[doctor15]

I am hooking my computer up to my home theater system to watch movies, and am trying to figure out what kind of sound output to use to plug into the receiver. I have an SB Live 5.1, but my digital output is already being used for my computer speakers, and I don't want to spend $60 to get the digital I/0 expansion card. On my sound card, I have a front speaker analog output, and a rear speaker analog output. Should I run both of these lines to my receiver? I guess these would plug in to the rear and front inputs for a Dolby digital decoder. But then what would I do with the center and sub-woofer inputs? Would this give me Dolby digital sound, or would I be better off just running the front speaker output to my receiver, and spend less on cables (there's about 35ft of wire needed between my computer and receiver).


Does anyone have any other suggestions of how to hook this up, for good quality sound. My receiver fully supports Dolby digital and DTS.


Thanks for the help!

 

[doctor15]

anyone? I guess I'll just run one wire and only have stereo sound, but I'ld like surround sound, if its possible

 

[jkaiser]

Well, there is the $30 Hoontec daughter card with SPDIF coax and Toslink. Do a search. It also might save your receiver if your SB-Live is one of those that ouputs 5v over SPDIF (in stead of .5V!)

 

[doctor15]

can I run or buy a 35-50ft coax cable? I know I can get opitical digital cable long enough, but I'ld have to buy an amplifier, and I think fishing the wire through the wall and pushing it under molding would cause a problem, which is why I was wondering how to hook up analog surround sound. I've heard of people doing it, I just dont remember exactly how they did it. Also, if you couldnt tell by my unwillingness to buy the digital i/o add on card, this is on a very small budget, so I dont want to spend alot of money on cables or singal amplifiers.