How to connect analog 5.1 speakers to an S/PDIF port ?

hitesh12

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I have an S/PDIF connection on my TV and I want to connect analog 5.1 speakers ( those 3 x 3.5mm jack PC 5.1 speakers) to that S/PDIF port.

How do I do that ?
 
Solution
if you are going to be using your computer for providing video to your television.... then an external soundcard would be what you want. the other device is more for non-pc hookups (from the tv, from a dvd player, etcetera). you were not very specific in your question.

how will it sound? thats a hard call. no-name brands can be questionable but you have a 50/50 chance of it being acceptable. if you can look to see if it gets 4 or 5 star reviews on amazon or elsewhere if so it may be worth a chance, if not its likely junk.

while i understand you wouldnt want to spend much money on a soundcard for only having $100 speakers... the products from asus and creative are well known and respected and the externals are rather limited in models...
something like this...

http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Digital-Optical-5-1-Channel-Decoder/dp/B00DEV67TA/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1410108121&sr=1-12&keywords=optical+5.1+dac

the one i linked is a generic model. i cannot vouche for the quality of it but provided it as an example to what you should be looking for.

you find them labeled as many things including DAC, digital analog decoder, audio extractor... etcetera.

if you are not using the tvs tuner and are instead using other devices such as a dvd player then you could use one with a hdmi jack and connect it up to the output of that box instead with hdmi passthrough to the tv for just video. there are also models with both hdmi and spdif input with hdmi passthrough as well so it could do it all. your choice really.

since they are rca output x 6 you will need three 2x rca male to 1x 3.5mm female stereo splitters.
 

hitesh12

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I have come to the conclusion that connecting these speakers using similar mentioned devices would cost a lot, so now I'll use this external sound card - http://www.dx.com/p/external-5-1-channel-usb-2-0-sound-card-optical-audio-adapter-black-41289#.VAycQBaiKQd
with my laptop and get the video on my TV through HDMI cord (both laptop and tv have HDMI ports)

My only concern right now is that will this cheap sound card be good enough ? I mean I would be using a < 100$ low end 5.1 setup, I don't think I need something like a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1 sound card
 
if you are going to be using your computer for providing video to your television.... then an external soundcard would be what you want. the other device is more for non-pc hookups (from the tv, from a dvd player, etcetera). you were not very specific in your question.

how will it sound? thats a hard call. no-name brands can be questionable but you have a 50/50 chance of it being acceptable. if you can look to see if it gets 4 or 5 star reviews on amazon or elsewhere if so it may be worth a chance, if not its likely junk.

while i understand you wouldnt want to spend much money on a soundcard for only having $100 speakers... the products from asus and creative are well known and respected and the externals are rather limited in models. if you live in the usa you can get an x-fi for $35 on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Creative-USB-Sound-Blaster-X-Fi-Surround-5-1-SB1090-External-Card-NEW-OPEN-BOX-/251637108557?pt=US_Sound_Card_External&hash=item3a96bd8f4d which is a much better choice than a $15 who-knows-what but that is your call to make and not mine.

 
Solution

hitesh12

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No I don't live in US, and that creative sound cord costs near to 70$ here so mostly I'm going to avoid it.
I'll buy the cheap one. Lets see what happens
Thanks for all the help !