PS2 and Surround Sound

[Phat_Pat]

ok i know this is "mac gaming" but i thought all you guys would have a good answer.

I have a surround sound system and currently my Xbox is hooked up to it (the fiber optical cable and whatnot). Now i know that the Ps2 has a digital out port for one of these cables.

Now the Xbox claims to be the only system to have true 5.1 Dolby . But doesn't the fiber optical cable carry 5.1 sound? or does it not on the PS2?

Also is there some sort of spliter for these cables because i want to have both the PS2 and Xbox hooked up on the digital sound at the same time without having the crawl behind my tv to swich them. (Theres only one port on the back of the surround sound thing)

so can you guys give me any ideas? :o

[applekid]

I am quite positive certain PS2 games had 5.1 support. You'll have to check which games though.

[Jalexster]

Fun Facts about the PS2's audio!

1. IT SUCKS.
2. The PS2 can't put out a Dolby 5.1 signal for gameplay. It dosen't have an encoder chip to do so (it only has a decoder chip)
3. It supports DTS for games. However, it's implementation of DTS is so bad, that it's not worth it (little-to-no channel seperation).
4. The PS2 is capable of Dolby Pro Logic 1 and 2. It's kinda good, but not the best. it can do this in real-time.
5. The PS2 can give out pure Dolby 5.1, that has been pre-encoded. For this reason, it only works during cutscenes. The PS2 can't "render" a Dolby 5.1 stream in real-time.
6. IT SUCKS.
7. THE WHOLE DAMN PS2 SUCKS.

Not many PS2 games support DTS, many support Pro Logic 2 however, so go with that. Pro Logic 2 dosen't use the optical line.

The Nintendo Gamecube and the Microsoft Xbox can give out well-seperated, great sounding Dolby Pro Logic 1 and 2 (Gamecube), and Dolby Digital 5.1 (Xbox).

By the way, Pro Logic 2 works over the standard RCA audio connectors (the red and white plugs), and if you put it into a system that dosen't support Pro Logic, it just comes out in stereo. Extra non-audible data is put along the cables, that contains the information required to seperate the two channe;s to 5.1 channels.

It works. Trust me.

[Phat_Pat]

Jalexster thanks for the clarification. I just recently bought the stuff for the Xbox and Halo 2 is just amazing with the surround sound up.

I was hoping for a similar experance on GTA:SA... although i do notice certain surround sound effect still in the game(helicopters and whatnot)

oh well.... thanks again.

[goodtimes5]

You only get surround sound on the PS2 if you're playing DVDs or watching some cut scene in a game, such as FFX.