Anybody else irritated about the lack of audio solutions for PC?
I know I'm in the minority here, but I use my home theatre for gaming. I play on an Athlon XP w/ Geforce 6800GT. My computer is hooked up to S-Video out, audio is hooked up through nForce2's Soundstorm SPDIF output into my Dolby Digital Receiver. I sit on my recliner, drop a wooden board across the armrests and use my wireless keyboard and mouse to revel in high-res video, and 5.1 audio Home Theatre goodness with Far Cry, Doom3, and UT2k4. Recently my system has gotten slow and I realized it was time to upgrade.
Lo and Behold I find out that there are ZERO, count em, ZERO solutions for Dolby Digital for games past the nForce2 generation. nVidia dropped Soundstorm from their entire product line. Creative Audigy has nothing besides analog 5.1 (headphone jacks) but Home Theatres don't support this. For some f'ed up reason, their coax only outputs to regular stereo sound, NO SURROUND! I like the fact that I can hear someone sneaking up behind me in UT2k4, 2 speakers doesn't cut it!
How can PC's claim to be the king of power if audio doesn't support the king of setups? How is it possible that the graphics arena has Geforce 6800 and ATI X800 and audio is so sorely lacking? Why are people able to play at an obscene 1600x1200 4xAA 16xAF but only get stereo sound? And does anyone actually have 6 speakers setup around their PC? Everybody that has 4.1 or higher just crowds every speaker right in front of their monitor. That's not surround, that's 5 speakers jumbled together.
::Spits on floor::
I know I'm in the minority here, but I use my home theatre for gaming. I play on an Athlon XP w/ Geforce 6800GT. My computer is hooked up to S-Video out, audio is hooked up through nForce2's Soundstorm SPDIF output into my Dolby Digital Receiver. I sit on my recliner, drop a wooden board across the armrests and use my wireless keyboard and mouse to revel in high-res video, and 5.1 audio Home Theatre goodness with Far Cry, Doom3, and UT2k4. Recently my system has gotten slow and I realized it was time to upgrade.
Lo and Behold I find out that there are ZERO, count em, ZERO solutions for Dolby Digital for games past the nForce2 generation. nVidia dropped Soundstorm from their entire product line. Creative Audigy has nothing besides analog 5.1 (headphone jacks) but Home Theatres don't support this. For some f'ed up reason, their coax only outputs to regular stereo sound, NO SURROUND! I like the fact that I can hear someone sneaking up behind me in UT2k4, 2 speakers doesn't cut it!
How can PC's claim to be the king of power if audio doesn't support the king of setups? How is it possible that the graphics arena has Geforce 6800 and ATI X800 and audio is so sorely lacking? Why are people able to play at an obscene 1600x1200 4xAA 16xAF but only get stereo sound? And does anyone actually have 6 speakers setup around their PC? Everybody that has 4.1 or higher just crowds every speaker right in front of their monitor. That's not surround, that's 5 speakers jumbled together.
::Spits on floor::