Gaming surround sound from Alienware to receiver?

If I connect my laptop to a DAC via USB and then connect the DAC to my 5.1 receiver via coaxial or optical output which do have DTS and DD passthru, will I be able to get true 5.1 surround sound from my games?

Again, true 5.1 from games. I'm not talking about simulated surround sound ie: DD Pro Logic II or DTS Neo. And I'm not talking about DVD/Bluray or .mkv movies either.

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

That depends on the game & your USB DAC, not the system.

On a side note, the Alienware M11x, M11x-R2, M15x, M17x & M17x-R2 have internal analog 5.1 already. You just need 3 sets of 3.5mm headphone to RCA cables (similar to these) & a receiver that supports analog 5.1 input. That is how I have my current HTPC connected to my A/V receiver.

Good luck!

 

Yep will vary depending on the DAC and the game involved.

*wish the M17x and M15x had optical outs to simplify the 3 cables to one

 

I agree. Some times analog audio or using audio through the HDMI connection is not the best option. A toslink connection should be standard on all Studio & Alienware systems, not just some of the desktop systems.

 

What dac do you have?

 

Thank you mates. I actually found out that although my *thinking of purchasing* DacMagic or my *borrow from friend* M-Audio Transit can send DTS and Dolby Digital from M17x to A/V receiver to get true surround in movies, it's not gonna work on gaming.

You need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect to get gaming surround working with receiver. And that, on a laptop, can only be done using external soundcards which generally have very poor performance.

Otherwise, Tazalanche's suggestion is a much cheaper and more simple way. I thought about that already but then my laptop will look so messy. It already has too much going on (Razer Orochi, NZXT LX, uDac-2, projector, external HDD etc...) Not to mention my full-size headphone and a headamp lying around. Everything, and the M17x itself are on a 40"x18" desk

By the way I read up NBR and found a thread regarding surround sound. Think I should bring up my question over there here:

----------------------------------------

Here is what Legitreviews said:

From: ATI Radeon HD 5870 DX11 Video Card Review - Bitstream Audio Testing - Legit Reviews

I don't quite get it. Does that mean I cannot get true DTS and Dolby Digital signal to my receiver?

Can you guys confirm once again that you guys are getting true surround sound from 5.1 encoded media like Bluray, HD Video files etc... via HDMI?

And how about games? Does it work in games?

Thanks

And let's say I wanna get true surround to my A/V receiver using HDMI, can I use other video output to transfer signal to my projector? In other words, can I assign audio to HDMI and assign video to VGA or Display Port?

Thanks

The thread link is here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/489630-hdmi-audio-problem-m17x.html

 

Assuming you have the udac2 and udac2 = tenor usb chipset

You will not get 5.1 pass through DTS/AC3. This is a windows problem and I heard tenor and ms are working together to work this out. It should be ready with the upcoming service pack update.