HT Omega Striker 7.1 and Windows 7 Problem

Heinz Getwellvet said:

I beg to differ. That is how you are supposed to set it up. All the normal sounds your computer outputs are stereo anyway. As soon as you listen to a digital signal supporting surround sound (5.1, blu-ray) it over rides the stereo. The z5500 control center will say digital and you will have true surround.

Plus, if you want your stereo sounds to come from all the speakers then you can set your z5500 effects for PLII music/movie or stereo x2. Pop in a Blu-Ray or another media with DD audio and try it out.

I had it set up as DD and when I watched a Blu-Ray movie my computer would freeze because it was trying to output 2 DD streams. When I switched to PCM my computer stopped freezing yet still output a DD signal. Planet Earth sounds AMAZING.

P.S. Check this link. It will show you how to make the z5500 Cntrl Cntr display the audio stream. You will see the majority of the audio is PCM.

logitech Z5500 tricks(skin/boost/show bitrate++)NEW QUESTION BOTTOM of PAGE. - EXTREME Overclocking Forums

I just tried the new drivers and they work great. No volume control problems or 64/32-bit app issues.

For your lockups, simply disable the "Digital Output" device in the Windows Sound menu and problem solved. I had the same issue with some applications (mostly Skype, but a few others too).

As for PCM being the proper way... it's far less than ideal. All surround sound sources must either be generated in software or come from a static stream. In both cases they bypass all your nice hardware DSP. I'd strongly recommend changing the setup. Does it work in games for surround sound? Using foobar2000 will also give you full surround for your music.

The mods for the z5500s are pretty interesting. I'll have to try some out.

dornif said:

I just tried the new drivers and they work great. No volume control problems or 64/32-bit app issues.

For your lockups, simply disable the "Digital Output" device in the Windows Sound menu and problem solved. I had the same issue with some applications (mostly Skype, but a few others too).

As for PCM being the proper way... it's far less than ideal. All surround sound sources must either be generated in software or come from a static stream. In both cases they bypass all your nice hardware DSP. I'd strongly recommend changing the setup. Does it work in games for surround sound? Using foobar2000 will also give you full surround for your music.

The mods for the z5500s are pretty interesting. I'll have to try some out.

My lock ups were caused by a media file creating a DD signal on top of Xear3D creating a DD signal. So I essentially had 2 DD signals outputting and it caused the computer to freeze. When I changed to PCM it stopped the freezing yet all my DD and other surround sound media (Blu-Ray, HD movies/shows, Games) output the proper sound format, 5.1. VLC has the ability to directly stream the digital audio signal to spdif providing the proper 5.1 audio. I don't need to use any special program to output 5.1 Mp3's because the z-5500 control center has the ability to mix it up to PLII Music or Stereo x2 with the simple press of a button. I have used foobar anyway and it is far from an ideal media player for my liking. It's all in the audio file of the media. If what I am playing doesn't support DD than I just use the z-5500's to mix up the audio to all the speakers and it sounds fine.

The z-5500 mods are nice, enjoy.

And yet it is so confusing. Any digital signal carries the sound where the last DAC is. Logitech z-5500 has it is own converter to analog. My Crosshair 2 SupremeFX sound card has digital out coax (and toslink?) but that sound card doesn't have Dolby Digital logo, nor DTS logo and yes I looked at the box, it supports EAX though. So what the onboard card did was just passthrough the signal to z5500 system via digital coax and the system would then display Dolby Digital or DTS (you have to select proper input on the z5500 pod). With z5500 connected digitally any games I would play wouldn't get decoded by the logitech sound system and after some research I came to conclusion that it just doesn't (limitation of driver i think), but please correct me if I am wrong.
So I purchased HT Omega striker 7.1. Installation went smooth as I didn't use the CD but downloaded windows 7 x64 drivers off their website. Now is where I get confused. I understand input vs output but for example do not understand why i have to choose input in striker 7.1 main settings window. It has choices between 2channels, 4, 6 and 8. How am I supposed to know how many channels is the movie I am watching encoded in? Does it even make sense?
Ok Maybe it is one of advanced settings but AUTO sensing would be nice. Second if I still use digital out and this card has both coax and optical, it means it passes the signal through without decoding to my logitech system that does the encoding. That would be no different than my onboard sound. Digital cables have limitations so they only transfer raw digital data. You can also use coax from PC into your Receiver or DVD player, basically the latest and your best audo decoding device, whatever it is. In my case it is my new sound card which is better than z5500 buildin sound card and onboard sound is just what it is.
To have HT Omega striker 7.1 do the decoding you have to choose analog out 6 speakers and on logitech POD its called Direct and also 6ch direct.
I have read so many confusing answers in last 4 hours so I hope to make this easy to understand. If you connect any other way you may experience all kinds of weird issues and where the most issues arise is from Logitech screen that can be confusing.
If it says DTS or dolby digital and input is set to coax or optical then the POD is doing the conversion which works great with onboard sound. But also you can emulate dolby digital with the settings button and this is where users get confused because it says Dolby Digital on the pod but it doesnt sound like it. For the true Dolby Digital or DTS user only needs to press input button to select what kind of cable is being used, everything else is done autmatically.

I am basing my knowledge and understanding upon personal experience as well as information that HT Omega support and others have supplied me.

I love to use analogies but when it comes to digital audio and our set up it's not easy. I will do my best to answer your questions and help you obtain a desirable solution.

I know what you are feeling. We have the HT Omega 7.1, Z5500 5.1 (6 channel) speakers, a optical (toslink) cable and finally the variable audio signals you produce.

All the sounds that your computer will produce are different. You may watch a movie that is only in stereo or you may watch one that has full DD surround sound. There are also all the OS sounds which are stereo or mono.

I have come to the conclusion that i do not want to forcefully mix all the sounds up to DD or any other surround sound using my sound card. This causes issues. I found this out when I set my HT Omega to 6 channels and to force all sounds out as a Digital Dolby Live signal. Doing this caused a conflict when I watched a movie that was already outputting a DD signal and the sound card was then trying to mix that DD signal to a... DD signal. It would cause my computer to freeze.

I decided that i will output all my audio as a digital signal BUT as PCM . This allows all the normally non-digital audio to come out with no mix up and the fully digital 6 channel signals to come out as they were intended.

Basically if you set the card to PCM it will not down-mix everything to stereo but it wont up-mix anything to DD. The DD signal takes precedence over the stereo output.

If I am listening to a stereo MP3 and I want to mix it up to come out of all my speakers I will use the z5500 control pod to set it to PLII Music or Stereo x2.

Again, the reason I set it up like this is to avoid signal conflicts as well as hearing all the sounds as they were intended.

All the standard sounds you output including MP3's, Youtube and many AVI movies are stereo. Unless they say otherwise. MKV, M2TS and some AVI and other movies will have DD audio. As long as your media player supports it and it set up properly it will then output the proper DD signal. the Z5500 control pod will display Digital instead of the current setting you have it on (PLII Movie).

My Settings:
Windows default audio device = HT OMEGA Digital (not speaker)
Xear3D = System Input = 6 CH, Analog output = 2 CH Digital Audio, S/PDIF output = PCM

I hope this helps. If you are still unsure let me know.