# How to connect Logitech z906 to pc to get Dolby digital.



## bobesko (Jan 24, 2012)

I just bought Z906 speakers and I would like to know how to connect it to my pc mobo to get Dolby digital sound. i have p67 Sabertooth motherboard.


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## INSTG8R (Jan 24, 2012)

Well the "best" way would be to use the Optical out. Tho I have the same board I can't say 100% it can do Dolby Digital(I have never had the onboard enabled on mine I have an X-Fi) But the speakers can decode DD so I would think it would work fine. I know my 5 yr old laptop can send out DD over optical, I would think this chipset should do it.


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## Mussels (Jan 24, 2012)

checke the specs, his onboard audio cannot do dolby digital encoding.


if you want to play DVD movies and such, then you just need a movie player that support SPDIF passthrough, and it will work.


if you want games or music in anything other than stereo over that optical connection, you're going to need to buy a new soundcard.


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## CJCerny (Jan 24, 2012)

P67 Sabertooth will pass Dolby Digital via the optical port when playing back DVDs. There likely isn't any way to pass Dolby Digital via the optical port when playing games. It will probably send 2 channel PCM while playing games. Your speakers will then need to create pseudo 5.1 sound from that 2 channel PCM.


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## bobesko (Jan 24, 2012)

Ok so I will buy a sound card and connect the card with the speakers via optical cable I will get DD when playing .mkv full hd movies, correct me if Iam wrong. And why wont I get DD sound when gaming?


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## INSTG8R (Jan 24, 2012)

Yes I was going to suggest Pass Through but not being familiar with the onboards options I just didn't want to steer him wrong. But just to be clear my laptop can and does output Dolby Digital over SPDIF(optical)

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1995126&postcount=46


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## CJCerny (Jan 24, 2012)

bobesko said:


> Ok so I will buy a sound card and connect the card with the speakers via optical cable I will get DD when playing .mkv full hd movies, correct me if Iam wrong. And why wont I get DD sound when gaming?



That is not correct. You do not need a new sound card to send a DD soundtrack from a movie to your speakers. You DO need a new sound card if you want to create a DD soundtrack for your games to send to your speakers. You DO NOT need a sound card if you want to just send analog 5.1 sound to your speakers for both movies and games.

The difference between movies and games is that movies contain a pre-encoded DD soundtrack that just needs to be played back. Games have no such thing. If you want DD for a game, you have to create it on the fly, and it takes a sound card with the DD Live! feature to do this. You can avoid all this silliness if you just use analog sound outputs on the Sabertooth. All movie playback software takes the DD soundtrack and turns it into analog sound in addition to being able to pass a DD soundtrack onto an external device. You will lose some control over things like delay settings that you would have if you used DD for everything, but using analog will save you from having to buy a sound card.


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## Mussels (Jan 24, 2012)

bobesko said:


> Ok so I will buy a sound card and connect the card with the speakers via optical cable I will get DD when playing .mkv full hd movies, correct me if Iam wrong. *And why wont I get DD sound when gaming?*



because your sound card doesnt have an encoder. only audio already encoded (DVD/BD movies) will play in dolby digital.


and as for your ripped movies, that depends on their audio stream inside the files. if its DD or DTS and supported by your receiver, then yes it will work.



to explain things a bit better since people are getting confused:

If you are passing through existing dolby digital audio (from a DVD or BD movie, legit, or ripped with the audio intact) then it will work.

If you want DD audio from other sources (games, MP3 files, whatever) then you need a sound card with real time encoding, that can turn your analogue 5.1 audio into digital 5.1 audio, then compress it to dolby digital so your receiver can understand it.


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## CJCerny (Jan 24, 2012)

Mussels said:


> because your sound card doesnt have an encoder. only audio already encoded (DVD/BD movies) will play in dolby digital.
> 
> 
> and as for your ripped movies, that depends on their audio stream inside the files. if its DD or DTS and supported by your receiver, then yes it will work.
> ...



Correct. OP, we are saying the same thing--just in a slightly different way.


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## bobesko (Jan 24, 2012)

Ok so Iam gonna buy a sound card with DD live to be able to get DD from both movies and games. Because I dont want the movies to have analog sound. Btw, is it a big difference when watching a movie in analog vs digital?


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 24, 2012)

bobesko said:


> Ok so Iam gonna buy a sound card with DD live to be able to get DD from both movies and games. Because I dont want the movies to have analog sound. Btw, is it a big difference when watching a movie in analog vs digital?



its been said 3 times already... movies will have digital sound.


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## bobesko (Jan 24, 2012)

Iam sorry, Iam still a bit confused. I understand that for games I have to buy a sound card. But when I have an .mkv movie with DD, I just connect it to my z906 speakers and I will have DD sound automatically? However do I have to connect it only with optical cable to get DD or can I use the 3.5 mm jack port(istnt the jack port only for analog sound?)?


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## BumbleBee (Jan 24, 2012)

you cannot send a digital signal over analog and vice versa. if you don't have a sound card you have to use the Logitech Z906 to decode and convert and the only way to do that is digital.


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## Mussels (Jan 24, 2012)

bobesko: you seem to think DD is more than it is. DD is simply a way to get 5.1 sound over an SPDIF cable, be it coax or optical - because they were only designed for stereo. maybe you should just try analogue for now.


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