Need Help w/ Connecting 5.1 Speakers to Computer

[Nodnarb247]

Hey everyone,

I'm in the process of building my own computer, and was wondering if I'd be able to connect my 5.1 home theatre speakers to my PC. Here's a brief rundown:

Speakers: Energy 5.1 Take Classic
A/V Receiver: Sony STR-DN840
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked w/ ACX Cooler (included because I heard using the GPU for speakers is an option)
Mobo: ASUS MAXIMUS VI FORMULA

Is there a way to run the speakers through the receiver and then hook up an HDMI to either the motherboard or the GPU? Or is connecting the speakers directly to the motherboard an option? I have exactly 0% experience in hooking up sound systems--I've just read many articles at this point--so any and all help would be much appreciated.

Thanks everyone!

Nodnarb247

 

[Bejusek]

Sure, it's easy.
Just use the HDMI cable to connect your GPU with any of receivers HDMI-in ports.
Use other HDMI cable to connect one of recievers HDMI-out ports with your display HDMI port.
If you are using a 4K monitor, make sure to use one of the ports marked with little 4K symbol.

This amplifier supports HDMI signal passthrough, so you will be able to use your monitor even with receiver in standby mode.

 

[Nodnarb247]

Sure, it's easy.
Just use the HDMI cable to connect your GPU with any of receivers HDMI-in ports.
Use other HDMI cable to connect one of recievers HDMI-out ports with your display HDMI port.
If you are using a 4K monitor, make sure to use one of the ports marked with little 4K symbol.

This amplifier supports HDMI signal passthrough, so you will be able to use your monitor even with receiver in standby mode.

Thanks for the response!

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, when I have my speakers hooked up to my receiver, I connect an HDMI cable from my GPU to an HDMI-in port, and then connect an additional HDMI cable from the HDMI-out port to my monitor. Now, I have a question about that. If I have an HDMI cable connected between my GPU and my A/V receiver, why would I need to connect an additional cable between the receiver and my monitor? Is that the passthrough you were mentioning?

So, for an example, I use the speakers for my TV and my computer. When I'm not using the TV, the receiver is in standby mode, but I still want to use the speakers for my computer. Connecting that cable between the receiver and my monitor would enable me to use the speakers while the receiver is in stanby mode? Is that correct, or am I completely off?

 

[Bejusek]

Not exactly. HDMI cable from PC carries both sound and picture. Your receiver does its job and decodes the sound, outputs it to the speakers. What about the picture? To see something on your monitor you need additional hdmi cable from your receiver to the monitor.

HDMI passthrough is a special receiver feature, that allows it to pass the signal from hdmi-in to hdmi-out without it being turned on. This means that you will be able to see the picture on your monitor with your receiver turned off. This obviously means, that no sound will come out of speakers. This feature is useful, for example when you want to use your headphones at night.

This way your setup would look like:

TV STB --- HDMI --->|In      Out| --- HDMI ---> TV
                                | Receiver |
PC -------- HDMI ---->|In      Out| --- HDMI ---> Monitor

In this setup using the passthrough feature you also will be able to listen to sound from your TV speakers when your receiver is turned off.

Alternatively, you can connect your monitor to another video output of your graphics card. However this way, your PC would detect two displays. This is ok, with clone picture mode for all displays, this would work as expected.