Logitech Z-5500 Optical

PuNkY

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(Sorry in advance for long post)

I recently bought the Z-5500 speakers. Sound great, blah blah. On to the problem....

I did do my research and I knew from the get-go that my soundcard (on-board Realtek HD) would not have great optical support, but I didn't know it would be this bad (or I don't know how optical works on PCs). When ever there is no sound I get "No Digital Data" on the control center:
2aihs75.jpg

And when there is sound playing, like music, YouTube, etc... It only comes in the front left and right speakers, and says stereo on the control center:
200zinl.jpg

Now it is really irritating that I cannot listen to my music in full 5.1 when using the optical connection. I have been looking everywhere to fix my problems.

I just spent $200 on these beautiful speakers and I can't really spend much on a new soundcard. So if anyone knows a fix for them to work correctly with the Realtek HD hardware that would be awesome. If not, suggest some cheap cards out there.

Heres a screenshot of the Realtek control center:
1zy99n8.jpg


All I want is for it to output a 5.1 digital signal all the time. But I guess I'll stick to analog for now.

Thanks for any response. :)
 
1st who cares what is sass when u have no music playing?

2nd If ur music is playing, atleast we know that u have working connection. I also have the Z5500. Try this, once u have them on optical mode, click the "effect button" and different mods will show (ur current is sterio), keep going until u will see "Stereo 2x" That way u will get output from 2 front and 2 back speakers. Make sure u have 5.1 enabled in ur Control panel-Sound options. in order to get all 5 working I think its has something to do with Dolby digital or DTS. If u don't fix it b4 I get home, il post more then.

PS: Having good speakers and your sound card, it's like having Q6600 with 500meg of ram, u know what I mean? Get a better sound card.

Cheers
 
Zer0Cool has it. You need to hit the effect button when something is playing to get it out of Stereo mode. Music is only in 2 channels, so technically it's only gonna come out of 2 speakers unless you "enhance" it.
 
Yeah, in Optical Mode, if no sound is heard, it basically shuts off. This is the sound cards fault though, not sending it blank data to keep it on.

When it recieves sound, you may notice it cuts out the very start as it turns back on. Not really a problem though.

But I can't believe you bought these speakers without doing your research first to be honest.

Press the Effects button to get Dolby Prologic 2 which will make any stereo music 5.1

I think a better sound card would be in order also.

Analog doesn't do these speakers justice. If I go from Analog to Digital now, the difference is quite noticable.
 
But I can't believe you bought these speakers without doing your research first to be honest.

I did do my research before I bought, as I stated in my 1st post. Right now I'm just looking for help.
 
shouldnt the software handle it? since its digital?
its not like my x-530's which are legacy (3x 3.5mm connectors), those are confusing
 
shouldnt the software handle it? since its digital?
its not like my x-530's which are legacy (3x 3.5mm connectors), those are confusing

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think digital is done thought mostly hardware.

Back to my problem, I think I fixed it. Well not fixed, but compromised. I'm only going to use the optical input when I'm watching movies and use the analog for everything else.

Maybe I'll buy a new soundcard soon and see how it goes.
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think digital is done thought mostly hardware.

Back to my problem, I think I fixed it. Well not fixed, but compromised. I'm only going to use the optical input when I'm watching movies and use the analog for everything else.

Maybe I'll buy a new soundcard soon and see how it goes.

All you have to do is hit the "Effect" button on the Z5500's untill it says "Stereo X 2" and you should hear it from all speakers, theres a few other effects with the same button you can do for different situations.

And the Z5500's will say no input untill theres actuall sound being outputted to the speakers
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think digital is done thought mostly hardware.

Back to my problem, I think I fixed it. Well not fixed, but compromised. I'm only going to use the optical input when I'm watching movies and use the analog for everything else.

Maybe I'll buy a new soundcard soon and see how it goes.

I don't deal with digital audio signals much, but can S/PDIF & AES/EBU handle more than two channels of audio?
 
For my sound card (Creative X-FI Xtreme Music), I have bought the Digital attachment, that takes SPDIF data straight to the speakers, and it allows me to play Dolby Digital files, like AC3 to be decoded straight to the speakers without the sound card doing anything first.

Look online for AC3 Filter.

But even in Optical Mode, like mine is most of the time now, I can still, using the Effects button, switch from Stereo 2x to Dolby Pro Logic 2 which still only needs Stereo audio. The speakers should allow you to do that, and will work with any music.

For 5.1 surround files though, it seems your sound card needs a bit of help transferring the data to the speakers, but if its not a 5.1 surround sound file you are trying to play, you'll never see Dolby Digital 5.1 while in Optical mode.

Let the speakers use Dolby Digital ProLogic 2 for the music, and bypass whatever jiggery the sound card uses, because DDPL2 is far superior to other sound cards environmental audio effects.

In games for example, you'll have to switch to Direct though I'm afraid. Games don't seem to pass audio through on PC's as Dolby Digital. But on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the speakers do, which is a bit weird.
Might be my sound card doing that though, since its not a Dolby Digital complient one.
 
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