No bass from optical connection

dipzy

New member
Hey peeps,

I have got my speaker hooked up to a Creative decoder and my pc is hooked up to the decoder via optical. When i play music or films, i get sound perfectly from the speakers but no bass from the sub woofer, i have to put my ear next to hear the little thump thump that coming from it

Does optical connections support bass or not?
 
Optical cables support multichannel audio, so the bass is definitely supported if you have a subwoofer. Were you able to set up the speaker orientation in Windows correctly? I recall you needed the Creative decoder unit for connection to your PS?
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Optical cables support multichannel audio, so the bass is definitely supported if you have a subwoofer. Were you able to set up the speaker orientation in Windows correctly? I recall you needed the Creative decoder unit for connection to your PS?
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Yup, i got the creative decider and hooked pc and playstation up via optical. Playstation works fine with 5.1, i get bass from games and movies but with pc i dont, its like a 5.0 setup. In windows ive select spdif as default for sound
 
sounds like your system is either not plugged in correctly or your receiver is broken.

I think i need the creative switchbox which allows a pc to be hooked up, via the normal green, black and orange wires. A guy on amazon left a review saying he didnt get bass either. I have no control over the bass settings on my pc, if inincrease the bass volume nothing happens. Bass from the ps3 is perfect, i think the receiver worls but need that creative switch box for pc
 
I think i need the creative switchbox which allows a pc to be hooked up, via the normal green, black and orange wires. A guy on amazon left a review saying he didnt get bass either. I have no control over the bass settings on my pc, if inincrease the bass volume nothing happens. Bass from the ps3 is perfect, i think the receiver worls but need that creative switch box for pc

dipzy, I've had another thought since I replied to your PM. If you look at the last diagram on page 8 of the manual you can hook up your three PC soundcard jacks (front, rear, center/sub) to the analog inputs on the Creative. You'll just need 3 of these cables, total £2.97 delivered:

link
 
I'm using an optical cable to connect to an amp and surround sound system I got for Christmas and it will only do 2.1, the sound quality is worse and non of the audio options work through my PC for some reason. If I use my old speakers through the input jack though I get full 5.1 and I have all the audio option for DTS etc.

I have also ordered one of those 3.5mm to Phono leads because it looks like Optical on the motherboard doesn't fully support everything.
 
I'm using an optical cable to connect to an amp and surround sound system I got for Christmas and it will only do 2.1, the sound quality is worse and non of the audio options work through my PC for some reason. If I use my old speakers through the input jack though I get full 5.1 and I have all the audio option for DTS etc.

I have also ordered one of those 3.5mm to Phono leads because it looks like Optical on the motherboard doesn't fully support everything.

There can be DRM licensing issues with passing DD 5.1 over optical. This may be your problem Sieb but I don't think it's Dipzy's. This old article from when the Creative X-fi first came out explains the issue. It's the same with most TV's with optical out, they only pass through in stereo even if they are receiving a 5.1 source from say a DVD player. link

Despite its fancy new architecture, onboard memory, support for Dolby Digital ES and DTS-EX output, and THX certification, the X-Fi won't encode Dolby Digital Live. According to Creative, Dolby Digital Live support would make the X-Fi more expensive due to both licensing costs and the need for additional tank RAM on the chip. Creative also asserts that Dolby Digital Live encoding introduces a small amount of latency, and points out that it's limited to 5.1-channel output. Perhaps more notably, Creative says that Dolby Digital Live encoding can't handle DRM-protected content since it passes unprotected data through a digital output. That's an interesting limitation, although PC enthusiasts have never really been enthusiastic about DRM-encrusted content.
 
That explains things
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Thanks for that, I was beginning to think there was something wrong with my PC. Looks like the 3.5mm to Phono lead is the way to go.
 
dipzy, I've had another thought since I replied to your PM. If you look at the last diagram on page 8 of the manual you can hook up your three PC soundcard jacks (front, rear, center/sub) to the analog inputs on the Creative. You'll just need 3 of these cables, total £2.97 delivered:

link

Would that give me 5.1 from pc because i can connect the two fronts and two rears to the unit but what about the center/sub?
 
