Cheapest way to get digital sound output on PC?

[dave2849]

I am trying to figure out the cheapest way to get digital sound output on my PC so that I can connect my PC to my Receiver via a toslink cable. I could also use a digital coax cable. I have been doing some reading on this and from what I can tell my only options for true digital sound output would be to get a new sound card with digital output or to get an SPDIF adapter for my motherboard off ebay for $10.

What do you guys think the best option would be?

 

[Cerb]

Either one. The main issues you might have with a sound card are making sure it can do pass-through of encoded surround, and possibly not natively supporting 44.1kHz multiples (you'd want to check and make sure it does), while you can easily verify both of those for your onboard.

Does your receiver not have a coaxial input? Most integrated that don't have optical tend to have a RCA SPDIF port, IME (sometimes overloaded with one of the analog jacks, though, in which case you'd need some kind of adapter anyway).

 

[dave2849]

My receiver has digital coax inputs but my PC doesn't have any coax outputs.

 

[piasabird]

Connect HDMI to HDTV.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

OP, you don't exactly say what kind of digital input you have on your receiver. Most receivers built in the last ten years will have either coaxial SPDIF (with a RCA-like plug) or optical inputs. You also don't specify what kind of motherboard audio output you have.

Anyway, generally speaking, you have at least three options:

1) get a cheap soundcard with the type of digital output which matches the input on your receiver
2) get the adapter you mention from ebay
3) If you have a Radeon video card, these will also output audio to TV via HDMI. And if your TV has a digital output, you can connect that one to your receiver.

 

[Zap]

If your receiver has coaxial inputs and your motherboard has SPDIF headers, you can easily make your own connector or just abuse a spare cable into working.

I worked on someone's home theater (non-PC) setup recently and they had an SPDIF output on their HDTV, so they can do HDMI to the TV, and SPDIF to their receiver.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Make this easier... What motherboard is in your PC and what receiver do you own?

You don't say whether your receiver has optical S/PDIF (toslink) input, although you mention toslink in your first post. Your motherboard may have only optical S/PDIF as its only digital output. Or, it might even have S/PDIF output via 3.5mm mini-jack, in which case you just need the appropriate 3.5mm-to-RCA cable.

One other option would be a USB-to-S/PDIF converter, although it wouldn't be your cheapest option.