optical INPUT?

[Trauts]

Hello-

I have fairly cheap 5.1 surround sound, and it doesn't even have the optical input.

Surround sound works from my desktop PC with surround sound, but my console is out of luck. There's no way I can get true surround sound from it because my surround sound has no optical input. As a result, I end up with a left channel, right channel, and an emulated central one. The subwoofer works, but the two rear speakers don't make any sound.

Is there any sort of device, USB perhaps, that'd take the optical output from my Xbox 360, and have the PC run the sound for it, so that I'd have surround sound?

Thank you!

 

[Smitty2k1]

I think most soundcards that come with breakout boxes have optical imputs. Try one of the Audigy 2's if you are on a budget, or just go with one of the X-Fi's if you have the cash.

 

[GotNoRice]

Finding a card with optical input should not be hard. The problem is that it seems you want to process a 5.1 signal coming from your xbox. Most cards will only work with PCM on the digital input (2 channel, CD audio basically). If you tried to pass Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS over the digital likely you would hear nothing on the PC because it is probably not setup to decode that on a digital input.

 

[Trauts]

Finding a card with optical input should not be hard. The problem is that it seems you want to process a 5.1 signal coming from your xbox. Most cards will only work with PCM on the digital input (2 channel, CD audio basically). If you tried to pass Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS over the digital likely you would hear nothing on the PC because it is probably not setup to decode that on a digital input.

Well, then what kind of card do I need?

 

[Mister X]

Even an Extigy will do that....