Using a Home Theater system with pc

[mrkma]

I am looking get a nice sound system for my computer. I have decided to get a 5.1 setup. I am looking at something like this.

http://store.sony.com/full-hd-blu-ray-disc-home-theater-system-zid27-BDVN5200W/cat-27-catid-All-Home-Theater-Systems?_t=pfm%3Dcategory

I have never hooked up any of these types of systems to a pc before. I know how to hook them up ( I will be using the optical out on my pc and the optical input on the receiver), but are there any things I should be looking into? I am not sure if there are any complexities to using this with a pc. Also any info ( personal experience) on the system would be great, and as always post alternatives. Can't seem to find too much on the internet about it.

 

[M76]

Are you looking to play games? Because games won't produce 5.1 audio on the digital output, only stereo. So if you want to use an 5.1 setup for games you must hook up the pc over analog connection. I don't know if that home theater system even has analog 5.1 input. Most don't. Usually discreet AV receivers have them only.

 

[strend]

Are you looking to play games? Because games won't produce 5.1 audio on the digital output, only stereo. So if you want to use an 5.1 setup for games you must hook up the pc over analog connection. I don't know if that home theater system even has analog 5.1 input. Most don't. Usually discreet AV receivers have them only.

Wut? I haven't heard of this issue - much less experienced it.

I'm running HDMI>Receiver>5.1 setup just fine.

 

[CrazyRob]

Wut? I haven't heard of this issue - much less experienced it.

I'm running HDMI>Receiver>5.1 setup just fine.

Strend is correct. If the pc was connected to the receiver over an optical or co-ax spdif connection, the sound card would have to support DD or DTS encoding to provide 5.1 for games (which is uncommon). However, HDMI from modern gpus supports 5.1 (and 7.1) pcm, which will work just fine with games.

 

[M76]

Strend is correct. If the pc was connected to the receiver over an optical or co-ax spdif connection, the sound card would have to support DD or DTS encoding to provide 5.1 for games (which is uncommon). However, HDMI from modern gpus supports 5.1 (and 7.1) pcm, which will work just fine with games.

But OP specifically mentioned optical out, so that has to be from the sound card. I think the nforce2 chipset supported 5.1 over digital output, but that was ages ago.

 

[dandragonrage]

But OP specifically mentioned optical out, so that has to be from the sound card. I think the nforce2 chipset supported 5.1 over digital output, but that was ages ago.

That support was in the form of Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect which compressed the signal to achieve 5.1 over digital. While DD and especially DTS are generally plenty good, it's still a quality drop.

HDMI does not have that limitation, which is what others mean. You can just use PCM. A game only has to support multichannel output and if it does, it will work with HDMI, period.

 

[CrazyRob]

But OP specifically mentioned optical out, so that has to be from the sound card. I think the nforce2 chipset supported 5.1 over digital output, but that was ages ago.

It's also been supported in a few of the gaming sound cards by soundblaster (such as the x-fi's and recon3D's). IIRC, the nforce 2 chipset was the only on-board solution to provide real-time 5.1 encoding.