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Finally got my GCN to output in Dolby Pro Logic II through HDMI


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I know I shouldn’t be this excited about what is essentially half ass fake surround sound but I am lol.  After having an absolute helluva time getting my GCN to work properly with my Sony 5.2 Receiver, I got it working.  So Apparently the big issue I was having is that I am using a GCN Plug & Play HDMI Adapter (Zeldaxpro 3.0 version).  I found a YouTube video through MyLifeinGaming that discussed these little adapters.  Apparently there is a setting in the adapters, including the one I have that is labeled “DVI In” under “other settings” on the menu  that you can access via pretty much any IR remote you have lying around (I use my Visio TV remote for it).  This whole time I thought the DVI settings were if you were using some sort of converter or trying to hook it up to a PC Monitor.  

 

That would make sense since DVI is used on primarily computer monitors.  No, instead what that setting does is it allows you to output digital sound out of the adapter via HDMI.  I had no clue that you could digitally output the audio since you had to use the Nintendo Composite or S-Video cables in conjunction with the official component cables to get audio.  I finally got it working via the ARC mode on my receiver and TV in Dolby Pro Logic II.  I have two settings on there (Dolby Pro Logic II Movie & Music modes).  I think I have it set to movies but it is working and it is coming out of all 5 speakers and my subwoofer.  Was wanting to do some old-school Rogue Squadron II (been on an old-school Star Wars kick lately) and the sound is apart of the experience when it comes to Star Wars games.  

 

I guess this is also good to know for anyone else who may have one of these types of HDMI Adapters (they cost about $100-$150 which is far less than what official Component Cables cost and output in 480p).  I got mine through ZeldaxPro but there are others who make similar adapters as well if getting the best video output on your GCN on a modern HDTV is of particular concern to you.  One last thing to know, you must have a GCN that has the Digital Out on it (Model-001) in order to use these kind of adapters since it uses that port to mimic the official component cables that are very hard and expensive to come by.

 

 

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Edited by Irondog666
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  • Irondog666 changed the title to Finally got my GCN to output in Dolby Pro Logic II through HDMI

This confuses me because dplii runs through at worst rca l/r audio cables and you would change your gcn to use dplii and likewise use that audio mode on the receiver.  Why would a hdmi conversion adapter alter that basic principle unless somehow the hdmi cord does some funky up conversion that bugs your receiver?

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On 4/9/2021 at 11:57 AM, purple_beard said:

This confuses me because dplii runs through at worst rca l/r audio cables and you would change your gcn to use dplii and likewise use that audio mode on the receiver.  Why would a hdmi conversion adapter alter that basic principle unless somehow the hdmi cord does some funky up conversion that bugs your receiver?


so what I think is going on here is the HDMI converter I have was modded in order to output the sound through the hdmi cable but it is still analog. It is a bit crazy because I was for certain you had to use the official Nintendo composite cables for the audio. That is what you had to do with the official component cables back in the day is you had to use both because component only did video. They have somehow managed to work around this limitation by combining it all within this mod. I don’t understand everything about it on the technical side, but I do know this, it works lol. It is coming out of all my speakers. I used the sound test mode in rogue squadron II to test to make sure it was working properly and it works great. Obviously it is not 5.1 LPCM like on a Switch or Wii U which is true 5.1, but this is as good as it gets for GCN. 

Edited by Irondog666
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Hmmm

 

 

In dpl rears are mono, not stereo and in dplii they use some formula to "fake" the rears to sound like discreet channels.  There has to be something in that hdmi converter because you can get dplii from base r/l rca cables although I would buy optical/coax/hdmi would make the channels come through better.

 

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, purple_beard said:

Hmmm

 

 

In dpl rears are mono, not stereo and in dplii they use some formula to "fake" the rears to sound like discreet channels.  There has to be something in that hdmi converter because you can get dplii from base r/l rca cables although I would buy optical/coax/hdmi would make the channels come through better.

 

 

 

 


i was trying to find more info on these adapters. It is an open source type of thing they are using that somebody created, but I haven’t been able to find a lot of info on the specs. So basically from what I can gather is that whoever it was that created these open source kits reverse engineered the component and composite cables. That is really the gist of it. When you enable DVI output in the adapter menu, it transfers the sound digitally somehow. Outside of that, still trying to find info on it but not having a ton of luck since most the info out there is about the video and not the sound. I will keep looking. Here is a link to the GCN Hd MKII adapters if you are interested in checking this stuff out. They are slightly different than mine in the fact they use both AV and Digital outs simultaneously for those who want to be able to switch functionality on the fly or get around splitting the signals for streaming purposes. Since it is all he same open source stuff, all of the adapters work identical with video and sound. This one has a few different options like mini toslink and 3.5 mm jacks, but the internals are identical to the one I have outside of the added features. 
 

https://stoneagegamer.com/gchd-mk-ii-plug-n-play-gamecube-480p-hd-compatible-adapter.html

Edited by Irondog666
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11 hours ago, purple_beard said:

Hmmm

 

 

In dpl rears are mono, not stereo and in dplii they use some formula to "fake" the rears to sound like discreet channels.  There has to be something in that hdmi converter because you can get dplii from base r/l rca cables although I would buy optical/coax/hdmi would make the channels come through better.

 

 

 

 


Looked into it some more and I think I sort of figured it out. There is a mod that has been done to a GCN that allows for digital audio. This allows for the Audio signal to be carried digitally. That is what Enhanced DVI mode does is it allows for your audio signal to be carried over. So basically it is converting the analog audio to digital audio somehow. Now I don’t believe that changes anything really with the games that support DPLII because that is as good as it gets with GCN. It is possible to also use the composite video port on he GCN to do the old L/R on the back of an AV Receiver but it is not necessary unless you want to do it that way for a specific purpose or reason (maybe you have an old receiver that doesn’t even take HDMI for example). So what they did was take and include that mod in the hdmi adapter. Pretty neat if you ask me. Now you do have to have the receiver put on DPLII Movie mode for it to output correctly. I have a Sony STR-590 which I bought to replace my old Denon that kicked the bucket about a year ago.  It has both DPLII Movie and Music modes as well as the typical multichannel options for 5.1 LPCM and Dolby MA and the like. 

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