Comments on: Home Theater Speakers and your PC

By: Win98Error

Win98Error — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:55:23 +0000

when you guy’s call in,make sure you know how to ask a tech question. so chris can understand it.lol.

By: helimeef

helimeef — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:54:31 +0000

The guy on the other line is an idiot…

By: tony609

tony609 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:24:38 +0000

do somebody knowsa how t connect my pc to my hometheather??? what cables do i need??

By: ashman

ashman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:27:02 +0000

I was under the impression that most PC optical is not fully compatible w/ home stereo optical. Home stereos are expecting Dolby Digital or DTS encoded signals when doing 5.1, but PCs just use SPDIF. You can connect a PC to a home stereo via the optical link, but the best you will get is PCM stereo (two-channel).
There are only a few PC sound systems that actually output Dolby Digital or DTS on the optical link (NVidia NForce2 & Intel I think?). In most cases you must use the analog mini-connectors to get true 5.1 sound to your home stereo, and now you’ve lost the digital quality.
Creative sells an external converter that accepts the six analog channels from the PC and coverts it (with a small delay) into a DTS signal over optical so it can be connected to a home stereo.

By: gtochad

gtochad — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:22:23 +0000

i beleave they where having trouble communicating i could tell the whole time that the caller didnt understand or knew that wasnt the problem but didnt say anything

either way an audio forum would be better

By: Jonathan Flusser (osxdude)

Jonathan Flusser (osxdude) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:10:35 +0000

Obviously i’m too late…you need an optical onection or similar for a full surround connection. Another option is to use the 6CH inputs on your home theater system. And, if you have niether the cables nor the ports for either connection, your best bet if you want “fake” surround, use the 5CH stereo mode. I, myself, have a home theater system placed as my speakers and I need the optical cable for it!

(Best part: that guy is way older than me and I know that you need an optical cable for full surround.)

By: Eugene

Eugene — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:27:44 +0000

Had a similar problem a couple of days ago. Turns out that Intel Audio Studio has a special ‘Power’ button to enable Digital Signal Processing features including Stereo->5.1 upscaling. The button was so big and blue it never occured to me to check if it is clickable.

By: woolf2k

woolf2k — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:24:49 +0000

this is one thing I don’t get. ONe sees all these numbers being passed around with sound systems today along with higher prices. Like 7.1, 6.1, 5.1, blah blah blah… but does anybody even bother with all those speakers?

I find having a woofer and 2 speakers dealing with high and mid range freqs good enough.

I like to know does anybody actually put all those speakers behind them and to the side and what not around them??? do they? I think not.

By: larry

larry — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:44:53 +0000

i think the guy isnt getting 5.1 surround sound because he is using one of those adapters that one end connect to the red and white rca audio cables and the other end connects to only the green speaker cable and that speaker cable is only for the 2.1 speaker configuration.

By: fr3ak

fr3ak — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:57:37 +0000

Hi,
Always go for optical. Based on my experience, you could have far better quality than using the normal analog wires. But if it is possible, keep your optical wire as short as possible, buy the one that is just required. Long optical wire will contribute to the loss of data transmitted/received. Less than 2 meters is very recommended

By: widerangledotcom

widerangledotcom — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:02:34 +0000

oh god. advertising apple again.
um… chris, hate to tell you this. go and buy any motherboard or any sound card for PC and, they’ll have coax and toslink.
and, you didnt say, that outputting it via toslink doesnt decode the signal, thats why analog 3.5mm connectors are better often.
the A/V reciever is upmixing it to surround sound.
and chris! how he is connecting the 360 to the reciever is the same as how he is connecting the PC to the reciever!!!

By: PeninsulaBoy217

PeninsulaBoy217 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:01:25 +0000

That’s a hard topic to just explain over the phone.

By: Wookie

Wookie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:40:48 +0000

There are 3 main types of connections for a digital receiver, Digital Optical, Digital Coax (Orange RCA Jack) and Analog Stereo. Chris, you were correct with him using the wrong correction, he should use Optical if availabe (more common on newer motherboards. Most soundcards also what is called a S/PDIF digital connection which has many converter types including optical. This would be the preferred route for his problem. Computer sound cards using analog surround sound use 3 connectors. (green/orange/black mini jacks) Green does both front speakers in stereo, black powers the rear two speakers and orange does both the center channel and subwoofer. Also the reason that he may hear sound from all speakers however still in stereo is something called matrixing (likely Dolby Pro Logic I/II).

Sorry for grammar/spelling.

Jesse

By: Elswalbe

Elswalbe — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:18:20 +0000

Poor guy. Chris just doesn’t know how to explain it!

It has to be digital or 6 channel sound.

By: Mike Rubidoux

Mike Rubidoux — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:22:25 +0000

Dont know much about getting games to play with Home Theater, but the ATV-2.0 and iTunes 7.6 has a great feature to control your music with your home theater directly through iTunes. I’m currently connected wirelessly to my home theater via ATV, and works great!