Best way to connect receiver to PC?

EddScott

EddScott

EddScott

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,421
Location
Pembrokeshire
I have an X-Fi gamer card and would like to hook up my PC to my receiver.

What I don't have though is an I/O box. I've found a I/O cable for X-Fi that has coax and optical connections. My receiver has a spare optic connection. Could I use this?

I remember a friend having a 3.5 jack to phono connections but I'm sure it wasn't stereo.
 
I've just bought a 7m optical cable to connect my PC to my amp. I run it straight out of my Mobos optical out (MSI neo2 plat) and into my amp.

It sounds fine, however it's only 2 channel, but I think this is becuase of the naffness of the onboard audio etc.

I'm looking into getting an x-fi with optical out to get full 5.1 from my PC to my amp/speakers. So let me know how it goes for you :)
 
Bear in mind that the X-Fi will only do movies in 5.1 over optical. It needs pre-endoded content, such as dvds, to work.

Games etc are still limited to 2 channel audio over optical.

If you have a DTS capable amp you can use the Creative DTS-610 to take 5.1 analogue from any soundcard and convert it to 5.1 DTS. This is a bit of a messy solution and there's a small (barely noticeable) delay in the conversion.

If you want a soundcard that does this on its own look out for something with Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. Unfortunately the ones on OCUK are a bit pricey.
 
best way to connect it is 6 channel analogue (or 7 or whatever your av amp supports) AND a optical/coax digital connection.


then you get games in surround and proper DD/DTS output.
 
Sorry to hijack.

Never realised that the X-Fi didn't do 5.1 over optical. Had a look on creative website and
*Optical Out supports stereo SPDIF out and pass through of multichannel DVD sound
Click to expand...
So thats a bit naff really. They all have that note, with the exception of the models including and above the X-Fi Platinum. Thats also the first to include the front panel thing. Does anyone know if that platinum card does 5.1 output over the optical?

I guess the game would have to support 5.1 for the card to output it though? Unless the card does some surround mixing of 2ch audio and sends it out as a 5.1 to a reciever....?

All a bit confusing really. I have a Denon AVR3806, a very long optical cable and am curious about the best sound card option to connect the PC to it. :)



((edit: Read a bit into that DTS-610. Sounds actually quite promising and it seems like it will solve my problems. Does the quality depend on the output though, so would I also need an decent sound card as well as?? ))
 
it's pretty simple. the card doesnt have the ability to upmix analogue multichannel. that means anyhting that isnt DD/DTS will output as 2 channel over spdif. none of the xfi's do it:)
 
Just buy yourself a Sound Blaster Home Cinema Cable.

It has 3x 3.5mm jacks that plug into the sockets at the back of your X-Fi and 8 phono connectors on the other end to plug into your amp (although you'll only need 6 of them for a 5.1 setup).

The cable is fairly long (I can measure mine if you really want) and is all joined together for the same neatness you'd get from a digital cable.

Et voila, surround sound from your PC without all the hassle of Dolby Digital / DTS encoding & decoding.
 
Im waiting for the prelude, hopefully it will have dts live over optical, aswell has xfi support, i really hope its going to be good
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom