Sony Blu Ray Home Cinema as PC Speakers?

[Jon33]

Hi all

Title says it all really, I've got a Sony home cinema system that came with my TV but it rarely gets used. Is there a way I can link that to my PC and use the speakers for that instead?

Cheers

 

[Marsman]

What inputs does it have? I assume it has at least one optical input.

 

[Jon33]

TV optical, audio L/R on the back of the blu ray players

 

[Marsman]

You can use the optical input to connect to your PC.

To get proper 5.1 when playing games you will need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, which encode the audio in real time so it can be decoded as 5.1.

What motherboard do you have?

 

[Jon33]

It's an ASUS P5K I believe.

I'm not really a big gamer, was hoping to use it for music/movies.

 

[Marsman]

OK. Even easier, assuming that has board optical. You don't need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. They are mainly used when gaming because games do not have Dolby Digital or DTS audio tracks. Media that has Dolby Digital/AC3 or DTS tracks, such as DVD/BDs or some movie/video files, the stream is passed on for the receiver to decode.

If whatever media is only stereo, that doesn't matter as the receiver in the Sony system should apply Dolby Pro Logic and up mix that to 5.1.

If the motherboard doesn't have optical, then you'll need a sound card. You don't need anything fancy, so long as it has optical. Asus Xonar DG or DGX would be a good choice.

 

[Jon33]

Cool thanks, I'll pick up a card and see how I get on!