What if i get three of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/3-5mm-Speaker-and-headphone-Splitter/dp/B0007OC96W

The 3.5mm jacks would plug into the inputs at the back of the sub woofer where the green, orange and black cables go, and then in the other end of the adapters, the green from the pc and decoder would go into one splitter, orange from pc and decoder in the second splitter and black from pc and decoder into the third splitter.

I was thinking about whether this would work or not but would need another green orange black to green orange black or would it work with any standard 3.5mm to 3.5mm?

I might head down to maplins and see if they have the cables and buy them so i can test my theory out.

If it works, my pc will be on standard 3.5mm jack while the ps3 will remain on optical which would be perfect
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Would that give me 5.1 from pc because i can connect the two fronts and two rears to the unit but what about the center/sub?

I never used it in the config you are trying to set up from your PC but I checked the manual again. It looks like the 3 pairs of analog RCA inputs on the Creative are discrete stereo pairs (ANALOG 1, 2 and 3) and cant be mixed so I don't think my previous suggestion for 3 cables would work. Looks like you'll have to try and get that switch.

Although what happens with your centre speaker and sub if you set your soundcard's output to 4 speaker or Quad and set speaker size to Full with lowest possible LFE x-over?
 
What if i get three of these: http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B0007OC96W

The 3.5mm jacks would plug into the inputs at the back of the sub woofer where the green, orange and black cables go, and then in the other end of the adapters, the green from the pc and decoder would go into one splitter, orange from pc and decoder in the second splitter and black from pc and decoder into the third splitter.

I was thinking about whether this would work or not but would need another green orange black to green orange black or would it work with any standard 3.5mm to 3.5mm?

I might head down to maplins and see if they have the cables and buy them so i can test my theory out.

If it works, my pc will be on standard 3.5mm jack while the ps3 will remain on optical which would be perfect
smile.gif

Sorry my last was a cross post before I saw this. Yeah that might work, I think you'd just have to make sure your PC and ps3 via the Creative weren't outputting to the sub at the same time which might be a PITA
 
Sorry my last was a cross post before I saw this. Yeah that might work, I think you'd just have to make sure your PC and ps3 via the Creative weren't outputting to the sub at the same time which might be a PITA

Yh, id only switch on the creative to use the ps3 otherwise it would be off.
 
I never used it in the config you are trying to set up from your PC but I checked the manual again. It looks like the 3 pairs of analog RCA inputs on the Creative are discrete stereo pairs (ANALOG 1, 2 and 3) and cant be mixed so I don't think my previous suggestion for 3 cables would work. Looks like you'll have to try and get that switch.

Although what happens with your centre speaker and sub if you set your soundcard's output to 4 speaker or Quad and set speaker size to Full with lowest possible LFE x-over?

I set sound card to 4.1 but no sound from centre speaker or sub, and the option 'swap centrer/sub woofer controls' is only available for the 3 coloured cables, not optical
 
Try it at 4 speaker or quad, i.e. 4.0 not 4.1. You wont get anything from your centre because that channel will be spread as stereo across your front left front right. You won't loose centre channel content e.g. speaking you will just hear it as a mixed stereo output. It might however get the bass back from your sub.
 
Try it at 4 speaker or quad, i.e. 4.0 not 4.1. You wont get anything from your centre because that channel will be spread as stereo across your front left front right. You won't loose centre channel content e.g. speaking you will just hear it as a mixed stereo output. It might however get the bass back from your sub.

It only gives me 4/4.1 as the option to select. With the optical, more than half of the sound card software features don't work, only things that work are equilizer, volume and EAX effects. Speakers control, bass control, speaker configuration don't work at all
 
This is pretty strange. Maybe you could try the 3.5mm male to x2 RCA male to connect your PC via your sound card to the x3 sets of RCA connectors on the decoder?
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