Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

[brian312531251]

So I bought a set of Logitech z5300e speakers to go with my SB Live 24-bit. The front, center, and sub all work perfectly but I get NO sound whatsoever from the rear speakers unless I turn on 'Matrix' (fake 5.1 upmixing) mode, which defeats the whole purpose of positional sound. After playing around a bit I have yet to get a single peep of sound from the rear speaker outlet jack on my sound card. I see tons of people saying these speakers kick ass for battlefield 2.... are you all running in Matrix mode or do you have real 3d sound there?

I can't turn on hardware sound unless I set the windows audio acceleration down to Basic. I think it only works because this actually disables all the features enabled by the hardware acceleration setting in BF2. So I've tried every setting option, and the speakers are set to 5.1 in windows control panel, why can't I get real 3d sound?????

I used to have a separate dolby prologic decoder with 5.1 theater speakers that kicked ass for Half Life. I could hear bullets whizzing by and know exactly where they came from. With Matrix mode, the z5300's rear speakers just sound like a muffled echo of the fronts.

I'm running windows XPSP2 with the newest Creative drivers.

[Talus]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

I am getting real 5.1 surround sound.

Windows XP SP2
SB Audigy 1 OEM
softmodded to Audigy 2 using latest OpenAL beta drivers
Settings: Hardware, High, EAX On

[brian312531251]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

You think may be due to having a SB Live 24-bit as opposed to Audigy1/2/4/x? The 24-bit does have rear ports, it just doesn't seem to be sending anything to them...

[Talus]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

Have you tried using Driver Cleaner Pro?

http://www.drivercleaner.net/download.php?site=1&file=DCProSetup_12.zip

Install
Uninstall your SBLive drivers
Reboot into Safe Mode
Run Driver Cleaner Pro
Remove all traces of Creative drivers
Reboot into Windows XP
Install latest drivers

There are some version of the SBLive cards that are NOT truly 5.1/surround capable.

I'd try what I have mentioned above...if that does not work, pick up a Audigy 1 or Audigy 2 (preferably Audigy 2) for cheap now that the new X-Fi cards are coming out.

If you have good 5.1 speakers, you REALLY want to get the true 5.1 surround experience out of your games...especially BF2

[AFEDslayer]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

i use a headset=- all the surround i need

[brian312531251]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

If you have good 5.1 speakers, you REALLY want to get the true 5.1 surround experience out of your games...especially BF2

Exactly, I feel ripped off right now. I'll try to driver cleaner and see how it goes...

On another note, anyone know of any sound-test file or program to just do a speaker check? Like echo "This is the Rear Left speaker", "This is the Center speaker", etc?

[Talus]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

Creative cards normally come with a speaker selection app that has a test function...you SHOULD have something like that.

Try RightMark 3DSound

http://audio.rightmark.org/products/rm3ds.shtml

It should test your surround AND your EAX (occlusions etc)

[brian312531251]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

Is anyone getting surround sound with the Live 24-bit? I can't tell if it actually supports 5.1 surround sound or not...hard to wade through all the lies and marketing on Creative's website.

[Talus]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

Have you tried these drivers dated August 1st, 2005:
http://us.creative.com/support/downl...ame=Windows+XP


Otherwise, I have found a few forum posts discussing the SBLive 24bit and BF2:
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbat...7&p=1#19607100

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=33&threadid=1661647&frmKeyword=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

and this thread discusses the softmod...although I don't know if the SBLive 24 bit can do it:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=137352

[brian312531251]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

Have you tried these drivers dated August 1st, 2005:
http://us.creative.com/support/downl...ame=Windows+XP


Otherwise, I have found a few forum posts discussing the SBLive 24bit and BF2:
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbat...7&p=1#19607100

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=33&threadid=1661647&frmKeyword=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

and this thread discusses the softmod...although I don't know if the SBLive 24 bit can do it:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co...d.php?t=137352

Thank you! I'm checking all these out now...

[Talus]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

No problem..I had MAJOR issues with sound in BFV and NEVER found a solution. I didn't upgrade my sound card because I thought they would eventually patch the problem...BOY was I wrong.

Now...anything I can do to help out others with audio issues..I will try and do.

Seems like there are lots of people talking about graphics issues..but less talk about audio. I guess graphics wh0res are a lot more common than audio wh0res

[brian312531251]

A lot of posts reference the [in]Compatibility List, which says SB Live don't work with hardware acceleration. Does that mean stereo-only, or just that all sound will be slower/lower quality, but should still be 5.1?

DAMMIT

When I do the Creative Speaker Settings sound check, "rear right" and "rear left" come out of the front speakers at the exact same volume...nothing at all from the rears. If I turn on Matrix I get a little echo from the rears but the sound still comes from the front.

[King Raa]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

custom 7.1 consisting of 5.1 + 2 - works perfectly, if i don't notice usually as more often that not fightings on both sides at same time... beautiful when running from arty tho

[brian312531251]

Ok... speaker check works!

Root cause of problem: speaker cable fell out of the jack :laugh:

Seriously, though. It wasn't working when I first got em and the cables were properly connected (before I moved my PC yesterday). I dunno which of the 50 things I dead to fix it on the software side did it, but one of them worked. Now I just gotta see if I can get it to work with BF2...

I think it was sending rear channels to front because I still had "basic acceleration only" set in audio properties from troubleshooting.

Sweeet, now I get full surround sound in BF2 when I use Hardware setting. Unfortunately...... apparantly the horrible voice choppiness is a common thing. I'll have to search around and see if anyone actually found a working fix.

Nothing out of the rear speakers when using Software sound, though.

[Talus]

Re: Is ANYONE getting real surround sound?

Yeah, my wife's computer has an OLD SBLive Value (!) and I cannot run it in hardware mode at all

I have to run it in software and it is very crappy.