Hooking up 5.1 surround with PC

[logan1107]

Hey all, i've looked around all these forums pretty intensely but I'm still confused how to go about this for my son..

He wants to hook up his computer to a surround sound system.
He has a http/www.msi.com/product/motherboard/A58M-E33.html#hero-specification motherboard and http/www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?slg=en&scy=us&ctn=HTS3531/F7 home theatre system.

Now, he doesn't want to watch movies through the system, just wants his games in 5.1 surround sound. Since I don't know what I'm doing, I also bought him this http/www.factorydirect.ca/Canada-/Computer_Add-Ons/Video_Audio/Soundcards/SO0064/_Sound_Card_4-Channel_Pci_ATIRAGEVR32M/0#storestock It's a cheap sound card, 4 channels only but was hoping it would do the trick but I can't seem to get anything to work...there's a 6 channel card for $10 also, would that be better? Do I need a different sound card or is there a cheaper solution here that I'm missing? Am I able to use the HDMI from my video card to the HDMI on the receiver? Or do I need extra RCA cables and Y splitters to do the job?

As I said, he just wants his games in surround sound. Thx for any tips! Total noob here!

Ok small update. The motherboard supports 8 channels. I've been reading the manual, and the I can set it up using the front panel and the back panel to get the 8 channels...ok great, no need for an extra soundcard but now how do I hook it up with my receiver? Will i need a seperate y splitter for each hookup for it to work? That means I need to buy..let's see..
i have a rca cable it comes with to hook up to standar rca. so if I get a y splitter and change the RCA end to a 3.5mm connector, then I just need to split that 4 ways? Would that do the trick?

 

[chris-L]

Hi, I looked at the manual for the Philips receiver you're using and that seems to be where your limitation is. If I follow what you'
re trying to do correctly, it appears your fronts and surround sound speakers are the ones connected to the Philips device. If so that
means the Philips is the decoder device used to "pull out" the 6 channels necessary for 5.1 surround performance. Therefore you have to get the
information into the Philips on one of its limited types of inputs. You can use the optical digital audio input. If you had a sound card on the computer with a compatible optical digital out connector that seems the most likely way to get it to work. I'm an audio guy not a computer guy so you may have some menu settings in the computer to work with to get it going, but you definitely seem to need an optical digital
output so you can connect to the only available input on the Philips. The other inputs on the Philips are 2 channel analog inputs so they will
NOT work if you're trying to bring multi-channels in. Any combination of RCA splitters will only combine all your channels back down to the 2
channels in, that the Philips will accept. It appears the HDMI connector on the Philips is designed to send the video to your tv only, not to be used as an alternative audio input. That puts you back to the optical digital input as the only input which will accept a digital audio stream
which could be internally decoded within the Philips to produce 5.1 channels. Some company may be making a product which MIGHT work
with the USB input but not that I am aware of. You could also experiment with the available 2 channel analog inputs on the audio aux in or the musiclink in. Bring in only 2 channels stereo from your computer and then try to see if this specific Philips will "matrix-create" a multi-channel signal output to all the speakers by using the SOUND mode button on your Philips. Bottom line is if all your speakers are connected to the Philips then you have to do your surround sound decoding within the Philips not at the computer. Unless you use an optical
cable, but even then the decoding will still probably be done within the Philips. It looks like that's the only provision (optical) for bringing in external audio in a correct format. Otherwise that Philips only seems to be set up for surround sound decoding from the built-in dvd player.
Hope this helps a little bit.

 

[logan1107]

Thanks for the response Chris! So I'm limited to the audio input on my receiver (which is a home theatre in a box blah). So I need a sound card, or to bring back the HTB and get a receiver with HDMI input. Thx for clearing things up before I went n wasted money on a ton of Y splitters for nothing Cheers!
I'm thinking something like this : http/www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/startech-startech-7-1-channel-usb-external-sound-card-icusbaudio7d/10193759.aspx?path=c9e95806d4eca3a3ff70d8b160c40ea3en02

would do the trick, right? Optical output. Thx again Chris, tons of help! Also...since my motherboard already supports 8 channel surround sound...

can I just plug in speakers to each input and forget about a receiver altogether? IE: I have a set of powered speakers...if I go and buy a 2.1 sound system, and i still use my old speakers as the rear speakers and get 4.1 surround? I also have a powered soundbar I could use as my center speaker, giving me 5.1..would that configuration work? Then I could plug each set into my 8 channel MOBOs sound system. Thx for any tips

 

[chris-L]

I don't know about that product. it seems you'd have to expect it to take audio content in on the USB from your computer and transcode that un-decoded digital audio to the optical digital output connector and continue routing to your Philips optical input where it should get decoded correctly into the 5.1 surround you're looking for. That's assuming a lot will happen correctly and smoothly. It's worth trying if you can return it to the store for a refund if it doesn't work for you.
I just feel this is an awkward way to try to achieve what you want because there may be several places for the signal to get lost or interrupted due to the various conversions. I feel keeping it as simple as possible is
a wise choice. So, if your computer puts out the mutiple channels on analog (RCA) outputs x 5.1 (6channels)
then you'd be better off with a receiver with DISCRETE 5.1 audio inputs ( 6 RCA audio inputs) If your
computer can put the signal out on HDMI then a receiver with HDMI input would be the way to go. I looked at the Best Buy site you referenced and they have some reasonable priced HDMI receivers. Look at Denon or Pioneer if you can trade your Philips back in, assuming you bought it there. If that doesn't work ,
then you'd be looking for a device to match your sound card which takes in 6 channels analog audio and changes to optical (Toslink) output or takes in HDMI and strips audio out to the optical connector to route to the Philips .Again, this adds more cables and chances for problems as well as higher overall cost.
This product (the Startech) you
are looking at may do the trick but make sure you can return it if it doesn't work well. I didn't like that it said the Toslink (optical) was a " throughput" connection. That might mean it doesn't change from USB to Toslink, instead just decodes Toslink or USB to analog multi-channel out or just pushes the input optical data straight to the output optical connector. Hard to tell without trying.

One more point - check what type of surround sound decoding your computer games are using. There are different types of surround ( Dolby, DTS, etc) and different "flavors" within them Check to see that your receiver/decoder is compatible with the type used in your games (i.e. Dolby Digital EX, DTS ES, PCM ) this is usually shown in the receiver specifications. Basically it means to make sure your computer and SS receiver devices read the same file types. The HDMI format was supposed to have made this easier for the consumer. so theoretically if your computer can output audio through HDMI and your receiver accepts
that through an input HDMI connector, the built in "handshaking" part of the HDMI content stream should automatically choose and run the correct decoding system.
Even if you just buy an HDMI input receiver to try out and return it if necessary, it might be worth doing that to find out how well this way works with your computer.