Realtek ALC662 and Dolby Digital Live?

malrats

It says that DDL and DTS is supported but I have NO idea how to activate it!

I've been going CRAZY trying to get it to work. I just want my 7.1 surround Turtle Beach X41s to actually play in Dolby digital instead of pro logic II.

Their site (Turtle Beach) says I need DDL to get Dolby digital to work on PC.

Any ideas?

Tacoboy · 07-09-2012, 06:42 | posts: 185 | Location: Calif.

Quote:

Originally Posted by malrats

It says that DDL and DTS is supported but I have NO idea how to activate it!

I've been going CRAZY trying to get it to work. I just want my 7.1 surround Turtle Beach X41s to actually play in Dolby digital instead of pro logic II.

Their site (Turtle Beach) says I need DDL to get Dolby digital to work on PC.

Any ideas?

What make and model motherboard is in your computer?

If you installed the Asus Xonar DX or D1 sound card (used $55), your computer would then have DDL (Dolby Digital Live), just run the optical cable from the Xonar sound card to your X41 optical input.

malrats · 07-09-2012, 07:14 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

Motherboard is a BIOSTAR A770E3

gamerk2 · 07-09-2012, 20:52 | posts: 2,063 | Location: Medford, NY

Probably not supported due to licensing. Realtek chipsets have supported DDL/DTS-C for a long time, but its up to the motherboard vendor to secure the licenses from Dolby/DTS to enable those features.

malrats · 07-09-2012, 21:08 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

"I have a Biostar A880G+ Motherboard, and Realtek High Definition Audio (ALC662). According to Realtek, the ALC662 has the ability to use Dolby Digital Live, and according to an email from Biostar, that motherboard has the ability to do Dolby Digital Live."

I guess I just don't really know HOW to do it though. I had been using a Turtle Beach Micro II to have an SPDIF connection because I didn't realize I had to order a bracket plate connector thingy to connect to my motherboard to use the onboard SPDIF. I just ordered one and will have it tomorrow, but I don't know what to do with that once I have it installed to get DDL working.

ROBSCIX · 07-09-2012, 21:46 | posts: 16,079 | Location: Guru3D Audio Lab

Look over your drivers, the DDL/DTS-C are realtime encoders that encoders games or other surround sound and sends in over S/Pdif. Without it, S/Pdif is just stereo.
Any gamers headphones with surround sound and digital input, will require DDL/DTS or pass-through on your cards/on board to operate properly.

So, start looking through your drivers, if it is an option, there should be some settings for it. I think it would be in the S/Pdif, digital options..etc.

Hope that helps.

malrats · 07-10-2012, 00:57 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

I guess I'll find out tomorrow. All I care about is being able to listen to music and play video with the headset and it be in Dolby digital, not pro logic II. I hate how complicated it has to be.

Assuming I can't get this to work, despite my board saying its support it, what do you suggest I do?

Tacoboy · **Biostar A880G+ -** 07-10-2012, 01:21 | posts: 185 | Location: Calif.

I've looked around and I can find nothing that says your motherboard comes with Dolby Digital, DDL or even Dolby Pro logic.

You can try going to Biostars website and download the latest audio drivers and see what happens.

INSTG8R · 07-10-2012, 02:04 | posts: 1,188 | Location: Lost in Norway

IF your audio chipset has DDL it would only be on a digital output which I don't see on your Motherboard.
My laptops control panel as an example

malrats · 07-10-2012, 02:39 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

Well I have to install the digital output tomorrow.

ROBSCIX · 07-10-2012, 04:40 | posts: 16,079 | Location: Guru3D Audio Lab

You mean you have a bracket with the Digital output?
That makes sense, the driver will not display the features until the bracket is installed.

malrats · 07-10-2012, 04:47 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

Yeah, my motherboard has the 3-pin SPDIF connector but just nothing connected to it yet. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

malrats · 07-10-2012, 21:32 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

hmm, I don't have that Dolby Digital Live option in the control panel.

however, when I run the test in Windows for Dolby Digital, the light for it on my headphone receiver lights up and I do get the sound coming through.

so I don't get it.

malrats · 07-10-2012, 21:39 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

is there any other method of enabling Dolby Digital besides DDL? I can't stand Pro Logic II, it sounds horrible.

why have 7.1 headphones just to listen to them in stereo, you know?

