Mult Media PC and LDC TV etc...

[gazzab]

Guys,
I have a media centre PC, an AV amp, 5.1 speakers and a 26inch Sony Brevia LCD TV.
Want to connect them all up and have a couple of silly questions:-

i) How to connect the PC to the AV amp to get 5.1 (do I need a new card?)
or ii) Connect the PC to the AV amp to just get stereo sound
and iii) How to connect the PC to the LCD TV , do I just use the standard cable for a monitor or is there a better way?

thanks

Gary

[Plotloss]

Depends on the outputs of the PC fundamentally.

To get 5.1 you'll need a soundcard with a SPDIF digital coaxial output which plugs into the digital coaxial input on the amp.

To connect to the LCD if you have a DVI-D output on your VGA card you can get a DVI-D>HDMI converter and go into a HDMI port on the LCD.

If your amp switches HDMI then you can run the video signal via the amp as well as the sound.

That will be the best quality.

If you utilise the standard soundcard line out via a minijack to RCA converter then you are into the amp and the amp will give you pro-logic surround

If you have a TV out VGA card then you could utilise either the composite or S-Video outputs either straight into the screen or via the amp.

All very simple really.

[ThePassenger]

Plotloss said:

To get 5.1 you'll need a soundcard with a SPDIF digital coaxial output which plugs into the digital coaxial input on the amp.

On some older cheapo Soundblaster cards the SP/DIF is a 3.5mm jack so you'll need a 3.5mm mono to Phono converter. If the amp has TOSLink (Optical) then the sound card will either need TOSLink Out or you'll need to pick up a SP/DIF -> TOSLink converter as well.

Can't add much more than Ploty already has but figured I'd mention that as it gave me a 'eh' moment when building mind.