you'll need to switch to tv/dbs on your receiver to hear your digital signal, you should be able to reassign this to the dvd or dvd digital input.

3. If none of this works, I do believe your receiver has 5.1 channel inputs. So you need to look on the back of your receiver and see if it has 5.1 channel inputs. For instance on my 1028vbk, IF i want to input 5.1 from another source I plug my main channels into say my dvd in, then I would plug the center channel into the center in, the surrounds into the surround ins, and the sub into the subwoofer in. You'll have to check your manual and the back of your receiver, it would be so much easier to do it in person.... aughhhh!!!

Anyway, hopefully this helps, if you need anymore help post another reply and we'll see if we can't help you,

"You've been great, I'm out"-george costanza

[Zathras]

The SB Live! X-Gamer has all mini plug outputs on the back. One is the digital out and the analog out for a center channel. Hence the need for the mini to RCA adapter to adapt the digital coaxial cable to the receiver.

I just watched a little of The Matrix. I picked S/PDIF for the sound output in WinDVD and got 5.1 surround sound! It is nice to hear something working. With this setting I wonder which is doing the decoding, the computer or the receiver?

I feel like I'm getting close. The setup sounds awesome so far judging by The Matrix. I have the receiver going to four Yamaha NS-A100XT tower speakers and a NS-AC40X center speaker. I haven't gotten the sub yet. I was considering going with just a set of 4.1 Klipsh's, but I didn't think they could fully fill my living room.

I still can't get surround sound working in games though.

[rol1]

The s/pdif does passthru for DTS and AC3.

System sounds, game sound, mp3s', waves, and any other sources, are in stereo.

Its a limitation of what Dolby lets us do with the s/pdif.

You can use your front and rear miniplugs adapted to 4 rca plugs into the analog inputs on the reciever. It helps if it can be set for 4 ch input as the Panasonic decoder mentioned in earlier post.

[Zathras]

Thanks rol1.

I installed a SB Live! 5.1 Platinum and now I have all the analog outputs hooked up and am using the coaxial s/pdif output on the front panel.

That is what I needed to do. Now I have full 5.1 speaker support in games.

I tried The Matrix using WinDVD in 5.1 speaker mode and s/pdif mode and s/pdif mode sounded much better. SB Live! decoded Dolby sounded like TV. Dolby sound through the Yamaha sounded so good it was hard to turn off.

I'm happy now. Thanks again.

[rol1]

If you have Win-dvd or Power-DVD, would you set it up using the 4ch mix-down option(analog) and compare that to AC3 digital pass thru decoded by your Yamaha?

Some of these guys don't believe the difference that a digital signal can make in volume and quality of sound.

[Zathras]

I think I already did what you are asking rol1.

I played The Matrix using WinDVD in 5.1 analog mode through the SB Live! Platinum and in s/pdif mode which should be AC-3 digital pass thru decoded by the Yamaha (AC-3 decoding was turned off on the SB Live!).

I'm sure going digital improves the sound, but I'd bet that most of the improvement comes from the Yamaha decoding at 96 khz/24 bit versus 48 khz/16 bit for the SB Live!.

Maybe someone could back me up on this and explain the khz/bit numbers for me in newbie speak or refer me to a newbie sound site