How to get true 5.1/7.1 from my new pc

[aidans2000]

Jumping right in, I am building a new pc within the next month or so hopefully, and i want to be able to get true 5.1 or 7.1 discrete channels from my pc. These are the (important?) specs.

Motherboard: ASRock 970 Performance
GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 (Not X)

The motherboard has an Optical connection in addition to 3.5mm hd audio jacks for Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone the chipset is Realtek ALC1150

On the specs page of Newegg the R9 280 supports Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD Master Audio, and has HDMI DVI and Displayport connections.

I have multiple speakers and systems laying around including a Atlec Lansing 2.1 system from a million years ago which connect from single 3.5mm (using for my laptop currently), two huge (2-3 foot tall) speakers that connect using bare speaker wire, rated for 180watts 8 ohms max each, and a panasonic cd/radio thing with "dolby pro logic" i can use the speakers from it however the connectors are different i dont know the name they look like coaxial but the middle nub is much large and not pointy.

Sorry for the long post but all i want to do is be able to get true sound channels, it doesnt have to be with my existing hardware but that would be absolutely fantastic. Let me know if i should get pictures and model numbers.

 

[getochkn]

You can't really do it with your existing equipment. You would need a surround receiver to decode the trueHD and DTSHD, Dolby Digtial, etc, for all the different surround formats and output it to the correct speakers. The surround formats are usually licensed by a company in order to be able to decode them, so you need something that can do it.

The only way the video card does it, is over HDMI, which would connect to a receiver, usually called a AVR receiver. You would then need surround speakers as well. The denon e-series like the e-200 or e-400 are a great receiver.

The other way is getting PC based surround speakers, which usually plug into the different colored ports on the motherboard and each speaker has a separate input. This works, but leaves all the decoding up to the software itself. So if it's something that has trueHD audio, the media player you are using has to be able to decode it, and those usually cost money, because they have to pay for the license.

What are you intentions. Gaming in 5.1 or watching blurays from a bluray drive? This will make a big diffreence. Games don't use truehd/dts/etc, they just usually output to the correct channel and that's that. Movies are where the magic comes into play.

 

[aidans2000]

You can't really do it with your existing equipment. You would need a surround receiver to decode the trueHD and DTSHD, Dolby Digtial, etc, for all the different surround formats and output it to the correct speakers. The surround formats are usually licensed by a company in order to be able to decode them, so you need something that can do it.

The only way the video card does it, is over HDMI, which would connect to a receiver, usually called a AVR receiver. You would then need surround speakers as well. The denon e-series like the e-200 or e-400 are a great receiver.

The other way is getting PC based surround speakers, which usually plug into the different colored ports on the motherboard and each speaker has a separate input. This works, but leaves all the decoding up to the software itself. So if it's something that has trueHD audio, the media player you are using has to be able to decode it, and those usually cost money, because they have to pay for the license.

What are you intentions. Gaming in 5.1 or watching blurays from a bluray drive? This will make a big diffreence. Games don't use truehd/dts/etc, they just usually output to the correct channel and that's that. Movies are where the magic comes into play.

Thanks for your reply - ill be doing Both. I do game a lot, hence why im choosing the R9 280 however i will opt for the blueray reader/burner in the future and im also a heavy youtube/netflix consumer. If i was to choose however, id rather the movies & media be in surround.

Edit: And i looked at that Denon E-200, it was out of stock on newegg but i found one on amazon for $170... i mean really that isnt a bad price but there has to be a cheaper way of doing things. You mentioned a liscensed decoder, are their open source programs that will do that for me and then i can just fit the speaker connectors straight to my motherboard? Or do any PCI soundcards (that dont rip my wallet in half) come with decoders so i can send my video to my monitor over hdmi or whatever but pull the audio through the soundcard and decode it into the individual speakers?

 

[madmatt30]

Easiest & neatest way by far is a decent HDMI enabled surround sound reciever that's supports 7.1 pcm & DTS & let your 280 do the work - this makes the onboard audio absolutely defunct but is still the best way IMO.
Switching between pcm/DTS/truehd will be automatic then depending on the media/game audio soundtrack.

 

[aidans2000]

Easiest & neatest way by far is a decent HDMI enabled surround sound reciever that's supports 7.1 pcm & DTS & let your 280 do the work - this makes the onboard audio absolutely defunct but is still the best way IMO.
Switching between pcm/DTS/truehd will be automatic then depending on the media/game audio soundtrack.

I found a refurbed YAMAHA HTR-3067 for $120 which besides having to splice my cables to use my existing speakers i think it will work, however i would prefer a different option...

 

[madmatt30]

The yam is a good reciever but 5.1

I'm running a Sony strdh-820 & love it to bits.
The 750 is decent & about the cheapest good quality 7.2 you'll find IMO.
http/www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BHC7ZTE/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1434398286&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&keywords=Sony+str&dpPl=1&dpID=31xO7Xjr8wL&ref=plSrch