MB has no Optical, how can I enjoy surround sound ?
#1
after spending hours and hours, if not days, looking for the perfect system, I finally bought the parts, brought them all home, put it all together and
started plugging everything in! and then I was left holding a Optical cord with no place to plug it in. ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

I have one of those home theater samsung systems, I have a optical cord running from that receiver to the TV, so I watch dvds in full 5.1 surround.

now I have my HTPC here, sitting under the TV about to plug in, how do I get the full sound? will the HDMI from the PC to the TV be used for my surround sound through the samsung receiver?
or do I have to replace the mother board with one with optical out to get the speakers to work?
thanks..
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#2
Almost all new videocards will do audio over HDMI. But if I understand you correctly, your amplifier has no HDMI in ?
If so, check your TV audio out options. Most of them have digital out (coax and/or optical) and will take the HDMI audio signal from your HTPC and send it to your amp using the audio out. Added benefit is that it will sync audio and video by taking in to account the video latency of the TV.
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#3
(2012-12-24, 12:16)Vertigo Wrote: Almost all new videocards will do audio over HDMI. But if I understand you correctly, your amplifier has no HDMI in ?
If so, check your TV audio out options. Most of them have digital out (coax and/or optical) and will take the HDMI audio signal from your HTPC and send it to your amp using the audio out. Added benefit is that it will sync audio and video by taking in to account the video latency of the TV.

yes my amp doesn't have hdmi. my tv has many options. Coax, and optical, one of the opticals is running from the TV to the amp.


so what you are saying is, the HDMI I run from the PC to the TV will collaborate with each other and send out the optical sound through my speakers?

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#4
If the HDMI>TV>AVR route is not working then get an entry level sound card like from Asus with optical out.
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#5
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#6
(2012-12-24, 13:13)coffeeman Wrote: yes my amp doesn't have hdmi. my tv has many options. Coax, and optical, one of the opticals is running from the TV to the amp.

so what you are saying is, the HDMI I run from the PC to the TV will collaborate with each other and send out the optical sound through my speakers?

It might. My TV does it, and its nothing special.

Find out, just connect your PC to the TV using HDMI, and configure the PC (/xbmc) to output the audio to HDMI. Check that this works using the TVs built in speakers.
If this doesnt work, report back and let us know what videocard you are using.

If that does work, then try connecting the TVs digital out to your amp.


(2012-12-24, 14:30)PobjoySpecial Wrote: Most TVs I've seen only output optical audio for the internal tuner.

I dont even have optical out on my TV, but it will put any audio signal on the digital coax out, wether its via HDMI or even if I use analog in.
This is quite useful because TVs display image with a small delay and this messes up AV sync, and using the tv's output solves that.
My TV is anything but high-end, its not even very modern, Im surprised to hear most TVs wouldnt do this?

Quote:Check to see if your motherboard has a SPDIF header. If it does, you can buy and hook up an optical/composite output. If it doesn't, then I second buying a sound card.

That should also work.
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#7
im gonna switch out the mother board.
thanks all..
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#8
I have TiVo connected to my Samsung tv via hdmi, audio output via optical from the tv to a sound bar. Could not do TiVo to sound bar directly since the TiVo is always on and I want to leave the sound bar on. I would get audio with the tv off. In my movie room I did have optical out from my old zenith plasma tv to my receiver, worked fine. Before you get a new mb, try this method, it should work.
Kodi On HTPC: Dell Vostro slim 200 with W7 SP1, core 2 duo 1.6, 3G RAM, ASUS 6570 slim 1G with catalyst drivers. Synology NAS.
Duplicate displays: Dell 22" led monitor and Epson 5010 projector.
Kodi on Amazon fire stick.
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#9
You can get a USB to optical box for very cheap ($5-10 USD, IIRC). The USB device is basically its own sound card and shows up as an output option.
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#10
http://www.meritline.com/usb-5-1-channel...35243.aspx
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#11
Your specific hardware (mob, tv, avr) model numbers would be pretty useful in getting answers. Personally, I'd choose the audio card route.
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