[rich82fox]

hello

I am soon to acquire a Mac Pro tower

I plan to do video editing and was wondering if there is a 5.1 surround sound card available fore this mac?

I plan to mix surround sound soundtracks for my videos

any ideas?

rich

[mduell]

M-audio has a few options... or you could get a 5.1 setup with optical input.

[rich82fox]

so the mac pro has an optical out? and that carries all speaker channels for a surround sound system?

can I use a standard surround sound speaker system with the m-audio card? or does it have to be a pc based speaker system?

rich

[mduell]

Originally Posted by rich82fox 

so the mac pro has an optical out? and that carries all speaker channels for a surround sound system?

Yes, yes.

Originally Posted by rich82fox 

can I use a standard surround sound speaker system with the m-audio card? or does it have to be a pc based speaker system?

I don't know what "standard surround sound speaker system" means. What inputs does your receiver accept?

[P]

The Mac Pro (like every other Mac) only supports 5.1 audio if it was already encoded as Dolby Digital or DTS. It is then sent directly to the receiver without decoding, and any receiver that supports these formats will work. This means that DVDs and other pre-recorded media support it, but real-time audio like from games or similar get only 2.0 (stereo) audio. You can then cheat and improve this to 5.1-ish sound with a feature like Dolby Pro Logic II, like you'd do with music, but it's not true 5.1. 5.1 game sound usually uses multiple analog outs, which no Mac has, but all the M-audio cards do.

You can get real-time 5.1 audio through optical if it is encoded to DD or DTS on the fly. This can be done in hardware on some cards (none of which are Mac compatible) or in software through a plug-in. Such a plug exists for Windows - I'm not aware of one for Macs.

[jamil5454]

As P said, using the optical output for surround mixing might not be the best solution. Usually, professionals who want to mix and create multi-channel audio will use a professional external audio interface such as the MOTU 828mk3 or Digidesign 003 rack. The only problem is that they're kinda of pricey, but if this is your job, I believe it's worth it.

Other than that, try to find a cheap M-Audio PCI card with 5.1 analog output.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by P 

The Mac Pro (like every other Mac) only supports 5.1 audio if it was already encoded as Dolby Digital or DTS. It is then sent directly to the receiver without decoding, and any receiver that supports these formats will work. This means that DVDs and other pre-recorded media support it, but real-time audio like from games or similar get only 2.0 (stereo) audio.

Ugh, seriously?

[rich82fox]

the m-audio revolution 5.1 card has 3 outputs - one for the front speakers, rear speakers and subwoofer

now do I connect the outputs directly to speakers? - or do they plug into a surround sound deck?

rich

[P]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Ugh, seriously?

Oh yes. That the optical out works this way is is not really uncommon - my Gigabyte motherboard does the same, and only some Intel motherboards (as in, Intelbranded - not using Intel chipsets) and older nVidia-based motherboards include Dolby Digital Live on the motherboard. Word is that Creative doesn't like DDL, and twists arms to keep it out of motherboards. Only chance to get it is a software hack that only barely works (it makes my system snap and pop all the time) or a third-party sound card from anyone by Creative. The difference with Macs is of course that they don't have multiple analog out.

Now, if I were Apple I'd include DDL (or DTS Connect) in software in the OS. With a multicore CPU, there should be enough CPU time to spare on the core that doesn't run the main thread, and Apple and Creative aren't the best of friends anyway.

[P]

Originally Posted by rich82fox 

the m-audio revolution 5.1 card has 3 outputs - one for the front speakers, rear speakers and subwoofer

now do I connect the outputs directly to speakers? - or do they plug into a surround sound deck?

rich

To be specific, it has three analog stereo plugs: Center/subwoofer, front left/front right and side left/side right. You need to plug these into either 6 speakers with amplifiers of their own - like regular computer speakers do - or to a receiver that accepts multiple analog in. Usually they are used with the first option with a set like Logitech's Z-540 or G51 or similar.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by rich82fox 

the m-audio revolution 5.1 card has 3 outputs - one for the front speakers, rear speakers and subwoofer

now do I connect the outputs directly to speakers? - or do they plug into a surround sound deck?

rich

You can't use the M-audio revolution 5.1 in a Mac Pro. The M-audio Revolution 5.1 is a PCI card, the Mac Pro has PCI-Express slots. PCI cards don't work in PCI-Express slots.

The best solution for surround sound speakers with the 3-color outputs that we came up with in the other thread was this Creative Decoder DDTS-100 - Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, Pro Logic II & DTS Neo:6

Here's the other thread http://forums.macnn.com/65/mac-pro-a...c-pro-5-1-7-a/

[jamil5454]

Originally Posted by Leonard 

You can't use the M-audio revolution 5.1 in a Mac Pro. The M-audio Revolution 5.1 is a PCI card, the Mac Pro has PCI-Express slots. PCI cards don't work in PCI-Express slots.

The best solution for surround sound speakers with the 3-color outputs that we came up with in the other thread was this Creative Decoder DDTS-100 - Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, Pro Logic II & DTS Neo:6

Here's the other thread http://forums.macnn.com/65/mac-pro-a...c-pro-5-1-7-a/

This works well if you're watching movies but if you need to mix surround the only real option is a multi-channel external audio interface because Logic/Final Cut doesn't send optical audio as a compressed surround stream. Theoretically you could encode the stream before it leaves the Mac Pro so that the decoder will pick it up but this will use up CPU cycles and you won't get more than 5.1 out of it.

I could be wrong though.

[P]

Originally Posted by jamil5454 

This works well if you're watching movies but if you need to mix surround the only real option is a multi-channel external audio interface because Logic/Final Cut doesn't send optical audio as a compressed surround stream. Theoretically you could encode the stream before it leaves the Mac Pro so that the decoder will pick it up but this will use up CPU cycles and you won't get more than 5.1 out of it.

I could be wrong though.

You're mostly right. There is no reason why you couldn't create a compressed 6.1 or 7.1 stream, but that doesn't help us - I don't know of a Mac solution for doing that in software either (AC3 filter does it on Windows, and actually does 6.1 audio). Hmm... Didn't realize that there weren't any PCIe cards there, that makes it problematic.

The Creative box is essentially pointless - if you instead get a home theater receiver and speakers, you can get higher quality sound from that one since you're never sending any non-amplified audio over analog cables.

[rich82fox]

so what other surround sound options are there for the Mac Pro

I know of the Griffin Firewave - has anyone got a link to in depth info on this device? (such as photos of the rear connectors?)

rich

[slpdLoad]

Originally Posted by rich82fox 

so what other surround sound options are there for the Mac Pro

I know of the Griffin Firewave - has anyone got a link to in depth info on this device? (such as photos of the rear connectors?)

rich

It has the 3 analog connectors (L/R, LR,RS, C/S), and is an external pro-logic decoder. It will turn stereo into an emulated 5.1, or output true 5.1 from an encoded source. I don't think it would help for mixing surround sound unless you can compress it first.

[P]

Actually, the Griffin Firewave would help from the description they give. The audio is sent over Firewire, which has bandwidth enough to supply 6 uncompressed channels. Never tried it though.