Surround sound and the xbox

[Reclaimer]

Well, I finally got a surround sound setup happening. I picked up a RCA receiver and all the speakers, and I have it connected to my xbox using an optical cable. Anyway, I've been having eargasms with Halo, but do all games support 5.1 surround? I was curious. I know that my THPS4 does and Halo seems to, but do certain games, or do all of them? Anyone know what the deal is with the games and surround sound?

[BCan]

Let's put it this way, most games support it, although that is not to say that they actually have done a good job with it. Some games haven't used the 5.1 speaker setup to create the proper "soundscape", they can be fairly heavily weighted to almost sound like stereo.

If you have a Dolby Digital receiver, it should usually tell you when it is in Digital mode, and when it is in Pro-Logic(Stereo) mode. I don't know where a definitive list is, but it seems like more of them are getting better at using 5.1 properly.

It's all fine and good that they maximise the use of the graphics hardware of the XBOX to make the game look great, but then to lose out with ordinary sound, when it has dolby digital 5.1 as a possibilty is stupid...

Simple tip - just make sure to check out on a site with detailed specs of the game to see what audio it has...

[SkoalMint]

Courtesy of lynxfx's sig.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=100055

[l Maximus l]

Originally posted by SkoalMint
Courtesy of lynxfx's sig.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=100055

I know, man...I use his site as my audio/video XBox Bible

[natewebb]

Morrowind sounds cool in 5.1
You hear people walk around you in towns. Look on the back cover of any game and it will have a DOLBY logo, or not. THats how you can tell.

[ImmortalTech]

i used to have it for my 64 but i moved and i don't have it anymore. that sucks

[MerimacHamwich]

N64 does not support Dolby Digital 5.1 so that is impossible ImmortalTech.

You may have had the speakers set up but it was not delivering DD5.1

[ImmortalTech]

that's true but all i know is that in duke nukem, we had it so loud that the monsters sounded like some thing out of a cheesy horror flick

[Cyclone]

Originally posted by MerimacHamwich
N64 does not support Dolby Digital 5.1 so that is impossible ImmortalTech.

You may have had the speakers set up but it was not delivering DD5.1

Actually some of the newer N64 games did support Dolby surround sound. Conkers Bad fur day comes to mind. I dunno about 5.1 though...
Looking at that list I'm suprised that more games don't support 720p and 1080i. All of them support 480p though. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that just the standard resolution of any tv?

[LynxFX]

Originally posted by Cyclone
Looking at that list I'm suprised that more games don't support 720p and 1080i. All of them support 480p though. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that just the standard resolution of any tv?

480i is standard resolution. 480p is Enhanced Definition, the stepping stone to High Definition. You can see a graphic example of the differences in the HD gaming faq in my sig.

It would be awesome if more games supported 720p or 1080i but apparently the developers don't feel it is necissary or the Xbox just isn't powerful enough to run at those resolutions.

And not all Xbox games support 480p. There is zero excuse for them not to, but some crappy developers like to port with the least amount of effort as possible, EA springs to mind.

[MerimacHamwich]

Originally posted by Cyclone
Actually some of the newer N64 games did support Dolby surround sound. Conkers Bad fur day comes to mind. I dunno about 5.1 though...
Looking at that list I'm suprised that more games don't support 720p and 1080i. All of them support 480p though. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that just the standard resolution of any tv?

Never did I say that the N64 couldn't use Dolby Digital, as pretty much everything can use Dolby Pro Logic 2. All I said is that it could not use dd 5.1 surround. The Xbox is the first console to achieve such a wonderful feat.