Need Help: Connect SB X-Fi Platnium to Onkyo SR508 Receiver

I have an old SB X-Fi Platinum and I am upgrading my speaker set from Klipsch 5.1 Ultra (finally gave up on repairing it...) to dedicated HT suround receiver + 5.1 speaker set, I am confused to what's the best way to connect my computer to the new receiver?

For Receiver I am looking at Onkyo TX-SR508 http://www.onkyo.ca/model.cfm?m=TX-SR508&class=Receiver&p=f

I use my computer mostly to watch mkv/avi (stereo, dvd/BD rips with 5.1 etc) and play games

I do not see the same RCA connections on Onkyo receiver that I used to use with Klipsch's Sub/amp. But X-Fi Platinum comes with a front I/O pannel that has optical out and is that the best solution? Or can I still connect to Onkyo the same way as Klipsch Ultra? (I am not seeing how it's possible, maybe I am missing something)

Thanks in advance.

Use optical out from that port or use a 3.5 to RCA and find the RCA out that works in the Coaxial RCA in for the Receiver (Yes this works fine as the Digital signal only goes through one of the RCA ports the other does nothing)

Overall tho that card is creative and thus driver fail. I can only wish you good luck because you are going to need it with that crap.

creative sb drivers for anything past XP may be an issue. what OS are you running? how will you send the video signal from the pc to the receiver?

you may be able to avoid using that sb card and connect through the video card instead. from best to worst:
1. If your video card has HDMI, connect directly through that and you will be gtg (unless there are some HDMI version/handshake issues). That is the only cable you will need.

2. If you have DVI instead, use that with an HDMI adapter for the video signal and use the digital audio or TOSLINK for the audio. You may need to synch the audio and video settings in the receiver if there are any delays/lip-synch issues.

3. if you are stuck with vga for the video, you can go through the component connections with an adapter. some cards come with those adapters.

that receiver (and others in the price range) does't have 5.1 discrete audio inputs like they used to have. So you couldnt use a bunch of 3.5mm to stereo rca adapters.

It does have optical & coax, but i dont know if your soundcard will output all game sound and things in 5.1, or only pre-recorded dvd sound. Sound cards used to only support pre-encoded dolby digital for 5.1 over optical/coax. PCM sound is limited to 2 channel. Some sound cards started supporting realtime DD/dts encoding, but i dont know if sound blaster ever did, i would suspect not, if it doesnt support it, you'll be stuck with stereo, except for dvds.

Your best bet is probably buying a new video card with hdmi, as long as it supports 7.1 LPCM sound as well, and tossing the x-fi.

Sorry missing couple informations
OS: Win7 32bit Pro
Monitor: 24" Dell WFP2407 monitor using DVI running 1920x1200
Video Card: PowerColor PCS+ 5850

This video card does have HDMI connection, so I can just take out SB card, leave my monitor connected to DVI and just connect HDMI to the receiver?

You could try it, but im not sure its going to be happy sending audio out an unused video connection.

The typical setup would be:
Hdmi -> receiver -> hdmi to dvi cable -> monitor would be a way to hook it up, but its 99% likely to have major issues with the receiver messing up the video signal, unfortunately.

wolfhero said:

Sorry missing couple informations
OS: Win7 32bit Pro
Monitor: 24" Dell WFP2407 monitor using DVI running 1920x1200
Video Card: PowerColor PCS+ 5850

This video card does have HDMI connection, so I can just take out SB card, leave my monitor connected to DVI and just connect HDMI to the receiver?

Click to expand...

Assuming that receiver is able to process HDMI audio (it looks like it can, looking at the product features and specs), you'd run an HDMI cable from the 5850 to one of the receiver's HDMI inputs, and then run an HDMI-->DVI cable from the receiver's HDMI output to the DVI input of your monitor.

EDIT:

Blargh, ambientZ said the same thing.

King of Heroes said:

Assuming that receiver is able to process HDMI audio (it looks like it can, looking at the product features and specs), you'd run an HDMI cable from the 5850 to one of the receiver's HDMI inputs, and then run an HDMI-->DVI cable from the receiver's HDMI output to the DVI input of your monitor.

EDIT:

Blargh, ambientZ said the same thing.

Click to expand...

Just a note on this but in order for this to work the tv must support the DVI/HDMI conversion or you wont get any picture. One of the TVs I have can not support this sadly so I can not use a video card unless it has the HDMI in it alread. I dont remember what the technical name is for the component is though.

Going DVI from the receiver is a bad idea. Optical is fine and he may be able to enable dolby digital live with that card.

Going DVI from the receiver is a bad idea. Optical is fine and he may be able to enable dolby digital live with that card.

Click to expand...

Could you explain why going HDMI>DVI is bad?

The receiver will probably trash the video as it goes across the box, as well as it doesn't know what computer resolutions are, and might induce lag.

If you have the proper cable, or can borrow one, its worth trying though.

Just an update and hopefully some information for future ppl searching for solutions.... Optical S/PDIF out is the way to go.

HDMI just plain too annoying and not working as I intended it to.
-connect from 5850 HDMI to receiver's HDMI in > receiver's HDMI out to my Dell 2405FPW using HDMI to DVI-D cable, there is just nothing on monitor
-Use 5850 DVI to monitor and plug HDMI separately to receiver gives me at least desktop on my monitor but ATI video card driver treats receiver as second display. If I disable that display, that disables the sound as well (grrr.......). And with HDMI plugged in, even though I set Dell 2405 as main display and duplicate desktop to receiver, I am limited to 1080P (1920x1080) instead of 1920x1200.

Solution: yanked out SB Platinum, enable mobo onbooard sound and just plug in optical audio cord, and simply everything works. It's magic, it's how cables should just work.