USB Speakers (READ ONLY ARCHIVE)

[PeteS457]

I just can't get my head around this so please help me if you can. I'm sure it's probably an obvious answer.

I'm looking to replace my old desktop 2.1 speaker system which connect through the single green jack on my motherboard. (I guess this is Realtek 97). I can not play 5.1 SACD audio on this computer. Anyway, if I replace the speakers with the Z cinema system that connects through USB, can I play 5.1 DTS/Dolby Digital audio or SACD music through Windows Media Player and have the SDS TruSound take 6 channel and redirect it to the 2.1 system and simulate surround sound? I don't understand how this works. I would assume that the codecs I have installed would have something to do with it. Any clarity would be appreciated or a direction to an educational website I can read on this. I'm just wondering will I be able to play my SACD music that has no 2-channel track on them.

Thanks in advance.

[KrisM]

Yes.  As long as the Media Player you use can decode the 5.1 music stream from your SACD then the Z Cinema will play it properly.  Z Cinema enumerates as a 5.1 device in Windows and uses the SRS Driver to create the surround effect using all 6 channels of music.

[Astrallite]

You don't play SACDs on your computer. You play it on an SACD player. Only a few Sony VAIO's have SACD playback ability, that's it.

[John5]

What about the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio from DVD.

Can you select it and use your Z-Cinema to play it with SRS surround or will it be no diffrent.

[Astrallite]

As far as I can tell SRS is a panorama effect for stereo input sources. I wouldn't see any point using SRS on Dolby Digital 5.1 since without discrete output channels DVDs will default to Dolby Surround 2.0. Dolby Surround already has pseudo-surround 2.0 effects, I'm not entirely certain what point there would be to using SRS since it would be applying a layer of heinz ketchup over mcdonalds ketchup and expecting the taste to be different.