M-Audio Audiophile 2496 / Surround Sound ?

[fastersound]

Hi, was just wondering if anyone knows if I am able to connect my 2496 card to a surround system? i'm looking to get a 5.1 system for bluray movie playback on my PC. up until i've just used the card as part of my DAW, but i'm looking to turn my pc into a bit of a home theatre pc too..it says on the m-audio site under the 2496 features: "S/PDIF digital I/O with PCM and AC-3/DTS passthrough". What does this mean exactly?
any help is much appreciated! thanks

[meansizzler]

It will pass the audio out as a dolby/dts bitstream to the amp but on HD-DVD/BD the audio isDolbyTrueHD/DTS HD/PCM and your amp will not support it, so this card isnotgood, you need one which has 5.1 analogue out eg.. M-Audio Revolution or Creative Soundblaster Xtreme Audio if your on a budget, but I'd go for the X-Fi Xtreme Music for £50...

[fastersound]

thanks for your reply.
it makes no difference that my bluray player drive is internal? sorry..i'm just trying to get my head around all of the connections for turning my pc into more of a home theatre.

will i be able to run my Audiophile(for my music production stuff) *and* another soundcard like one of the ones you mentioned(for the 5.1movie stuff) in the same PC?

sorry and thanks again!

[meansizzler]

Internal is fine

Yes you can use your m-audio as the default recording device and another card eg.. x-fi as playback you can switch them round in control panel in xp or vista, should not get any probs...

[fastersound]

cheers for ur help..might go for the m-audio revolution7.1 as i'm more familiar with m-audio.
thanks again

[squashed pea]

I take it the 2496 would still give pro logic surround though as its a 2 channel out?

[meansizzler]

Originally Posted by squashed pea

I take it the 2496 would still give pro logic surround though as its a 2 channel out?

Have to check with m-audio, never use pro-logic but from what I understand a 5 channel signal is encoded into a stereo signal, and outputted via a 2 channel phono out to amp which is set into pro logic mode to recreate multichannel audio from the stereo source.. so both source eg.. dvd, software player eg.. power dvd, and amp have to support pro logic, not sure about sound card so have to ask m-audio

[boko]

Hi guys i have this card ..
and it only out puts 2 channels over everything.spdif.
i think it will not be possible..

[meansizzler]

Originally Posted by boko

Hi guys i have this card ..
and it only out puts 2 channels over everything.spdif.
i think it will not be possible..

The OP was talking about over Analogue not SPDIF, but I'm sure you can send a prologic signal over SPDIF? maybe I should take a trip over dolby.com to clarify things..

[meansizzler]

OK article here...

http://www.dolby.com/professional/pr..._surround.html

So Basically Dolby Pro Logic combines 4 channels into a stereo signal, so front left, right and center and then rear channel which is shared between both left back and right back so mono rear signal. i.e both rear speakers playing back the same channel..

So you should be able to output Pro logic from stereo analogue out or spdif, just have to set the software and amp to prologic mode

[Donnacha]

its a shame there's no add on for this card that would allow another 2 analog out jacks, for the full 5.1 over RCA! Its a great sounding card!