Best way to get sound from PC to TV?

Yes, a 3.5mm to 3.5mm is the best way. I have a Sony KDL40S2000 and before I got my surround sound system I did it this way.

As for the various colored speaker jacks on your sound card you need to use the one for stereo our (2 speakers). I believe it's the green jack. Also make sure window is configured for 2 speakers.

Connecting a PC to a surround sound system is a whole other story.

George

Ok, about that, I have an X-Fi with the I\\O drive and it has an optical out on it. I am thinking that the best thing to do would be to run the optical cable to the receiver and a dvi cable as well for the video. My dad just bought a new 70" sony and an onkyo 7.1 hdmi receiver, I dont remember the model but it was in the 399-499 range. I dont know if it has dvi inputs but if not I could just use a dvi to hdmi adapter correct?

I also have an Onkyo 7.1 HDMI receiver. Is is the TX-SR604 which is probably what your dad has. My computer, which I built myself, has an optical output for the motherboard sound (no sound card). I use an optical cable to connect that to receiver. It work fine for stereo (PCM) or S/PFIF pass-through of DVD dolby digital sound. I doesn't work for surround sound computer games (5.1 for my setup). For that I run 3 cables (left & right, surrounds, center & sub speakers) from the computer analog sound output to the receiver's multichannel inputs. I just use the receiver to switch between the computer's analog and digital outputs.

As far as the video, does you dad's 70" Sony have a PC input? My 40" Sony KDLS2000 LCD has a PC RGB port which I use to connect my PC. My Sony's manual specifically said not to connect a PC using the HDMI port. For my HDTV that make sense for reason I'm would go into now. I suggest you read your dad's HDTV's manual an see what it recommends. If you still are unsure what to do, please tell us what model the HDTV is so someone can advise you.

George

Oh ok, that makes sense now, thanks for clearing that up, I was wondering why creative was selling this rca package for surround sound. I figured the optical cable would do it all.

So I WILL need the optical cable, but only for surround sound in movies, and I will have to use the special rca cables for surround sound in games. That is the receiver he has, and his tv is a 70" kds-xbr2 and on sony's website it says it has a pc input. What does that mean exactly, is it a dvi input or is it a vga input....wouldn't the vga input look like crap when compared to dvi at 1920x1080?

Also, I was curious since the 360 hd-dvd player is so cheap and I just picked up a copy of PowerDVD Ultra with blu-ray and hd-dvd support, will the optical cable support the new uncompressed sound formats like true hd?

The cables that you will need to go from the sound card to the receiver are 3.5 mini jack on one end, two RCA connectors on the other end. You can find them on the monoprice.com link at the top of the page.

You might also consider the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. It's a USB adaptor with an optical out port.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro

As for movies you need an optical cable only if you want to use your receiver to decode the digital sound. You could use DVD player software instead to decode the sound and output it through your sound card's analog outputs. I prefer to use my receiver to do that in my system. I also use the receiver to expand stereo music to surround sound. My PC with motherboard sound can't do that. Your creative sound card my be good enough so that you don't need to use your receiver's sound logic. However optical sound cables are inexpensive (Walmart) so I advise you try both options.

I pulled up the manual to the KDSR70XBR2 from the Sony web site. It says "Do not connect a PC to the TV's HDMI input. Use the PC IN (RGB IN) input instead when connecting a PC." The HDTV has a native 1080 resolution and it will accept that resolution (1920 x 1080) from a PC via the RGB port. It will also handle many other standard PC resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc.). BTW an RGB input is a VGA input.

Theoretically you could attach a PC to a HDMI port with a DVI to HDMI adapter. However, HDMI port will only handle video resolutions (480, 720 and 1080). You'd be out of luck with games that don't support these. Also you would have problems with overscan which will crop off some the displayed image from your computer. Google "overscan" for details. Ideally a HDTV should have a DVI computer input in addition to RGB one. Other brands do by Sony doesn't.

As far as the appearrance of an analog input, I think it'll would look fine (not crap). It looks good on my Sony HDTV (1366x768 natve resolution).

George

George

What I'd like to see is an overscan toggle on an input. This way you can tell it you are using a PC and it adjusts. Plus with PowerDVD and the whole DVI/HDMI handshake issue requiring this in a monitor the days of VGA input are numbered.