PC Setup with Sony DAV DZ260

[Hitechwreck]

Hi. Apologies for any vague information i might give.
Sony DAV DZ260
PC with on board Realtek HD Sound, and also a PCI-E Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme soundcard (disabled)
PC has an Nvidia GeForce GT430 (HDMI to TV)
42" LG 42LD450 (2 HDMI inputs, Optical Output to Sony DAV DZ260)
Sky HD Box (HD to TV)
Spdif splitter with (1 input and 3 outputs) - Not connected.

This has been driving me potty for 2 weeks.
I brought a Sony DAV DZ260 as it seemed a great bit of kit. I followed the calibration instructions and sound came out from all 5 speakers and subwoofer working fine.

Problem started when i brought the Soundblaster Xtreme soundcard, installed it, and connected it to the Sony DAV DZ260 with an optical cable. The PC was connected to the TV via HDMI.
Whenever i tried to change the settings from 16bit 44000khz CD Quality to anything higher, the sound would disappear. So i disabled the Creative and tried the onboard Relatek.
The onboard Realtek (no optical output) goes up to 24 bit 192000khz and seems to play absolutely fine. But thats just going from the PC via HDMI to the TV, and from the TV to the Sony DAV DZ260 via optical cable.
It it really playing at that quality, having gone through the TV?

I listen to a lot of classical music, which is of a very high quality.

Between the Windows sound options, and Creative sound options i got so peeved i disconnected the optical connector, and disabled the Creative.
Am i doing something stupidly wrong?
Do you need more information?

Thank you for reading.
Darren

 

[StevieBuck]

Looks like you're getting a bit mixed up with your units. The frequency option will be 44 kHz or 44,000 Hz (both are the same), not 44,000 kHz.

The manual states that audio signals over 48 kHz aren't supported from the digital inputs on this system, so you won't be getting 192 kHz when you pass the audio through the TV. I'd guess that the Tv is probably converting it to 48 kHz, which is the most commonly used format.

48 kHz and 44.1 kHz (used for CD audio) are the two standard frequencies which most systems will be compatible with. I believe they should work when selected on your sound card.

I don't know much about the various 'bit' options though, and whether they are all supported or not.

Optical splitters tend to give 2 outputs from one input. Are you sure its a splitter you have and not a switch? A switch has 3 inputs which you can select from to make one an output.

 

[Hitechwreck]

Hi there. Really appreciate you getting back to me on this.
So the Sony DAV DZ260 won't allow more than 48khz?
Not knowing much about all this AV stuff, can i presume that there are reasonably priced units like the Sony that i can attach my PC to, and get the higher bit rates etc.
Thanks again.
Darren

 

[StevieBuck]

Maybe not the easiest place to find, but the manual for the DAV-DZ260 states this in the troubleshooting section:

Symptom: There is no sound from the DIGITAL IN COAXIAL/OPTICAL jack.

Remedy: The sampling frequency of the input is more than 48 kHz.

I take that as meaning 48 kHz is the highest it will handle.

I believe this is more of a limitation of the optical connection as opposed to the unit, but I'm not sure. The higher bitrates are usually compatible when using HDMI. A home cinema system with HDMI inputs will cost significantly more though.

 

[Hitechwreck]

Hi there again.
Would you mind if i clarified something with you?
I now have my PC and Sky HD HDMI connected to my TV, and i have both Sky and my PC connected to my Sony DAV DZ260 with optical cables via the splitter.
I have tested a movie on Sky HD, and checked that it was a Dolby Digital movie with the information button on the Sky controller. Sounded fantastic.
However if i played a .mkv 5.1 movie from my PC, would that also come out in DD?
In the settings of the soundcard i can only see Stereo 24bit 48khz.
Have to admit the music sounds a bit lacking. It sounded better (or so i thought) when the PC was HDMI to the TV, and the TV was optical to the Sony DAV DZ260.
Did that make any sense?

 

[StevieBuck]

In order to transfer 5.1 signals over optical, they must still be encoded as either Dolby Digital or DTS. If the PC decodes the stream first, the maximum number of channels you will get is 2 (stereo). The decoded signal will be what is known as linear PCM. A limitation of Optical is that it can only transfer up to 2 channels of linear PCM.

Basically, you need to configure your media player to output the raw/undecoded Dolby Digital signal. This option is usually known as ‘bitsream’. I haven’t had much experience with this myself, but I’m sure you can do this with various free media players such as VLC or Media Player Classic.

 

[Hitechwreck]

Brilliant information.
Everything working great.
Many thanks