PC Audio to RCA 5.1 Surround Sound System

[natureboy9]

Hello. I've recently purchased an HP Omen pre-built desktop PC and would like to plug it into my old surround sound system. The system is a Panasonic SC-DM3 (the guide for which can be found here), and only takes red and white RCA inputs.

The problem is, my PC only has HDMI, optical, 3.5mm, and DisplayPort outputs. I've looked at a few adapters, but I'm not sure which one to use or how to best solve the problem. I tried using the regular old 3.5mm headphone jack, but that only outputs stereo audio, not surround sound.

How do I get audio running from my PC to my old surround sound system?

 

[madmatt30]

That systemn only supports stereo inputs anyway (It only does real dolby surround from the built in dvd player)

So your 3.5mm headphone jack to twin rca is the best you can do.

Youll get 'fake' surround using the pro-logic or surround mode buttons on the remote - its impossible to get real 5.1 surround sound into that old unit.

 

[kerberos_20]

with usb 5.1 dac anything is possible

 

[americanaudiophile]

You only option is to use the analog audio output of the PC since that is the only input on the HTS. No way around that.
There is no point in adding a USB DAC or HDMI audio extractor to convert digital to analog which will then be reconverted to digital and then back to analog in the HTS.
Get a better HTS with HDMI or digital audio inputs. Better yet get an AVR and speakers when you can.