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dan0311

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  1. I just checked in with this thread and saw all of your responses...i just skimmed them, and it will be tonight before I can dive in and start absorbing it all, but I wanted to immediately say THANK YOU all for your responses. More later. PS Some have scratched their heads over exactly how I'm using this system and why I need/want it to do what it does. I wrote a description of the various hats it wears and that can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/udg6sy9u63wx5xn/JBL%204300%20surround%20system%20-%20how%20I%20use%20mine.doc I will also say that after spending thousands of dollars and dozens of hours building this system (much of it spent in a Texas attic that was about 120 degrees) I was NOT pleased when JBL recommended I spend another grand on an AES/EBU card and to go back into the attic to replace the s/pdif cables with AES/EBU cables, or use adapters, which always makes me cringe a little. So after I implemented the workaround that allows me to use the s/pdif inputs, I figured I'd wait a month or two, then address it again. That turned into 3 years and now I can't really afford to buy new gear. But in three years, I thought maybe another solution might have surfaced, so i thought I would check. If the solution truly does require acquisition of another piece of expensive hardware, if will have to wait even longer, but at least I will know what needs to be done, thanks to you folks. After reading your replies and ideas, I'm sure I will have questions...thanks again for your replies and thanks in advance for your continuing contributions to The Quest.
  2. I have a home theater room that also doubles as a recording studio, jam room, home office, etc. I run everything through a PC I built that is pretty much state of the art...i7 processor, plenty of RAM, etc. Running Windows 7, watching HD mkv files mostly using MPC HomeCinema. My 5.1 surround system is comprised of 5 JBL LSR4408's and one LSR4312 subwoofer. They are self powered, so there is no receiver or main unit...each one hooks directly into whatever output is feeding it. However, they are also wired with ethernet cable together so that they communicate with each other and can be controlled by one remote...very clever and very unusual. Each speaker has three inputs: an analog input (which is taken up by the output from the mix board), a AES/EBU input, which I don't use, and an s/pdif input. The s/pdif inputs are what this post is about. When I first got the speakers, i was under the mistaken impression that they could handle six channels of compressed s/pdif (IEC 61937). I later found, to my great dismay, that they cannot. The flavor of s/pdif that they can handle is the regular uncompressed variety (IEC 60958) which is STEREO ONLY. In other words, my six speakers are not six s/pdif channels...they are actually three stereo pairs of s/pdif. No problem, i thought...I will just find a device or piece of software that splits the six channel, compressed s/pdif into three stereo pairs...one for L/R, one for Surround L/R, and one for Center/Sub. The problem is that this device does not exist. I have talked to several manufacturers of adapters and splitters and they shook their heads and said "sorry charlie." The obvious answer is to not use the s/pdif inputs, but after purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of cable and spending all that time installing it in a hot Texas attic, I would like to see if I can find a way to use these inputs. It has become a quest. (Plus, since my analog inputs are filled by the output from the board, they are my only input option. Plus, I would like the signal to stay in the digital domain until it hits the speaker and let the D/A conversion happen there. (My workaround, incidentally, was to take each stereo speaker pair output from the PC and send it to a tiny converter box that turns it into an s/pdif stereo pair, which goes to the speakers. Not a great solution, but so far the only one available.) There is no sound card or I/O interface that even has three s/pdif jacks. Not sure how JBL intended this to work, but I spent a few heated minutes with their main speaker guy, Peter Chaikin, and he basically admitted that there is no device, hardware or software that will make this configuration work. In a perfect world, there would be a small box that would accept the six channel compressed s/pdif signal output from the PC and convert it into 3 uncompressed stereo pairs. As I said, this doesn't exist. This, my evil geniuses, is where you come in. I need a solution or workaround for this issue. The goal is to figure a way to take the compressed 5.1 sound created by the media player (again, I use MPC HomeCinema mostly) and have it exit the computer as three pairs of uncompressed s/pdif stereo pairs. It should remain digital until it hits the speaker, where the D/A conversion will be performed. My first thought was that I could install three sound cards in my PC and figure out a way internally to split the 5.1 signal into three pairs, each pair being sent to a different sound card. (I did something similar to this when a jack failed on a previous soundcard...I went into the registry and re-tasked one of the other jacks to do a different job) My second thought was to pay somebody to make the box I described above...six channel compressed s/pdif in, 3 pairs of uncompressed s/pdif out. Not sure how involved that would be, but if you made it, you could probably sell one to everybody who ever bought a set of those JBL speakers. My third thought is that maybe in the three years since I have been using this configuration, another solution has presented itself that I am unaware of. I have not had a fourth thought. This is kind of a stumper. Help me, Obi-Wans. Dan PS With all due respect, if your answer is along the lines of "why do you want to do that" or "why don't you just use a patch bay or a preamp or an AV receiver" or some other well meaning suggestion that does not address the stated goal, please do not post it. Those responses tend to send the thread off on tangents that are not helpful. To reiterate: The goal is to figure a way to take the compressed 5.1 sound created by the media player (I use MPC HomeCinema mostly) and have it exit the computer as three pairs of uncompressed s/pdif stereo pairs. It should remain digital until it hits the speaker, where the D/A conversion will be performed.
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