Where, oh where, should my little cables go?

[Obsidiansoul]

I've placed my order for the DD-5.1 and have stumbled upon a slight conundrum. I don't watch movies using a software DVD decoder, I use a REALmagic Hollywood Plus decoder card, which has two audio outputs (1/8" stereo and S/P DIF). Up until now I've been connecting the decoder's stereo out to the line-in on my Audigy Platinum Ex, getting 4 speaker surround via Pro Logic, which leaves my ProMedia 5.1's with a center channel speaker that's been doing a great job of keeping a portion of the top of my monitor dust free. I've tried (to no avail) connecting the decoder's S/P DIF Out to the Audigy's S/P DIF in, then enabling AC-3 decode in both the Surround Mixer and in AudioHQ - Device Controls. There was sound, but the sound of my eyes blinking drowned it out. This is with the new drivers, by the way. I have two choices, I think, for making this work... 1. Connect decoder's S/P DIF to the Audigy's S/P DIF In, then connect the Audigy to the DD-5.1 using either the S/P DIF Out on the external drive, or by using the seemingly tried and true 1/8" mono-to-RCA, this connection would rely on using the Audigy's S/P DIF Bypass setting to get the AC-3/DTS signal from the decoder. 2. Connect decoder's S/P DIF directly to the DD-5.1, then connect the Audigy's Optical Out directly to the DD-5.1. The 2nd connection guarantees Dolby Digital/DTS from DVDs. Any suggestions?

[justin_tx_16]

the dd-51 has two digital inputs, so one could go fromt he decoder card and the other could go from teh audigy! that would work.

[Obsidiansoul]

Thank you for the reply, Justin. Making use of both of the DD-5.1's digital inputs makes more sense to me, I was just in question (get it? just in question... Justin question, er, ahem... nevermind.) of the Audigy's S/P DIF Bypass and the Optical Out, i.e. Which connection would work, and if both work, which would be better? I had a feeling doing a straight shot to the DD-5.1 from each card would be the way to go, but I haven't heard of anyone using the Audigy's Optical Out.

I will give it a try when my DD-5.1 arrives.

Thanks again!

Obsidiansoul

[justin_tx_16]

I get it

let me know how it works out!

[Obsidiansoul]

Justin, the FedEx man showed up with a little surprise this morning (I was surprised because the tracking # hadn't even been posted yet). Anyhow, after plugging everything in (using both inputs) and turning everything on... I got six glowing LEDs (5 green, 1 red) and a bright green LCD display with nothing on it. The remote didn't change anything, but made a beeping noise when certain buttons were pushed. I didn't know what to do so I unplugged the DD-5.1 and took a little break. When I got back I plugged the DD-5.1 back in and everything worked. I'm guessing the fact that it was ice cold when I took it out of the box had something to do with it.

To make a long story short, it worked!

Thanks again.

Obsidiansoul