The Agony! They took away the Outputs on new TV's!

[Kandaje]

Greetings...

Recently I purchased a new 50" TV, and a new Alienware laptop.
I'm pretty much confined to a bed these days, and my days of having a massive kick-ass box computer system are over. I'm now stuck with just a laptop. Hooked up via HDMI cable to the TV so I can play movies and such.

Previously, I had spent a truck load of cash on a very nice 5.1 surround system for my old Tower system which I can no longer use. Nearly $800, Trust me, it's a killer sound system. Shakes the paint off the walls!...

Apparently, NOW I'm supposed to go out and repurchase yet again, all the same stuff just to be able to hook up a new surround sound system to this new TV.

After getting it home, I discovered that they basically took away all the OUTPUTS! Every modern new TV I've looked at these days have no outputs! Just the standard hookups to get you to spend yet another $500 on yet another set of speakers.

My old system was designed to plug into Yesterdays big box computer tower systems and has 2 stereo jacks (front, back, and middle off the sub-woofer as the massive power amp that will make your ears bleed!). I'm not so concerned about getting 5.1, I'm perfectly happy with a stereo sound using my old 5.1 speaker system. The major problem is that TV sound just plain sucks, as we all know...

The Best Buy dude wasn't concerned with solutions, just interested in pushing his expensive new fangled toys.

So! Does there exist any kind of simple inexpensive "Box" that I can plug in my old expensive computer 2 X Stereo plug (big giant heavy amp and all that!) into pretty much any new modern TV that's had all of it's output RCA jacks lobotomized?

Mind you! I CAN "simulate" this very simply by just plugging into the SIDE headphone jack on the laptop. But That's what killed my old laptop! Yes, it eventually wore out the side mounted stereo jack resulting in no sound at all! And of course, you don't get any sound from the TV.

My problem is I don't have any idea what such a device might be called, or even where to begin searching for such a thing, since I don't have any clue what a New 5.1 surround for a TV has. From what I can determine, it's just an HDMI cable.

So I guess I need a box that has an HDMI input (where a sound bar would plug in these days) and a pair of stereo outputs to plug in my old computer sound system. I don't need any amps, or things lie that, the old sound system has all that.

Does such a beast exist? I haven't found it yet....

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Does the TV have an optical (SPDIF) out? If so, you should be able to get an optical to analog converter for ~$50.

If not, you could get a USB sound card for the laptop (similar price).

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I used to have a TV with RCA Phono outputs to match the input cables to my Technics sound system.

Last month, however, the telly had to be replaced and my new one guess what? - - no RCA Phono outputs!

New TV did have a 3.5mm earphones output though - - so I purchased a 3.5mm to Phono adapter, job done.

 

[BFG-9000]

Unlike how analog video outs were required to be removed from all Blu-Ray players made beginning in 2013, analog audio outs disappeared from all but the most high-end equipment at about the same time likely due to cost.

You see translating an encoded digital stream into 5.1 or 7.1 analog outputs requires a decoder chip, and at that date Dolby Labs announced their next variant called Atmos, suddenly making all previous Dolby schemes obsolete.

Instead of putting expensive decoder chips in many devices (I have older models in Blu-Ray players, receivers, TVs and projectors!), it was felt that most people who would want a home theater system would use a HDMI-switching receiver to power the home theater speakers. That way each time the Dolby system is upgraded, you only need to buy a new receiver.

There are devices that can separate the audio from HDMI if you have your own decoding device.

 

[Alabalcho]

YOu can still use your $800 setup if you feed audio directly from your laptop to it, instead of gouing thru the TV.

 

[americanaudiophile]

Two solutions presented above.
1. Use the headphone output of the laptop to get audio to the HTS. Use a surround mode for a stereo input.
2. Use a optical to analog converter. It would take the digital audio output of the TV and convert it to analog that would connect to the HTS. This would give you sound from the laptop and the TV. The HTS would control the volume.
Check the TV manual on how to use the optical audio output. You need to set the output to PCM with most converters. If that's not an option get a converter that accepts a 5,1 bitstream input.
Third option
If your surround system has a separate av receiver then you could just replace that and use your old speakers and powered subwoofer. That will make the hookup easier and give you digital surround sound which is much better than the analog surround you have now.

 

[Kandaje]

Greetings...

Two solutions presented above.
1. Use the headphone output of the laptop to get audio to the HTS. Use a surround mode for a stereo input.
2. Use a optical to analog converter. It would take the digital audio output of the TV and convert it to analog that would connect to the HTS. This would give you sound from the laptop and the TV. The HTS would control the volume.
Check the TV manual on how to use the optical audio output. You need to set the output to PCM with most converters. If that's not an option get a converter that accepts a 5,1 bitstream input.
Third option
If your surround system has a separate av receiver then you could just replace that and use your old speakers and powered subwoofer. That will make the hookup easier and give you digital surround sound which is much better than the analog surround you have now.

I'll likely find some digital to analog converter box that I can either plug in my speakers, or plug in the entire OLD computer 5.1 sound system. I just don't want to have to spend yet another $500 to buy yet another set of speakers especially when they ALL plug into whatever form of amp (digital or analog fed) with simple RCA plugs...

Yet another simple solution is to buy some cheap 5.1 system and replace the cheap speakers for the screamers I already own.

Thanks!