sharing 5.1 speakers w/ 2 computers

[dboy]

I've got a computer I use for gaming / internet / etc and a dedicated video editing box. I want to have surround out on both. I currently use a kvm to share monitor and inputs and use a set of 2.1 speakers that have a line input to share the speakers with both machines. To upgrade to 5.1, how best to share the speakers? I know I could get a bunch of splitters from Radio Shack to combine, but that'll have great potential for noise, etc. I thought about getting a A/V switch that switches video and audio, but that'd only handle 3 speakers (using the video as a 3rd channel). Could get 2 of those, but that'd be a bunch of mess on the desk. I also have a surround receiver lying around, but it only has one set of analog input and neither computer can realtime encode surround.

Got a suggestion (other than buy a new receiver - that's too high a budget since I need to get speakers too, whichever route I go).

I have even considered getting 2 sets of speakers, but that's more cost and mess than I wanna deal with. Would solve the problem nicely though...

 

[KoolAidKid]

Would this work?

Hook a set of 5.1 speakers to the outputs of computer #1, and then run a digital out from computer #2 to the input of computer #1.

 

[dboy]

No, because neither computer does realtime surround encoding. The only systems that can do that have the soundstorm chipset on the motherboard - nothing else can do it. Since both machines are Dell Intel boxes, that's not an option.

Using that technique aboce would only give stereo out from comp #2.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: dboy
No, because neither computer does realtime surround encoding. The only systems that can do that have the soundstorm chipset on the motherboard - nothing else can do it. Since both machines are Dell Intel boxes, that's not an option.

Using that technique aboce would only give stereo out from comp #2.

I think your only real choice here is three stereo line splitters. Since there's only one splitter on each channel, I don't think you'll have much (if any) signal degradation.