pasqualz Wrote:Well, now I'm very frystrated! I uninstalled the drivers for my x-fi xtreme audio card thsi evening and then swapped it out for an x-fi titanium fatal1ty pro edition. After installing the latest drivers and console application from the creative website, I was excited to see more options for this card, however, i still do not see any option in the creative application to allow SPDIF passthrough. When I play an AC3 encoded DVD rip I only get sound from the front left and froont right channels and it seems that the other channels are mixed down into these channels also. I'm aware of an option people have spoken about called "mixdown into stereo" or something similar, but I don't see thsi option anywhere yet it seems like that's what the card is doing. Does anyone else have thsi card and if so, do you have the SPDIF pass through or stereo upmix options
Before answering this question, it may be worth examining the various steps required to make everything work.
At present 5.1 sound doesn't work very in xbmc using anything other than passthrough. This, hopefully, will be fixed relatively soon. So...
First, go to the Creative Audio Control Panel. Go to the Speakers tab. Make sure speaker configuration is 5.1 Speakers. I'm not sure what SVM is, but I have it turned off.
Next, go to the Encoder tab. Sometimes it takes a second to switch to this tab. Be patient. Make sure Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect are both turned off.
That should be all you need to do from this area. Close the control panel.
Now, right click on the little speaker next to your clock and select "playback devices." At least, this is what you click in Vista. If you use XP, I imagine it should be something similar.
There should be two devices listed. Speakers and SPDIF Out. You want to set SPDIF Out as the default.
Now, open XBMC. Go Settings--> Videos--> Player --> Configure Audio Hardware. Switch Audio Output to Digital. Check either or both of the boxes, depending on what kind of audio your receiver can decode. Leave "audio output device" as Primary Sound Driver.
Finally, if your speaker system can handle both DTS and Dolby Digital, you are done. If they can't do one or the other, make sure "downmix multi-channel audio to stereo" is selected. This option became available as of rev18445. Ikon has uploaded that rev.
Then you should be done. If this was already your exact setup, or you are using something other than Vista, we'll have to talk more.