ROBSCIX · 07-10-2012, 21:50 | posts: 16,079 | Location: Guru3D Audio Lab

Hmm, try enabling digital first and see if any options show up
There is really no options for DDL, it is either on or off.

have you ever considered getting a soundcard?

malrats · 07-10-2012, 22:08 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

Yeah, I've considered getting a sound card but couldn't afford one nor find one with DDL support.

I've noticed people saying that you only need DDL for PC games and that you can still listen to music or watch movies in Dolby digital without it. Is this true? And if so, how would I do it?

automaticman · 07-11-2012, 02:00 | posts: 664 | Location: Orange County, CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by malrats

I've noticed people saying that you only need DDL for PC games and that you can still listen to music or watch movies in Dolby digital without it. Is this true? And if so, how would I do it?

First off, I think you have some confusion about Dolby Digital and DDL.

Dolby Digital (aka AC3) and DTS are multichannel encoding formats used mostly in movies. They key here is that they are all pre-encoded. So if you want to watch a movie in dolby digital is needs to have a DD track in the movie file or DVD. If you want to do this on your computer all you need to do is set your pc to pass the DD or DTS signal through the SPDIF connection without touching it.
1) Go to playback devices control panel and set your SPDIF as the default device.
2) Select it and click properties, then under supported formats make sure DD and DTS are selected.
3) Make sure your movie file actually has a DD soundtrack (you can use MediaInfo for this, look for 6 channel AC3)
4) For DVDs, Win Media Player is pretty simple is should just work automatically. (someone back me up here)
4) For MKV files with DD tracks, I prefer Media Player Classic- Home Cinema (MPC-HC), here's how to set it up:

1) Open MPC-HC and right click the player window and select options.
2) Under playback select Output and set your Audio Renderer to System Default or SPDIF (useful if you want to use analog for everything else).
3)Click Internal Filters on the left and make sure AC3 and DTS are checked.
4) Under Transform filters double click the bold AC3 and DTS.
5) Under decoder settings change the default from decode to speakers to SPDIF (ie passthrough)

Play your movie, your reciever's DD light should turn on and everything should be working.

Music is recorded in 2 channel stereo 90% of the time. You can play it over analog or digital, but the only way your are going to get it to come out of surround speakers is pro-logic or something like that to create artificial surround. Just pick whichever of your receiver's surround modes sound the best.

Games are a little different. When you set them to surround sound mode the game outputs multiple discrete channels that are really designed to be output over the multichannel analog outputs from your sound card (and this is really the best way to go in terms of sound quality). If your receiver does not have multichannel analog inputs, or your onboard sound only has stereo analog outputs (rare for a desktop), that's when you need DDL.

DDL takes the discrete channels coming from the games and encodes them into the Dolby Digital format on the fly. Then the signal can be sent over spdif to your receiver where it treats it just like it does any DD encoded movie. DTS Connect is the same thing. To get these to work you need to have a sound card capable of it, and that has the licensing that allows it. If you have both of those (and it sounds like you might not), then you have to play with the settings a bit to get it working right. (for creative cards you actually have to set the default sound device to Speakers in stead of SPDIF). Because DD is a codec that uses lossy compression, there is a slight sound quality penalty compared to outputting each channel over it's own analog output.

malrats · 07-11-2012, 03:32 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

Okay, that helps actually.

So for gaming, is there anything besides DTS and DDL that will do that on-the-fly encoding? Some third party decoder or something?

ROBSCIX · 07-11-2012, 03:49 | posts: 16,079 | Location: Guru3D Audio Lab

Quote:

Originally Posted by malrats

Okay, that helps actually.

So for gaming, is there anything besides DTS and DDL that will do that on-the-fly encoding? Some third party decoder or something?

Nope.
No that I have seen. DDL and DTS-C are lossy, so for overall sound quality they leave alot of be desired. If you are concerned with getting the best sound quality, I would buy a soundcard an go with analog.

malrats · 07-11-2012, 03:55 | posts: 11 | Location: NJ

Oh okay. Well this is strictly for my X41 headset anyway, and they only have digital in/out on the back, and then red and white L/R inputs.

automaticman · 07-11-2012, 06:28 | posts: 664 | Location: Orange County, CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by malrats

Oh okay. Well this is strictly for my X41 headset anyway, and they only have digital in/out on the back, and then red and white L/R inputs.

You should be able to set it up the same way then, at least for movies. The box that comes with your X41 will decode the DD track from the movies, and then convert it to a Dolby Headphone 2 channel output.