Computer /receiver/ speaker set up

[slackr]

After contemplating on whether to dump money on a failed media pro 5.1I am concidering hooking my computer into the following ;
Computer with Creative Sound x-fi sound card
Onkyo TX-SR308
Klipsch HD 500 speakers.
The sub I believe has it's own power. Will this set up work or do I need to do something different.

Ran

 

[legcramp]

It will work perfectly, just connect a coax/optical (whatever your x-fi has) to the receiver and you're good to go.

 

[Sycraft]

Only thing to note is how you connect it. If you want 5.1 sound you can't just hook up a coax or optical cable and have it work. You'll only get stereo sound. To get 5.1 you need to do one of two things:

1) Use HDMI. If you have an HDMI sound card or a video card with HDMI output and a soundcard on it (and many new cards do) you can use that method. HDMI natively supports multi-channel sound.

2) Use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive to encode the signal. Both are 5.1 formats and your receiver supports both. What you'll need is a soundcard that can encode them. In the case of Creative Lab's own X-Fis they can but it doesn't ship with it. You need to get the pack for your card. Costs like $5 and gets you the licenses to unlock the functionality. Basically the sound card can handle it, Creative just has to pay a license to Dolby and DTS so they charge you. In the Console Launcher under the Settings button there will then be an Encoder button that allows you to turn it on and off. I suggest using DTS, as it is higher bitrate. Do make sure and check to see if you already have that encoder tab because if you do you don't need to repurchase the pack.

The connection for 5.1 is the only tricky part. Otherwise it works great. I use a receiver for audio and love it.

 

[slackr]

Only thing to note is how you connect it. If you want 5.1 sound you can't just hook up a coax or optical cable and have it work. You'll only get stereo sound. To get 5.1 you need to do one of two things:

1) Use HDMI. If you have an HDMI sound card or a video card with HDMI output and a soundcard on it (and many new cards do) you can use that method. HDMI natively supports multi-channel sound.

2) Use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive to encode the signal. Both are 5.1 formats and your receiver supports both. What you'll need is a soundcard that can encode them. In the case of Creative Lab's own X-Fis they can but it doesn't ship with it. You need to get the pack for your card. Costs like $5 and gets you the licenses to unlock the functionality. Basically the sound card can handle it, Creative just has to pay a license to Dolby and DTS so they charge you. In the Console Launcher under the Settings button there will then be an Encoder button that allows you to turn it on and off. I suggest using DTS, as it is higher bitrate. Do make sure and check to see if you already have that encoder tab because if you do you don't need to repurchase the pack.

The connection for 5.1 is the only tricky part. Otherwise it works great. I use a receiver for audio and love it.

Thanks Sycraft
I will do the second suggestion. I will have to hook it up via the optical output. This card has no s/pdif. The graghics card has the hdmi so that I plan on hooking up to the monitor.

 

[FMX]

Thanks Sycraft
I will do the second suggestion. I will have to hook it up via the optical output. This card has no s/pdif. The graghics card has the hdmi so that I plan on hooking up to the monitor.

Optical is a form of s/pdif as far as I know.