Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS and how to use it

Hi guys, first post here!

I bought Audio-Technica-ATH-AD700 headphones per recommendation from this site, first choice was Sennheiser HD 555 but they were sold out. They arrived today and are great, love them. But I also bought DSS, I wanted surround sound and since I have no room(or money) for big system I settled with this.

I want to use it on my consoles(PS3 and 360) and on PC. On PS3 I don't have any problems, I just connect the optical cable and it works great while on PC and 360 I'm having problems.

I still haven't tested it too much and will while waiting for replies but here's the deal, on 360 I don't have optical output(it's not on the cable either) and on PC I have one coaxial s/pdif out and no cable to connect to it, not sure if it would work either. (yellow)

When I play it on PS3 right lights are on and I know it's working but I'm not sure about PC and 360. Now I just connect it with 3.5 cable to standard headphones/audio jack and let it work like that, and I would like to know if I will be getting surround sound like that, if it works that way or does it have to be digital?

I'm very new to this audio stuff so excuse my noobiness, dss was kinda expensive so I just wanna make sure it's working and I'm getting what I paid for and if not how I can fix it.

P.S. I know there's this cable for xbox http://www.bargaincell.com/images/products_large/xbox/xboxdat003.jpg but I'd have to wait week(s) again to get it since I can't buy it locally and would rather not waste any more money if possible :/

Edit: So I tried them on PC, only PLIIX light is on and I'm not sure if surround sound is working lol. I have one movie and downloaded some ac3 file and I think it is.

But for example I can't get sound from youtube/browser and in realtek driver program when I click test on 5.1 I only hear left and right, but in that file I could swear I heard it right hmm, how do I test it right?

Editx2: OK I just played Ironman movie I have, it supports 5.1. So I played it and sound worked, kind of. I could hear music, sound effect and everything except actors speak lol... when I switched from 5.1 to stereo I could hear them as well.

I might have piled up too much info in my first post so I'll try to make it clearer here:

I want to know how to get surround sound with DSS on my PC and xbox 360.
From what I gathered you need sound card with DDL, optical out etc to make it work like it's supposed to.
I do not have optical output on my PC nor 360 and wanna know if I connect DSS with 3.5mm cable, have PLIIX on, will that work and how do I test it since I get no sound from realtek test utility with driver program(other then for 2 "speakers"), youtube videos hadno sound and at one movie I've had all sounds except speech, but then I played it in media player classic and it had it there, tested some others and they worked ok, but I'm still not sure if with PLIIX and connected like that I'm getting surround. Maybe because I never really experienced it so can't distinguish it well enough or I don't have good enough source to test it out.

So question is, what's my best course of action to get surround sound with it for my games on pc and 360 and how do I test it so I know if it's working alright etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NamelessPFG 

You have two options:

 

-Find an S/PDIF converter that can convert coaxial/RCA to optical/Toslink.

-Just plunk down $30 for a Xonar DG, if you have a free PCI slot, and get Dolby Headphone from your PC that way.

That card sounds great, I'll try to find it.

Thing is I live in a ****ty country and it's hard to get anything here so I either have to order or find something else, but hopefully I'll find that card or converter if nothing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric_C 

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-processors/ear-force-dss.aspx

Click "How does it work"--first diagram shows the Xbox 360 connection.

 

Does your Xbox's A/V cable look like any pictured here?

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/how-to/audio-video-devices/connect-sound-system

I know how to do it it's just that my cable is like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Xbox360_Composite_Cable.png

and I do not have that little adapter and pretty sure I can't buy it here(can't even buy xbox normally) but my best bet would be to try and get it somehow (http://www.lulusoso.com/upload/20110629/Hdmi_Cable_and_Adapter_for_Xbox_360.jpg this one right). Oh and I have old(phat) elite model.

And then it would all work fine?

I use HDMI for video but I play on monitor and not on TV so I do not have integrated speakers.

HDMI Audio Adapter, will this be good enough, HDMI for video and optical into this for audio?

I found it on ebay for 5$ new, plus that xonar dg, postal fees and gotta pay a guy to use his paypal(we aren't supported yey) all comes to 50 euros/71$

P.S. Until now I just plugged in my speakers into monitor's headphones jack and it worked fine, but now I have nice new headphones and DSS so it's different.

I'll take picture then, but basically xbox is connected to monitor with HDMI cable and then I connect 3.55mm from headphones or speakers into headphone jack that is on monitor and that's it.

Edit: Ok bought that adapter and ordered soundcard, guess thats that :)

I'm gonna have to bump my topic, I'm having small problem at the moment.

I ended up buying Xonar DG sound card. Works good, all great, beside DD not working in games. It works when I test dolby format in control panel and when I play a movie but in games it's a no go.

I tried in battlefield 3 which according to dolby themselves supports it (http://www.dolby.com/us/en/consumer/content/game-software/battlefield-3.html), also changed settings ingame to do 5.1, turned of stereo mix and turned on war tapes(their surround sound/realistic option) but it's still in PLIIX. Also tried in some other games(Bioshock, SC2, Batman AA, Fallout las vegas) and it always remained in PLIIX.

I have it set up in sound card program right, SPDIF on and dolby headphone on and in games too if there are options.

Thing about PLIIX, I noticed it kinda worked, stood next to waterfall and bonfire turned sideways and I could hear it most on that side but I usually have more sound coming from left(rather into my left ear) which produces weird feeling into my right ear after a while and when it's off I feel like I'm getting more sound(some I couldn't hear before) and richer one..

Any ideas? Sent mail to support but they had 500 char limit on form lol so I'm not expecting much.

Am I a total idiot who didn't read enough about card to find out it doesn't support dolby digital live and that's why this doesn't work...

Anyways talked to some friendly people and screw it I'll let it be like this, pliix will be good enough for PC games, it wouldn't be "pure" surround sound anyway so what's the difference..