Snipe?Star
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2010
- Posts
- 21
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- 10
so i have a computer i use for lots of gaming, tons of listening to music, and watching tv shows/movies. my computer specs are as follows:
Code:
i recently got tired of the 2.1 sony bookshelf stereo i was using as my computer speakers, and i got the onkyo s6200 7.1 home theater setup.
right now its connected from my motherboard's optical out via toslink to my reciever, but im not sure if im getting proper surround when i play games. i was trying to connect to the receiver via HDMI, which requires me to use one of the DVI->HDMI dongle that came with each of my cards (which does transfer the audio) and then using an HDMI cable from the adapter to the receiver (im unaware of any straignt DVI->HDMI cables that transfer audio, without using an adapter). I then had a DVI->HDMI cable to transfer the video to my monitor.
this works fine and gravy for the audio except for one huge problem i have-- my receiver apparently only outputs in TV resolutions, so it forces my beautiful 30" monitor to display in 1920 x 1080 or whatever hideous resolution TVs display in. YUCK!
well, with my 285s having 2 DVI outputs, i said- OK, i'll try something different. i left the HDMI cable from the reciever to the DVI adapter on the card, and i ran a straight DVI cable to the monitor from the other output on the card.
this caused windows to detect the receiver as a second display. but what it does, is it forces the receiver as the primary display, and it forces my monitor as the second display. so all i can see on my monitor is an extenuation of the desktop's picture-- but the icons and start menus are all on the "1st display". so i moved the mouse to the left until it was visible on the monitor, then i opened the control panel.
now, when i set the monitor as the primary display, is it makes my monitor display as normal, but it just disables the secondary display (reciever) so the sound goes away.
in the windows options, with multiple displays, you have a couple different options about how you can display to the different displays. you can clone the same image on each display- when you do that, it enables both displays, and the sound works-- but it still forces my monitor to output in the other resolution.
the other option is that you can extend the image over both displays-- but when i have this option enabled, it forces the receiver as the primary and although my monitor will output in its native resolution, with working hdmi sound, the monitor is still just a stretch of the desktop image with no actual desktop on it.
but like i mentioned, if i choose to only output the desktop to the display the monitor is set as, then it just disables the receiver.
this is forcing me to look into getting a dedicated soundcard, but im clueless really, i really focus my interests into the other aspects of computer hardware.
id like to get a nice x-fi card, they come with EAX and some other neat features, but id read that a lot of them (and a lot of sounds in general) dont (properly?) decode surround over optical (as s/pdif is natively stereo) (i think you need some AC decoder to transfer surround over optical, not sure though) so im looking for a solution with HDMI out, as its the best quality sound you can get anyway and it has the bandwidth to properly transfer uncompressed surround signals
i am preemptively thankful for any help, thoughts, or suggestions.
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[left]Core i7 920 D0 Asus P6T6 WS Revolution (capable of 8 channel HD audio) 3× 2GB GTX 285 @ true 16x/16x/16x 6GB Corsair XMS3 1600DDR3 2× 300GB Velociraptors/2× 1TB WD RE3 (Both seperate RAID0 arrays) 8x Blu-Ray Burner/Reader Corsair HX1000W Silverstone Ravern RV01 LG Flatron W3000H @ 2650x1600[/left]i recently got tired of the 2.1 sony bookshelf stereo i was using as my computer speakers, and i got the onkyo s6200 7.1 home theater setup.
right now its connected from my motherboard's optical out via toslink to my reciever, but im not sure if im getting proper surround when i play games. i was trying to connect to the receiver via HDMI, which requires me to use one of the DVI->HDMI dongle that came with each of my cards (which does transfer the audio) and then using an HDMI cable from the adapter to the receiver (im unaware of any straignt DVI->HDMI cables that transfer audio, without using an adapter). I then had a DVI->HDMI cable to transfer the video to my monitor.
this works fine and gravy for the audio except for one huge problem i have-- my receiver apparently only outputs in TV resolutions, so it forces my beautiful 30" monitor to display in 1920 x 1080 or whatever hideous resolution TVs display in. YUCK!
well, with my 285s having 2 DVI outputs, i said- OK, i'll try something different. i left the HDMI cable from the reciever to the DVI adapter on the card, and i ran a straight DVI cable to the monitor from the other output on the card.
this caused windows to detect the receiver as a second display. but what it does, is it forces the receiver as the primary display, and it forces my monitor as the second display. so all i can see on my monitor is an extenuation of the desktop's picture-- but the icons and start menus are all on the "1st display". so i moved the mouse to the left until it was visible on the monitor, then i opened the control panel.
now, when i set the monitor as the primary display, is it makes my monitor display as normal, but it just disables the secondary display (reciever) so the sound goes away.
in the windows options, with multiple displays, you have a couple different options about how you can display to the different displays. you can clone the same image on each display- when you do that, it enables both displays, and the sound works-- but it still forces my monitor to output in the other resolution.
the other option is that you can extend the image over both displays-- but when i have this option enabled, it forces the receiver as the primary and although my monitor will output in its native resolution, with working hdmi sound, the monitor is still just a stretch of the desktop image with no actual desktop on it.
but like i mentioned, if i choose to only output the desktop to the display the monitor is set as, then it just disables the receiver.
this is forcing me to look into getting a dedicated soundcard, but im clueless really, i really focus my interests into the other aspects of computer hardware.
id like to get a nice x-fi card, they come with EAX and some other neat features, but id read that a lot of them (and a lot of sounds in general) dont (properly?) decode surround over optical (as s/pdif is natively stereo) (i think you need some AC decoder to transfer surround over optical, not sure though) so im looking for a solution with HDMI out, as its the best quality sound you can get anyway and it has the bandwidth to properly transfer uncompressed surround signals
i am preemptively thankful for any help, thoughts, or suggestions.
