HTPC's and sound

[Drak]

hey all

ive just moved house and decided i really cant be bothered with all the seperate stuff in my front room anymore, dvd player, video, stereo, cd's, movies etc etc so i have decided to do a small'ish pc to hold all my music, movies and stuff on.

i've got a few bits lying around i can put in it i basically just need to decide on a case and get a bigger hard drive.

the bit im stuck is with the sound, i've got two decent home cinema systems at the minute, a panasonic and a samsung and was wondering if i could connect one of these to the pc?

i've looked it up a little with google and it seems it will only output stereo?

what other options do i have? i really dont want to use a set of pc speakers unless someone knows a system that would match my home cinema's.

thanks in advance

[Big Adam]

Simplest solution is to ensure your soundcard has an SPDIF (digital) output which will send the encoded output to your cinema processor to decode.

Up to you whether you choose to go optical or co-axial for the connection although optical connections are more common.

[Drak]

thanks for the reply, im sure the samsung has that optical connector on it im at work at the mo so cant check.

i was hoping to use an audigy2 in it i've got lying around, do you know if this card has the right connectors? or could you recommend me a suitable card?

thanks for the info i'll defineatly look into the cable more tonight that would save me buying a new system. :cool:

[Big Adam]

I don't think the Audigy2 will have a digital out on-board unless you use the matching breakout box.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/multimedia/creative-audigy2/drive.jpg

If I were you, I'd swap it for a cheap soundcard which has the required output like the Terratec Aureon 5.1 (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_4048.html).

Remember that, within reason, the quality of the soundcard does not matter. You are simply using it to enable the raw digital audio signal to be passed unprocessed to your cinema amp which then does all the fancy stuff. Absolutely no need to spend big $$$s. :)

[Drak]

man, you've probably just saved me a few hundred quid, i dont really think thanks will cut it :o

i've still got a bit to do on the build so i can wait a while and hopefully kustom will get them in stock.

[Big Adam]

What motherboard are you thinking of using? You can get a SPDIF module for some Asus and some Aopen boards which cost less than a tenner and you won't need a separate soundcasrd at all.

Will save you a few more quid.

[Drak]

i've actually just purchased a case today off fleabay which has a board included, but the guy didn't give any description of what it was and i seen the auction to late to ask him.

so i'll probably wait till i see if its half decent and i'll use that, if not i'll either buy one or use the abit nf7 i got in my download machine.

[Drak]

big adam wondered if you could help me further or anyone else :o

i've recently got the sound card you mentioned, the Terratec Aureon 5.1 but im having trouble getting it connected to my cinema system via the TosLink Male to TosLink Male optical cable.

when i put the system on digital in it doesn't recieve anything, i must be going wrong somewhere in sound properties or something like that i'd imagine i just cant see where.

i've been messing now for 2 hours and googling my nuts off and finally accepted defeat and posted here :(

thanks for any help

EDIT - forgot to add, the home cinema im wanting to connect is a Samsung HTDB120.

[Big Adam]

Drak,

It can be tricky to set up digital pass-thru from any card. Don't worry, you'll get there.

Start by concentrating on a stereo signal and worry about fancy stuff like 5.1 later. Check all the settings in the Terratec mixer software.

Assume you've used optical-in on the Samsung before.

[Drak]

Assume you've used optical-in on the Samsung before.

nope, i was actually thinking there may be a fault somewhere. the samsung was given to me by my brother, the DVD is shot on it but it plays music cd's fine and i just thought it would be perfect to run my pc through it as thats all its good for.