Please help with Soundcard to use with HTPC connect to AV amp

S

s-bravia

Guest
I'm currently runing HTPC connects to LCD TV (mainly for playing Hi-Def Moives that I have downloaded) with logictech 5.1 speakers.

My question is, I planned to get a properly AV amplifier in near future but still wanna watch HD sources from my HTPC. How can I get the sound from the PC to AV Amp (i'm thinking of getting any soundcard with Optical out which allows me to connect the sound to the AV amp via optical port) so that I can use a proper home cinema speakers rather than using the logitech one.

And also I planned to use HTPC as a DVD player as well. My understanding is that if I use HTPC to play DVD and set video card output to 720p it would automatically upscale the picture quality from DVD (as it sends out 720p signal) ?? correct me if I'm wrong please. Hence I guess the ideal sound card for me is any sound card that by pass the sound signal from DVD source to the AV Amp (for wathcing DVD) or create a true 5.1 signal to feed AV Amp (for watching downloaded HD movies )

Could anyone please advice me the solution or any good sound card to serve my desire.

Thank you
 
Yes your solution will work.
But it is better to output the native resolution to your LCD rather than 720p.

Also, the HTPC "resizes" the picture to whatever resolution you are outputting, but not necessarily "upscaling".

With regards to sound cards, pretty much all sound cards can bypass Dolby signal to spdif output, so its not a problem really.
 
Yes you need a sound card with an optical out, this will output a pure digital signal which will need to be decoded by the amp when it gets there.

As said above your graphics card will resize the DVD playback to whatever your desktop is set to, for proper scaling you need the right software such as ffdshow.
 

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