PC > Home cinema system

Zephyrus

Zephyrus

Zephyrus

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Joined
12 Oct 2005
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517
Location
Scotland
Wondering whether it is possible to connect my PC to my home cinema system. I have a very good sony DVD/home cinema system just sitting under the telly doing nothing so i'm wondering whether it would be worthwhile connecting it up to the PC if possible and what i would need to get if it is. I only have on board sound at the moment which has outputs for 5.1 via jack connections. Would i need to buy a sound card to be able to connect it up?

Cheers,
Zeph.
 
Just tried wiring the speakers from the home cinema kit straight into the mobo and as you can imagine the sounded carp with no amp :p Shame its not a case of a straight wire from the kit to the comp :(
 
Had a google on that after reading your post, unfortunately i doubt it will do what i'm looking for.

An alternative i'm thinking about is my hi-fi, i seem to remember being in a friend of a friends house for a party one night (i may be wrong i was drunk :p) and they had their comp wired up to their stereo and enqueued all their tracks on winamp to play through it. Would a sound card enable this?

Cheers,
Zeph.
 
ok it would appear my mobo has 7.1 sound built in and not 5.1 as i thought. It has a line in jack (which doubles as the Digital Optical Out), a line out jack for 2 front speakers, line out for 2 side speakers, line out for 2 rear speakers and a another for Centre/Subwoofer. The DvD/home cinema has Video 1 with 2 sets each of left and right phono inputs, 1 video input and 1 video output, beside that there are the Video 2 inputs which has the Optical In, 1 set of left and right phono inputs and 1 video input. The system is a Sony DAV-SC5 here's a link to the sony page with the specs (if its against the rules i'll delete) CLICKY LINKY

This mobo doesnt seem to have a SPDIF output, says it does on the tech specs on the chaintech site, but i see nothing on the back of the comp. The other comp in the house i think has a SPDIF output (looks like a phono output?) but i'd much rather use this comp as this is the one i game on.
Also bear in mind that i've been using a set of generic mutimedia speakers that came with another comp i had for about 4 years so anything i get through the dvd system will be a huge improvement :p

Zeph.
 
Not entirely sure what you mean by digital coaxial in(never bothered finding out about sound before now). The Line In on the back of the mobo is a Jack input which when i look into it there is a red light glowing in it, and is described as a 'Line in port which also serves as a Digital Optical Output' in the mobo manual.

The connection on the back of the dvd system is different, it has a flap to protect it and isn't a Jack socket its wider and says Digital Optical In underneath it.

[Edit - having a look on the Argos site and it has an optical cable there with this description...
# Suitable for use with DVD players, surround sound systems and games consoles.

# Supplied with mini jack connector for use with MD players.

Would this do the trick? the connections on the end look like they are for the socket on the back of the dvd system, and the mini jack convertor for use with MD players sounds like it would do the job for connecting it to PC.]

Zeph.
 
Last edited:
Cheers Tom.

Decent sound card will be next on the agenda when money is a little less tight, this seems to be a way to get a decent sound boost for little expense in the mean time :)
 
Quick update. The minute the Optical cable was connected to the dvd/home cinema system I got full 5.1 sound through it :) I'm chuffed to bits.

Cheers for all the help guys :)
Zeph.
 
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