MB audio output & Dolby Digital Q's

So I just finished my new rig, and I had a few questions about the MB audio out.
The MB is a ASRock Z97 OC Formula.

So I have my 2.1 Corsair speakers plugged into the green analog out on the MB and it works without problem.

When I plug in the 7.1 DSS processor of my Turtle Beach headset (USB and optical) to the MB (USB and Optic out), the sound immediately cuts out from the 2.1 speakers.
The Headset will work just fine, but I can't get any sound to the 2.1 speakers if the headset is plugged in.

I'd like to have both plugged in so that I can use either one at will and just have the other one turned off. Is this possible to do with some kind of setting/firmware change, or is it just a limitation of the MB that if two different audio things are plugged into the MB, it'll only output to one at any given time?

Also I find it interesting to note that the speaker audio cuts out as soon as the DDS processor USB is plugged in, before the processor optical is even plugged into the MB.


Also, different but related question:
I was gaming with the Turtle Beaches, and the Processor wasn't getting a Dolby Digital Surround signal to work with, so the headset basically still sounded stereo.
I have a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 on this computer - do I need to download some kind of Dolby firmware/software that will allow the MB optical to output a Dolby Digital surround signal?
I went looking at Dolby's site, and there's all this Digital Plus, Digital Surround, etc, and I don't know the differences and which is necessary to get things working properly.

I appreciate all help in advance

If you use the front port for the headset and the rear port for the speakers will it output like you want?

ATMINSIDE said:

If you use the front port for the headset and the rear port for the speakers will it output like you want?

Click to expand...

Ah, hadn't thought of that.
Although the headset processor needs a optical port, I will try putting the processor usb up front instead of the back.
I can also try putting the 2.1 cable in the front port and see if that works, although the cable's so big that wouldn't be optimal

Well, your motherboard is based on the Realtek ALC1150.
I know on Realtek you can split the front from rear to play separate audio streams.
This is typically done within the Realtek software that is installed with your audio drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's site.

I can get better instructions later when I'm home from work.

ATMINSIDE said:

Well, your motherboard is based on the Realtek ALC1150.
I know on Realtek you can split the front from rear to play separate audio streams.
This is typically done within the Realtek software that is installed with your audio drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's site.

I can get better instructions later when I'm home from work.

Click to expand...

Awesome. I do have the latest Realtek HD audio drivers downloaded.
I play around with your suggestions and see if I can't get a result for the time being.

Yeah, it's in the settings in that Realtek HD stuff. It'll be worded similar to "split front and rear jacks" or "separate streams for front and rear jacks".

Something to that effect, it's just a check box.

Oh, and what about the MB optical outputting surround - any ideas on what's needed there?

GearingMass said:

Oh, and what about the MB optical outputting surround - any ideas on what's needed there?

Click to expand...

I'm at my computer now!!

For the separate streams front/rear click the red boxes.
To do surround, pick 7.1 in the green box.

Ah, I think I found the issue, I just don't know how to fix it.

The computer is recognizing the Turtle beaches as a USB audio device, The controller is off right now, and yet it's still sending stereo audio to the headset via USB. I just unplugged the optical and yep, sure enough, the headset is still getting audio through the USB.
Realtek shows the optical and rear audio out as two seperate things, and I was able to send test sounds to the speakers successfully even with the headset plugged in, so I think it's possible to have the optical and rear audio out plugged in and sending two simultaneous audio streams, I just need to figure out how to disable USB audio (which I didn't even know was possible).

In other words, I think it's the USB audio that's cancelling the rear audio out, not the optical being plugged in.

Does anyone know how to disable USB audio and make it just for powering the headset?
I believe that might solve the problem if so.

Ok so I found and disabled the USB part of the headset, which instantly allowed the speakers to play from the rear audio out. So that's one problem solved. It still, however, does not want to send a digital signal to the rear at the same time - going to try putting the 3.5 up front and see if that at least works then.

Switched it to simultaneous rear/front streams like ATM said, so we'll see if that works.

Ok I think I'm narrowing it down. The front audio will work for the speakers when the USB audio is disabled. However, even when I temporarily disable the front audio, it'll say it's suddenly outputting digital audio, but the headset receiver doesn't show that it's receiving digital audio, and nothing is coming out of the headset.

Any ideas on how to get the digital out to actually output Dolby Digital?
Maybe it is outputting to the digital like the computer says it is, but it's possible that the headset processor will only work with Dolby Digital - any ideas? I feel like I need to make a trip to Dolby's website again seeing as I doubt Windows comes pre-loaded with all that stuff.

Or something like the spdifer? I really have no idea what's going on. I didn't know if was this hard to get the digital out to actually output dolby digital...

Ok, what I'm gathering from reading around is that for games, which are almost always not encoded with Dolby audio, you need Dolby Digital Live to covert their type to a Dolby Digital encoded stream, which you can then optically output to your receiver (in my case, the headset processor).
However, what I'm getting out of this is that most MB manufacturers disable Dolby Digital on their Realtek chips to avoid licensing fees and the only way to get Dolby Digital Live is to get a sound card that supports it.

So what I'm gathering at this point is that I may need to get a sound card that supports Dolby Digital Live that will convert the game audio to a Dolby Digital stream which can then be outputted to my headset processor?
Can anyone confirm any of this?

Ok, so I've got optical (not USB this time) signal going to my headset processor, it's just not DD-encoded, so it's using the processor's PLIIX at the moment.
If I'm not satisfied with that, it appears I have two options.

1) Try and install these unlocked Realtek drivers that are floating around, that will let the MB Realtek chip actually use DDL to send fresh DD-encoded audio out the optical jack. That sounds sketch and risky, and I'm not a fan of doing things that are probably less than legal, so...
2) Dropping $80-200 on a good sound card that has DDL onboard AND enabled (I'm looking at you MB manufactuers) so that the Turtle beach processor has a DD-encoded signal to work with. An addition nicety is that a lot of those also have Dolby Headphone, which apparently would do exactly what my Turtle Beach processor does now - take a DD-encoded signal and make it 5.1/7.1

My only reservation with option #2 is that everywhere I go, I can't find a single quality sound card that doesn't have horror stories about the drivers/software.

Surely some of you game with a headset that's in 5.1/7.1 - how are you guys set up to do that? Am I thinking on the right track here or am I missing another solution?
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If anyone knows of a sound card with Dolby Digital Live and optionally Dolby Headphone, that they either have good personal experience with or knows not of any driver/software issues, PLEASE let me know.
Thanks in advance.
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