Best method of hooking up PC to receiver?

EddScott

EddScott

EddScott

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At the moment I have my PC hooked to my receiver via the mobo onboard optical output.

I also have an ATI card with the HDMI port and for reasons I can't fathom using the onboard sound is causing games to suffer random sound loops and in all cases of Valve games the screen freezes for a few seconds.

I can't use the ATI HDMI output because I can only get sound when the TV is set to the HDMI channel.

Anyway, if I turn off the mobo sound I don't get the freezing problems.

I have an X-Fi card not sure which one but this only has headphone jacks. Previously I hooked up the PC to the receiver by a headphone to RCA lead.

I would prefer to use either RCA to RCA or optic to optic but not sure which is best?

From what I've seen of sound cards it looks like Xonar use RCA and Creative use Optic?
 
The RCA of which you speak , I assume it is a digital one ?

There will (or should) be no quality difference between coax digital and optical
However the optical will be immune to any RF/electrical noise
 
The X-Fi could be an old Music or Gamer. They do have digital jacks, but Creative in their infinite wisdom thought it best for the user to have to buy an external module in order to connect SPDIF to the cards, rather than just use the type of socket they now use on the newer Gamer. Looks like a normal 3.5mm analogue socket, but it can take mini toslink optical cable, or adaptor.

Is the card full size, or low profile?
 
Unless you have really good on-board sound, I think using the X-Fi over any old 3.5mm-to-RCA analogue cable would be better than using your mobo over optical. The better cable would just serve to more faithfully transmit the extra EMI noise that your on-board sound produces to your hifi! :p
But yeah, some X-Fis do have optical outs too, although I have no idea which ones - I'm sure a search on Creative's website using your card's serial number would get you an answer.
 
Well I rather thought that the ATI graphics card would do all the sound via HDMI out.

I'm not sure if its a PC thing or my receiver (the PC shows as sound coming out over HDMI) but my receiver won't produce sound unless the TV is on the HDMI channel thats hooked to the receiver.

I actually thought the Xonar cards had RCA and didn't realise the two lowest ports were optical because they don't look like the usual optical square ports.

I only used the onboard sound after I realised the ATI wouldn't do what I wanted. Its odd because the OCUK bundle coupled with the ATi 5770 is exactly the same as the gaming machine offered by OCUK and I assume no one has had the same sound loop/game stutter issues as I have (although theres enough people out there to have complained about it so its not just me)
 
EddScott said:
Well I rather thought that the ATI graphics card would do all the sound via HDMI out.

I'm not sure if its a PC thing or my receiver (the PC shows as sound coming out over HDMI) but my receiver won't produce sound unless the TV is on the HDMI channel thats hooked to the receiver.

I actually thought the Xonar cards had RCA and didn't realise the two lowest ports were optical because they don't look like the usual optical square ports.

I only used the onboard sound after I realised the ATI wouldn't do what I wanted. Its odd because the OCUK bundle coupled with the ATi 5770 is exactly the same as the gaming machine offered by OCUK and I assume no one has had the same sound loop/game stutter issues as I have (although theres enough people out there to have complained about it so its not just me)
Click to expand...

I have tried the game with a Xonar DX and my Auzentech home theatre card and I still experience the problem sometimes. If you are using a creative card on windows 7 or vista you need to use ALchemy to enable hardware sound. That improved the quality but decreased the stability of the game.

I have had less issues since testing my old Xonar, but it still stutters sometimes I think. The Asus software emulates the EAX rather than natively supporting it as far as I understand.

Anyway bottom line is I don't think buying a stand-alone card is going to clear up that problem from personal experience.

If you have a receiver you may as well use the SPDIF from your mobo and save yourself a few quid.

The DX I have does have SPDIF, but it is a shared port between mic in, line in and optical out, so you can only use one of those at a time, which I find pretty poorly designed.
 
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