Dolby Pro Logic (Logitech G35 Headphones)
 

So I've been playing with my Christmas present, Logitech G35 Headphones. :D These are pretty cool actually. They plug in via USB and the drivers create a sort of virtual (software) 7.1 channel sound card (I've disabled my MB's onboard sound card in the BIOS and uninstalled its drivers from Windows). The headphones don't actually have multiple physical speakers in them (I've heard that some do, but not these); rather, they simulate a 7.1 speaker setup. Sweet!

Except that there's a physical button on the headphones to turn Dolby Pro Logic on or off. Huh? :doh:

I thought Dolby Pro Logic was a way of squashing multiple sound channels into a stereo recording and then unsquashing the recording back to multiple channels on playback? Is that right? And if so, doesn't that mean that Dolby Pro Logic is only useful for listening to media that is encoded in Dolby Pro Logic format (i.e. not videogames)? Why do these "gamer" headphones have Dolby Pro Logic on them at all? And why does it have to be turned ON in order for the sound to work properly in certain games (e.g. F.E.A.R. 2)?

*confused*

hmm, had a set, pretty good, be careful not to break them though, mine broke easly.

Yeah, I noticed that the moving parts feel a little flimsy given then overall weight (rather heavy). I'll be careful, thanks.

Hmm, after posting I decided to RTFM and it says that to get full surround sound in my games I should ENABLE Dolby Pro Logic and then set the game to either 5.1 or 7.1 channel sound. Which doesn't sound like Dolby Pro Logic to me. I read the Wikipedia page on DPL but it didn't shed any light on what's going on. Can someone explain it? It's not that I'm having a problem I'd just like to know how it works and what exactly DPL is doing.

I am interested in this as well, I just got a surround sound amp with DPL, and didn't have any center speaker only front and rear, when a movie scene plays the 2 front L&R are the boomers and contain the main sound for music effects etc, but when it got to a room scene the voices were very quiet, until I placed a center speaker there, the rear are quiet and only seem to function for centering the sound, don't do much else. I would like to know if this is correct? also found that DPL contains a number of tracks for data such as echo effect in a large room etc. I fail to see how a set of headphones with only L&R speakers will work with DPL.:hmmm: