Please Help Connecting PC to Receiver

[dannycorker]

OK I've been trying to work this out for ages now lol and finally decided to ask on here. I have a very small av receiver which has two optical inputs, one coaxial and what I think is RCA (Red and White audio cable.) I want to have my computer,my PS3 and my TV plugged into it. Now, the PS3 is no trouble at all, as I simply use the optical. It's the TV and PC I'm having trouble with. I'm not sure exactly which sound card I have because in device manager etc it just says 'Realtek HD audio' so I'm not sure which sound card it actually is. It has 6 different outputs which I assume are individual speaker outputs (left right center etc) but I know of no way to connect this set of connections to optical or coaxial, so I am using a cable from the headphone port of the PC into the RCA input of the receiver. Which unfortunately leaves no space for my TV, which only has RCA output. So I basically need a method of either converting RCA to optical/coaxial or converting whatever output my PC is using to optical/coaxial. Thanks for any help

EDIT: You can see my available PC outputs in this picture.

[biggydabullet]

hi danny. i think the sound card you have on the pc is an onbord sound card wich means it comes pre built on the mother board does your pc have an optical or coaxil input or out put on it. if so i think you can only connect it to you av amp via that connection. hope this is correct and helps you

[dannycorker]

Originally Posted by biggydabullet

hi danny. i think the sound card you have on the pc is an onbord sound card wich means it comes pre built on the mother board does your pc have an optical or coaxil input or out put on it. if so i think you can only connect it to you av amp via that connection. hope this is correct and helps you

I know it definitely doesn't have an optical output and I'm relatively sure that it doesn't have a coaxial one, the only outputs are the 6 coloured ports pictured in first post and the headphone port

[sergiup]

I think you're a bit stuck there... The quickest way to solve this would probably be to get a cheap add-on soundcard (cheapest I can find on Scan) with an optical output.

[dannycorker]

Originally Posted by sergiup

I think you're a bit stuck there... The quickest way to solve this would probably be to get a cheap add-on soundcard (cheapest I can find on Scan) with an optical output.

Hmmmm thanks - any chance I could get an external sound card that does the trick? (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Blaste...dp/B0019JDDC8)??? Cos' I'm not too tech savvy with cards in computers lol

[SouperJim]

Danny, are you after 5.1 from your PC? If so you're deffo going to need a new sound card (trust sc-5250 seems to be the cheapest around), but if 2.0 is fine then you could buy a simple rca switch box for your amp, to flick between TV and PC. Rather than use the headphone port, use the front speaker port (the green one iirc) and set your speaker setup in windows to 2.0 - I believe this will give you slightly better sound quality.

If you get a new sound card, an internal card will typically be cheaper and give better performance. They really are very easy to install, just take the cover off your pc, plug the card into a spare pci slot, turn the machine back on and insert the drivers cd.

[dannycorker]

Originally Posted by SouperJim

Danny, are you after 5.1 from your PC? If so you're deffo going to need a new sound card (trust sc-5250 seems to be the cheapest around), but if 2.0 is fine then you could buy a simple rca switch box for your amp, to flick between TV and PC. Rather than use the headphone port, use the front speaker port (the green one iirc) and set your speaker setup in windows to 2.0 - I believe this will give you slightly better sound quality.

If you get a new sound card, an internal card will typically be cheaper and give better performance. They really are very easy to install, just take the cover off your pc, plug the card into a spare pci slot, turn the machine back on and insert the drivers cd.

Ok thanks I've just ordered the Trust off of amazon I should be able to work it out lol :D Thanks to everyone that helped in the thread

[dannycorker]

OK I need more help I've installed the card but have now discovered that optical output only supports 2.0 sound with the card! What's the point of that?!?!? Anyway, anyone know of any method of making the card output SPDIF via 5.1 channels???

[sultros]

Maybe I can help.

2 questions. What do you want to use surround sound for? Home theater, games, or both?

I use a SB Audigy 2 sound card connected to my Sony Receiver through a digital coax cable. I had to enable whats called SPDIF passthrough using the utility for my sound card. This passes the dolby digital signal straight to my receiver to decode instead of using the sound card's decoding. This works great for Vista Media center use and allows dolby 5.1 for DVD's and any HD television.

As fas as gaming goes...I'm limited to only 2.1 audio. If you had a speaker setup that supported the single channels in it works great. Thats how i do audio to my gaming PC.

Supposedly Creative offers a software Package that will convert their audio output into DTS or Dolby and works with the X-Fi series of sound cards. I read somewhere that Creative is working on support for older audigy cards as well.

[dannycorker]

Originally Posted by sultros

Maybe I can help.

2 questions. What do you want to use surround sound for? Home theater, games, or both?

I use a SB Audigy 2 sound card connected to my Sony Receiver through a digital coax cable. I had to enable whats called SPDIF passthrough using the utility for my sound card. This passes the dolby digital signal straight to my receiver to decode instead of using the sound card's decoding. This works great for Vista Media center use and allows dolby 5.1 for DVD's and any HD television.

As fas as gaming goes...I'm limited to only 2.1 audio. If you had a speaker setup that supported the single channels in it works great. Thats how i do audio to my gaming PC.

Supposedly Creative offers a software Package that will convert their audio output into DTS or Dolby and works with the X-Fi series of sound cards. I read somewhere that Creative is working on support for older audigy cards as well.

I mainly use the PC for watching downloaded videos like TV shows and stuff - living in the UK I end up downloading a lot of them lol. The problem is that it specifically says in my settings for the sound card that SPDIF only works with 2 speakers, which I cannot understand to be honest, as top me that removes the entire point of having an optical/coaxial output!

[sultros]

I feel ya!

So this card does not support SPDIF Pass through?? The soundblaster line of cards wont do 5.1 through coax or optical without software.

If you can, return or sell it on ebay. Find a comparable card that supports spdif passthrough. I will be glad to help you out further if you want to PM me. Best value would be an Audigy 2 or Audigy 2 value. Sometimes you can find the ZS pretty cheap. I picked one up on ebay for $20. Setting up passthrough is simple and works great. Most of the programming i watch is analog so i am only limited to 2.1 audio. The only time I see the blue light kick on is when watching a DVD or watching an OTA HD broadcast.

[dannycorker]

Originally Posted by sultros

I feel ya!

So this card does not support SPDIF Pass through?? The soundblaster line of cards wont do 5.1 through coax or optical without software.

If you can, return or sell it on ebay. Find a comparable card that supports spdif passthrough. I will be glad to help you out further if you want to PM me. Best value would be an Audigy 2 or Audigy 2 value. Sometimes you can find the ZS pretty cheap. I picked one up on ebay for $20. Setting up passthrough is simple and works great. Most of the programming i watch is analog so i am only limited to 2.1 audio. The only time I see the blue light kick on is when watching a DVD or watching an OTA HD broadcast.

I did find some alternate software that allowed the passthrough I think, but couldn't work out how to use it properly - apparently something was wrong in my ac3filter and at that point I gave up lol.