USB Speakers (READ ONLY ARCHIVE)

[btr2]

Z Cinema. Superb speakers. Great sound quality with music, DVDs etc...

However, it seems to go wrong when trying to output speech in games. Two examples. Command and Conquer 3. Volume drops to almost unhearable when one of the main characters speaks to you from the little window whilst mid-level.

Also, GTA 4. Very quiet speech during cutscenes, and also when the main character is talking to someone on his mobile phone, mid-level.

I find this very odd. Initially, I'm aware that on surround systems, speech is often outputted primarily through the center channel. As the Z Cinema doesn't have a center channel, could it be the encoding? Could it be the sound card? I thought USB speakers didn't use them. Could it be that both games are Electronic Arts?

Would love to get this resolved. I can't be the only affected customer?

Thanks in anticipation,

Ben

[btr2]

Bumpety Bump.

In the meantime, does anyone know any more popular forums? Someone MUST be having the same problem? Are there any forums where Logitech helpy-type support people post replies?

Cheers!

BR

[DomR]

I also noticed the low volume of the dialogue in games...haven't been able to find a real solution, besides the fact that some games allow you to adjust speech volume seperate from other sounds. Just max out dialogue volume and lower the others until you get an acceptable level. This doesn't work for all games though.

I was also wondering if you use an xbox 360 controller when you play you're games? If so does it work for you?  Because that's the problem I''m having with my z cinema speakers. xbox 360 controller driver seems to be messing with audio driver. Or something.

Hope I helped a little.

[btr2]

Dom,

Thankyou for replying. Its good to know I'm not the only one. I tried what you suggest in GTA, but would you believe even with the sliders at almost silent for music and effects and the speakers up to max, the speech is still almost inaudible. The other problem with that solution is that there aren't sliders for everything, so ambient sound (engine while driving etc) is still as high a you've turned the speakers up to, drowning out the speech and putting you into a catch-22 situation. Oh well...

Don't use an XBox controller although getting one might stop my GTA car crashing all the time.

Cheers again,

BR

[Mike_M]

Hi,

The surround effect from these speakers is generated by software. There are only 3 speakers so the rear effects are achieved by delays and other "tricks". You might look at SRS's website for some fixes as they might apply to games.

[btr2]

Mike,

Thanks for that. Couldn't find any fixes on their website. Could you post a link to the page you're talking about?

Cheers!

BR

[Mike_M]

Hi,

I'm sorry. I didn't know if there were any or not. I know we licensed the software from them.

I think this will be a pain point for gamers. We produced a pretty good set of speakers but some of the use cases it is being put to don't fit very well.

[btr2]

Mike,

Thanks for your reply. So what you are saying is that there IS a problem meaning that gamers will find it hard to use these speakers, that it is not Logitechs fault, but your 3rd party software provider?

I agree that your hardware is good, but the TruSurround software is awful. How can 'playing games' be a 'use case' that doesn't fit very well with a set of PC speakers?

Where does that leave us who, god forbid, use or computers for playing games?

Cheers,

Ben