SB Live! & T5400 Speakers

[MeFo]

Hi, i have a SB Live! and some Creative T5400 Speakers ( 5.1 )
So far i've managed to get DVD's and Movies ( DivX, etc ) to play well ( voices in center, etc )
but on Mp3's, all sounds go to every speaker, also the center speaker doesn't make any sound, i've used winamp 5 and wmp9 for test, including the SRS Sorround II plugin for wmp9, no luck
Windows is set for 5.1 speakers, so is the AudioHQ ( sb live drivers )

any help would be tons appreciated

all connectors of speakers are connected correctly to the sound card

i just want to hear sound from center, left right, and hear proper sound from rears ( hearing the same as fronts, left and right )

sorry for bad english and explanation.

 

[Glaanieboy]

The center speaker is only used in pure 5.1 sound. Most DVD and DivX movies are encoded in 5.1 sound, but MP3 are encoded in stereo, 2.1 sound. But the soundcard is able to copy the front left speaker to the back left and front right to the back right,so it looks like the sound is encoded in 4.1 surround. The center speaker isn't being used then, but I do believe there is a plugin for Winamp that can route some sound to the center speaker, but I wouldn't do that, since a MP3 was not made for that.

 

[Howling Wolf]

Is it a "simple" old SBLive! ? I had one before (Audigy 2 ZS now), I wonder how you plugged the speakers in ? These speakers have 1 or 3 wires (center/subwoofer, Front, Rear) to the sound card ? If I remember well, the SBLive has only one stereo input for speakers, allowing for Dolby ProLogic sound, provided you have a DPL amplifier between the sound card and the speakers...

As for mp3 and the center speaker, I have the Altec Lansing 5100 5.1 speakers system and if I want to hear mp3 coming out the center speaker, I have to switch on a button on the subwoofer for it to work properly

 

[MeFo]

i don't know how 'old' it is, the card has 5 jacks, front rear center/sub which i think that one transforms into the 'digital out' output, also it has the mic input and a line in, i just followed the color code to plug the speakers

the reason i was asking this, if i could get constant dolby decoding in windows/music. Since in games EAX ( yeah just EAX 1 ) takes over and it sounds great, on movies i use the powerdvd sound decoder( Cyberlink Decoder ), strangely i have to use the SPDIF mode to emulate 5.1 ( voices on center, etc ) on movies in stereo
that way i managed to get movies ok.
With the SRS TruSorround II from WMP9, i cant even get the center speaker to produce any sound, it just controls left and right (and rears )

UPDATE: Doing some search in Creative's KB, found this:

What does CMSS stand for and what does it do?

CMSS stands for Creative Multi Speaker Surround. CMSS technology enables the seamless configuration of the sound source on 2 to 8 speakers. It provides panning and mixing for multiple sounds to be easily and seamlessly placed and moved anyway around a listener - all independently controlled. CMSS up-mixes stereo sources to surround sound for movies and games. Once you have set this in PlayCenter it will remain in effect for all audio sources even after PlayCenter is closed.
from Solution ID # 9691 @ Creative.com

UPDATE 2: After testing and simulating dolby sound on music, it sucked , music sounds more richer sending the signal to every channel, still i miss the center

 

[Howling Wolf]

Well, sorry if I was wrong...
What is the exact model for you SBLive ? I now guess that it is a SBLive 5.1 (digital?)...
Mp3 is 2channel only (stereo) as mentionned above.
My own speaker system has the ability to merge left/right into the center speaker and same sound from front and rear (stereo x2, it's called...)
Don't know the specs for your sound card ( I myself jumped from SBLive Player to Audigy 2 ZS...) and speakers, but maybe what you want to achieve is not possible...

 

[Xie]

I have a SBLive 5.1 and seems as though if you have 5.1 speakers it matters how you plug them into the card. Perhaps check over the manual?

 

[MeFo]

no, seems to be well plugged, since AudioHQ's speaker test works fine on 5.1 settings
and maybe no card would do the left/right to center thingy, so music will just sound the same on fronts and rears. Still, its music, no need for 5.1 dolby, i've learned my lesson

 

[Howling Wolf]

[...]
and maybe no card would do the left/right to center thingy, so music will just sound the same on fronts and rears [...]

I partly disagree with this. Again talking about what I have, yes the soundcard won't handle the center speaker for music, but my own speakers have THIS ability: when listening to cd's or mp3's, sound comes out from ALL speakers.
If you can afford it, maybe you should change your speakers for Altec Lansing's 5100 (I'm most happy with them, not talking about their marvellous design)...

 

[MeFo]

i bought a month ago this set of speakers, i had some normal speakers, connected through a reciever, etc but i missed the woofer, and i got this set of speakers preety cheap. Without mentioning i was kinda damaging my computer with all the magnetism the big speakers made

 

[Howling Wolf]

Well, then forget about music through center speaker... unless someone here has encountered the same issue and has the right soltion to fix it...

 

[MeFo]

not the intention to revive the thread, but i finally found a (non gamer) solution to this, install kX drivers (www.kxproject.com). with them, i have full control to every volume of each speaker, full 5.1 movies ( centre working ok, nice volume output ), center mixing right/left on music, etc. Still for those gamers, no EAX support, but it does support DirectSound3d or any non eax 3d sound mixer

 

[Teddy]

KX drivers were what i was about to suggest reading thru this..i cant recommend them highly enough. Really good

I can live without EAX.