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One of the callers from the 888-PIRILLO line is having trouble connecting his home theater system to his PC. He can hear sounds coming from it, but when he plays games and such, he’s not getting surround sound.

If all the cables are connected properly, and your sound card can handle it… you may need a different type of cable. Make sure that the speakers, sound card and cables you have are all capable of supporting Surround Sound. I asked what kind of cable he’s using. He’s using a standard mini-jack… which will not give him 5.1 Surround Sound. I let him know he’s going to have to have at least five cables. 5.1is the most common surround setup: pairs of front and rear speakers, plus a front center “dialog” speaker. Look for Dolby Digital or DTS in games and DVDs.

Perfecting your sound is a three-step process. To start you need to correctly configure your soundcard. All the big players provide some sort of Control Panel or configuration software that lets you adjust the card’s settings to suit your speaker system. At the very least it should let you pick the number of speakers you’re using or choose headphones. In many cases there are wizards to make the process easier.

Next you’ll need to set your application software, be it a DVD player or the latest game. For games the usual options are for A3D, EAX, DirectSound or alternative. Some DVD players now offer virtual Dolby or a full Dolby software decoder built-in – this provides you with a Dolby certified decoding system that will then work with any speaker system.

The final step is to check your speakers. The optimal positioning is to have the satellites at ear height and equally spread out. Any central speaker should be placed either above or below the monitor, while the subwoofer can technically be placed anywhere, though towards the front of the room is best.

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Home Theater Speakers and your PC