Home Theater Questions...

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: thehstrybean
Woa...just remembered my other questions: 1) Which is better? Stereo recievers or digital recievers? 2) I have a 6.1 speaker set (I was just gonna leave the back out and make it 5.1)...Will http://shop2.outpost.com/product/3609625?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG make all the sound coming from it come out in 6.1?

The Pioneer you got from eBay is supposed to support Dolby Digital just like that Sherwood. Try hooking a DVD player to it or play a DVD in your computer.

For game audio and music, an optical or coax signal from a PC will just be PCM Stereo it will not be a Dolby Digital signal! Soundcards and onboard audio (except SoundStorm on some nforce Athlon XP mobos) do not do real-time dolby encoding of music and games.

For surround in music and games, you want to use the analog outs from the PC (3 miniplugs, 2 channels per plug, front L/R, back L/R, center, sub).

 

[thehstrybean]

Yes!! I finally got it...just had to run a coax from the DVD to the reciever...now all I need is a sound card for this thing...

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: thehstrybean
Yes!! I finally got it...just had to run a coax from the DVD to the reciever...now all I need is a sound card for this thing...

What do you have now, motherboard audio?

Remember: For game audio and music, an optical or coax signal from a PC will just be PCM Stereo it will not be a Dolby Digital signal! Soundcards and onboard audio (except SoundStorm on some nforce Athlon XP mobos) do not do real-time dolby encoding of music and games.

For surround in music and games, you want to use the analog outs from the PC (3 miniplugs, 2 channels per plug, front L/R, back L/R, center, sub).

 

[thehstrybean]

But if I run it through the reciever, does that not encode it? Yeah, right now I got mobo audio...

 

[DaveSimmons]

No, the receiver decodes a 5.1 digital signal if the PC sends it. Right now no soundcards send a 5.1 signal over digital they just send stereo for games and music.

If you want surround sound from a PC soundcard or onboard you must use analog connectors: 6 separate connectors on the reciever, 3 stereo miniplugs on the soundcard.