Home Theatre issues

[" !? "]

Me and the wife went out to Best Buy (leave it alone guys) cause we needed a new DVD player. When we got there I noticed that there was a nice looking home theatre/DVD player on sale for $140. It didn't look too bad and the price for 500 watts, flat speaker design, and the ability to play Mpeg4, VCD, SVCD, and AVI files was kinda cool. CLICKY

Well I brought it home and everything seems fine except there's an issue with Socom 3. When playing single player campaign the Dolby surround works (I stood 5 feet away from a truck and spun in circles while the sound of the engine swirled around me) but as soon as I jump online with the game the surround stops and all the sound is diverted to just the center speaker. I'm like WTF?

The PS2 is connected to the receiver by simple RCA cables and the signal should be in Dolby Pro Logic (not sure if its I or II). I'm not sure if it's the receiver/connections or if it's an issue with the game. I know I didn't have this issue with my other surround system. I'm thinking of picking up a digital optical cable to see if that'll help. Any help guys?Otherwise any opinions on the system itself would be appreciated as well.

[Drunknorgy]

Don't waste your time or money. I had the same problem (although mine was with a $1500 Infinity system), and I had to give up. Optical cables, RCA.... nothing worked. I even had an Infinity tech at my house trying to figure the damn thing out. If you do find a solution though, please let me know...

[" !? "]

So is this issue related to the Game itself or is it a system issue? I just don't get because my old system put out the sound in surrond...then again my old system was only either 5.1 or Prologic. From what I know about prologic it simply splits the sound from two channels(L and R) according to frequency levels and sends them to the speakers. Therefore any signal with L and R channels can be split to sound like surround sound (altho it really is crap).

By the way the sound settings in the Socom 3 options are set to "Dolby Surrould Pro Logic II".

[Another_Dude]

That's weird. My system is connected w/ the optic cable and I get great surround when playing online. My only suggestion would be to switch the different sound fields on the system (Hall, Jazz, Statium, ProLogic II) and see if that makes a difference, but that was probably the first thing you tried. Good luck, the surround really makes a difference online.

[BENDER]

The PS2 is connected to the receiver by simple RCA cables and the signal should be in Dolby Pro Logic (not sure if its I or II). I'm not sure if it's the receiver/connections or if it's an issue with the game. I know I didn't have this issue with my other surround system. I'm thinking of picking up a digital optical cable to see if that'll help. Any help guys?Otherwise any opinions on the system itself would be appreciated as well.[/quote]

Weird b/c i have bose surround sound and it works fine for me. my ps2 isnt connected to the reciever like yours though.

[RAMZAK]

You probably already tried this.

Change your settings on the reciever, so that the center is disabled. Like just use the front 2 and maybe rear surrounds.

Mine sounds decent with a pro-logic I reciever and standard RCA cables

[" !? "]

I wish I had the option to turn down the center speaker. The surrounds and front speakers get no signal. The center speaker is the only one that works. If I turned that down I'd have nothing.

After a little thought I came to this conclusion- There is no Digital Surround Sound online. That can be the only explanation for why it works in campaign and not online.

My guess is that it used to work with my old system because the game options were set to "stereo" and the surround receiver simply "decoded" the signals according to frequency (Pro Logic 1 works by directing: low range to sub, high range to rears, mid-high range to center, and low-mid range to fronts). This produces a surround sound effect but is not "true" (seperate digital tracks for each speaker) surround. I think Pro logic II is digital and since the Game options are set to output a digital signal but there is none (online) the receiver goes goofy and just outputs on the center speaker.

So in order to actually get surround sound online I think you'd have to set the game options to stereo and decode with Pro Logic 1. It would make sense as creating digital tracks for 32 players would create quite a bit of lag...

[Another_Dude]

There is no Digital Surround Sound online.

I question that. When I'm by the bonfire on Killing Fields I can spin my character and the sound of the fire will move around the room. If I face away from the fire the "crackle" will come from my back speakers, when I face toward it the "crackle" comes from the center/fronts.

[socomplayer2]

yo my dad set up some of his huge 20 year hold hibatchi speackers taht work and sound beautifly and its hooked up to some kind od rca amplipfier and it works just fine online .... mabey u should go under options and check out the sound thing ..isnt there an option 4 dolby 5.1

[TixBomber]

Ok, let me see if I can be of any help. First, make sure you have all the speakers selected (most receivers have this option to select each individually), and that you didnt accidentally hit "speaker a or b." Double check all connections too for the hell of it.
Next, you are not hooked up for true surround sound, so make sure in-game is set to stereo (although, it should still work either way, but the stereo will actually sound better). And, for some of the other comments, DP2 does indeed work online. You probably just have something turned off.

A common misconception, is that you can get true surround sound from an analog source (aka your RCA cables), the only way to get true surround sound is with the use of optical cables. Well worth the money, and you no longer use the internal converter (which in my experiences is the first thing to go on a receiver).