Cheap surround sound

Retro said:
Don't think so. Surround sound from DVD's and HD movies works perfect.
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hmm just rereading your post, I think you're probably right about it probably being the fault of the TV - perhaps look in the TV settings? Or it could be the HDMI DRM kicking in.

As an alternative, you don't need to get a new cable. With a bit of a DIY hack you can pop the bottom half of the regular 360 AV cable off so it can connect at the same time as the HDMI cable, then you can use direct optical out with HDMI.
 
retro did you set the sound output to surround on the xbox sound settings?
 
well my amp has a blue light that comes on and "dolby digital" scrolls across the amp's display, and of course sound starts coming out of all the speakers and most voices come out of the center speaker
 
Yup, only getting sounds from front speakers. And it's definitely set to surround on the Xbox. Wish I knew about the hack on the standard cables, but already ordered another cable.

Fixed the surround sound from my pc though :-)
 
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doobiwan said:
As an alternative, you don't need to get a new cable. With a bit of a DIY hack you can pop the bottom half of the regular 360 AV cable off so it can connect at the same time as the HDMI cable, then you can use direct optical out with HDMI.
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Yup, works like a charm! :D
 
the only thing i hate about that hack is that when you change sources on your amp/tv from the xbox to, lets say the tv, and back to the xbox again the xbox restarts :(
 
Another thing...

When playing movies from my pc, spdif on pc to optical in on AV receiver, how do I know if I'm getting DTS5.1 output from the pc? It's playing sound on all the speakers, but it doesn't show on the receiver what input it's getting.
 
just listen to the sound coming out of the speakers. if a person speaking in a movie has direct focus of the camera but his voice is also coming out of the rear speakers, then you know the movie is not surround sound or for some reason your amp is playing it in prologic mode. or for some reason your sound card is not sending the correct signal. could also be the program you use to play the movie.

so just listen. most of the time surround sound is softer than stereo and most voices come out of the centre speaker
 
It's definitely surround sound, voices coming from front centre speaker, only other sounds coming from rear speakers. But I want to make sure I'm getting DTS5.1 and not just normal surround sound.

My receiver just shows Aux/Opt.
 
doobiwan said:
Hmm, try changing it to and from on the source, maybe it'll show you the changes.
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Finally got the component cable for my Xbox yesterday. Connected the sound through the optical output on the cable and I noticed it does actually show Dolby Digital on my AV receiver. Then I tried playing a movie with DTS sound from my pc, also showed Dolby. So at least I know I'm getting Dolby from my pc, but why not DTS?
 
Actually just googled it : seems a little confusing :) Some say it does, others say it doesnt - and others say a patch will fix it ...

But quite a few mention manually selecting DTS on the amp - as not all pick up the format automatically like they should.

Also - with some DVD's you need select DTS on the DVD menu.

Tried both those?
 
Dolby said:
Actually just googled it : seems a little confusing :) Some say it does, others say it doesnt - and others say a patch will fix it ...

But quite a few mention manually selecting DTS on the amp - as not all pick up the format automatically like they should.

Also - with some DVD's you need select DTS on the DVD menu.

Tried both those?
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Well my receiver doesn't have the option to manually select it. I can only select the input option, which I set to Aux/Optical. Then it shows Dolby by itself as soon as you start playing a Dolby movie. Will have a look for menu options on dvd's, thx.
 
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