SIIG USB SoundWave Optical 5.1

[Dissonance]

I have one of these: http://www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=JU-IC5112-S2 (SIIG USB SoundWave Optical 5.1). It has 1 toslink connector and 1 minijack. It has a DAC for the minijack, and passes 5.1 sound through the toslink connector. USB installation went smoothly. It uses a built-in Windows driver. My computer is a Dell Latitude D620 running XP Pro.

In the control panel under sounds and audio devices, I have two options: SigmaTel Audio which is the built-in device on my laptop, and USB Audio which is USB SoundWave device. I select USB Audio. Under advanced, I select 5.1 speakers. I went through all of the menus and could not find any other relevant settings.

I can successfully pass Dolby 5.1 surround to my Sony receiver with WinDVD. I cannot get VLC to pass surround sound through it. I've tried both AC3 files and DVDs. I went through all the settings in the menus.

Can somebody please offer me some suggestions.

Thanks!

[VLC_help]

A/52 over S/PDIF should work.

[Dissonance]

That's what I thought, but I don't have that option when the USB device is selected as my sound device.

Another interesting thing happens... When I select either stereo or 5.1, my receiver detects two channels. With 5.1, however, the sound effects are loud and the voices are too quiet to hear. I can hear the voices when I select stereo.

Any more advice?

Thanks!

[VLC_help]

S/PDIF doesn't support uncompressed 5.1 audio. That is why you have to pass Dolby Digital/DTS audio if you want to hear 5.1 sounds via S/PDIF. Could you try nightly builds and Waveout output module, which should have option to select sound device.
http://nightlies.videolan.org/

[Dissonance]

Thanks for the information. I'll give it a try and let you know how it works.

[Dissonance]

I tried the a couple different versions of the nightly builds with no success. I did know that the DTS should be passed through and not decoded until it reaches my receiver. Is there any way to do this with and AC3 audio file as well? Thanks!

[VLC_help]

VLC should do the same for both AC3 and DTS audio if you have that S/PDIF option enabled.

[falaipa]

hi,
i have a similar problem playing ac3 sound through a sound blaster live external 24 bit card via optical output. With the "a/52 over s/pdif" option enabled, the sound is wrong ; it turns in a curl renews one or two seconds, perhaps less. i tried nightly version of vlc but it crashed. I have ever tried many manipulations unsuccessfully. I don't know what to do anymore. I'm sure it's a little thing who can't stand me appreciate the wonderfull simplicity an efficacity of vlc but can't find which one. Someone could ?

[VLC_help]

Nightlies and Waveout audio output module is the best bet if you want to use SPDIF.

[falaipa]

thanks for responding so fast.
But I tried this too with the same result that with directx.

[Dissonance]

I tried the nightly builds with no luck. They do have the option to select the playback device. When I select the SIIG optical device, I have the audio option of stereo or 5.1. With either, my receiver just detects 2 channels. When I select 5.1, the voices are too quiet to hear and the music and effects are loud.

By reading previous posts, I assume the audio is being decoded by the player rather than just passed through.

I'm ready to give up now unless there are any more suggestions.

Perhaps the VLC player should have a optical passthrough option. I've seen this option in the AC3 codec.

Thanks,
D

[VLC_help]

A/52 over S/PDIF is the passthrough option in VLC. If neither Directsound nor waveout offer you A/52 over S/PDIF then Windows gives VLC wrong information about soundcard capabilities.

[Dissonance]

I'm not given the A/52 over S/PDIF option.

Thanks for the posts, as this has been a good learning experience for me.