Connecting 4.1 Speakers (3.5 mm jacks) to Smart TV

[granjuanelo]

Hi everyone,

I would like to connect my Smart TV to a set of 4.1 speakers (old but still quite good!) which have two 3.5 mm jacks for front/rear speakers. My TV has an optical output an a 3.5 mm output as well. The TV is connected to my PC too through an HDMI cable to the HDMI port with ARC on the TV. My PC has a built-in sound card where I can connect the 4.1 speakers. I was wondering if I could use somehow the HDMI/ARC port for this purpose, that is, that the audio from the TV gets through the HDMI port at the video card to the sound card in the PC and then reproduce the output at the connected speakers.
Is this actually possible? If yes, how could I do it? In case it does not work, I suppose the only chance is to get a sound card at the PC with optical input and 3.5 mm output and then connect the TV directly to the sound card via an optical cable, is this correct?

Any comment and suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

 

[americanaudiophile]

I have never heard of ARC on a computer and you have to have the function in both the TV and audio device to get it to work.
Your second option might not be workable not cheap. Optical in isn't common.
You could get an optical processor that would give you a fixed volume 5.1 analog audio output.
http/www.ebay.com/itm/like/261325168149?lpid=82
Connect it to the optical out of the TV to the input and the speakers to its output.
Your computer would also have to have a way to change the output to 4.1 (or add another speaker).

 

[ssddx]

likely your only real option is a hdmi audio extractor with arc support connected to the tv and 6ch analog output.

 

[granjuanelo]

I guess the video card has the ARC functionality implemented as well, otherwise it couldn't be able to send the PC audio to the TV if no other cable is connected between them. That´s how I guessed maybe it is possible to reroute the audio from the TV (which has also ARC) the same way it would do with an A/V Receiver. The thing is, I don't have any other device more than the PC connected to my TV, therefore the idea of purchasing an A/V Receiver might not be that attractive, but the way I see it now, is the best solution then to get another HTS or an A/V receiver ultimately?

Any advice is very appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[ssddx]

no, hdmi on its own is capable of sending audio and video at one time so no arc compatibility is needed for pc video cards to send to a tv.

http/www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/hdmi-arc-explained-works-care/
what hdmi arc is.

basically how most devices worked is strictly output and input. meaning if you had a home theater with an output it would only send info to a tv and the tv would only receive info from its ports. arc was implemented so that it could use this very same connection to backfeed only an audio signal on devices which supported this. basically its only useful for hooking up to home theaters in practice but can be exploited with audio extractors to hook up to other devices as well.

whether or not you need an av receiver depends on if those speakers are self powered or not. if you already have a control box for them that takes analog audio input and has an amp for the speakers then no, an audio extractor may be fine. if you do not and they are passive speakers then yes you may need a receiver with arc support. it really depends on what you have but given how you did not mention anything about powering them i think we assumed you had a complete system already

by HTS i'm guessing you mean HTIB (home theater in a box). be aware that some cheap models do not offer surround sound input so be careful. some are designed to only export 5.1 to speakers from the included dvd player. yes, some do work how you would want but not all do (normally its the cheaper models which have this problem).