Connect PC to surround Amp?
Connect PC to surround Amp?
Author
Discussion

CopperBolt

Original Poster:

943 posts

90 months

Wednesday 20th May 2020
quotequote all
Hi
Im thinking of getting a gaming PC. In the specs for the PC's it often says 5.1 or 7.1 sound supported but how exactly is the sound passed to the amp?
With PlayStation and Blu-ray player, the HDMI lead from the kit to the amp passes the 5.1 sound along as well, nice and easy. Does this work with a PC?
i.e with a GeForce 1060 Ti or something the sound will go along the HDMI with the video?

The PC's I look at have the sound on the motherboard. i.e. no separate sound card.

Thanks.

VEX

5,259 posts

269 months

Wednesday 20th May 2020
quotequote all
Usually for gaming you have a separate video / audio card that would do all this for you.

I would expect to see it either over HDMI as you suggest or the video card will have a 5.1/7.1 optical/coax output.

V.

Camelot1971

2,827 posts

189 months

Thursday 21st May 2020
quotequote all
My PC is connected to my home cinema amp via HDMI. You can get surround sound (even Dolby Atmos) but it's quite rare for PC games to actually have true surround sound, which is weird as lots of XBOX/PS4 games do.

Before HDMI became popular, most sound out of a PC was analogue 5.1/7.1, and you can still get some great speakers, like the Logitech ones, that decode it. Most PCs will have an optical out too.