Connecting PC to 5.1 surround

[psycik]

thats all I do. all tv content (stereo) all go to the tv via the headphone jacks on the soundcard.

Then if it's 5.1 I turn on the amp and it decodes the 5.1 signal for me...or if i'm feeling lazy, ac3filter will actually convert it back to stereo and push it out to the tv.

[zehd]

thats all I do. all tv content (stereo) all go to the tv via the headphone jacks on the soundcard.

Then if it's 5.1 I turn on the amp and it decodes the 5.1 signal for me...or if i'm feeling lazy, ac3filter will actually convert it back to stereo and push it out to the tv.

Do you guys turn off the tv speakers or vol down when running the amp?

I just looked at some amps. Glad I got the heads up to look for 6 channel inputs...

I saw some with 6 analog inputs, digital coax and optical. Prologic and DTS... But then with 6 speakers and the amp, it's almost better to go to costco and get new

[psycik]

Do you guys turn off the tv speakers or vol down when running the amp?

I just looked at some amps. Glad I got the heads up to look for 6 channel inputs...

I saw some with 6 analog inputs, digital coax and optical. Prologic and DTS... But then with 6 speakers and the amp, it's almost better to go to costco and get new

Yep that's all I do. Cos if I have 5.1 coming through the amp, I really don't want to hear the tinny TV speakers.

Although, so people do run their TVs at the center channel so you could look at that as well.

[whurlston]

Do you guys turn off the tv speakers or vol down when running the amp?

Yup.

[mvallevand]

Some HTPC's allow you do do digital audio through the HDMI too, especially important for BluRay.

As for the MVP's digital out the mvpmc AC3 is way too out of sync with the video to enjoy, it is mainly just for fun to see the Dolby light on the stereo. The audio pass through is pretty nice for music though, FLAC files are 100% identical to digital CD.

Martin

[Etacovda]

I use ffdshow to uprate my files to 48000k so my amp will accept the dolby encoding that ffdshow will do on the fly (sounds better than my amps decoder). Then set dts and dolby detected content to passthrough for dts/dd cd's so the amp will get the correct signal passed straight to it without the ffdshow messing with it on real 5.1 content. I prefer to listen to even normal tv though the amp this way rather than the tv.

[zehd]

Some HTPC's allow you do do digital audio through the HDMI too, especially important for BluRay.

As for the MVP's digital out the mvpmc AC3 is way too out of sync with the video to enjoy, it is mainly just for fun to see the Dolby light on the stereo. The audio pass through is pretty nice for music though, FLAC files are 100% identical to digital CD.

Martin

One thing that I noticed a long while ago and was pleasantly surprised, is the mvp (hauppauge dongle) seemed to still transmit prologic surround through the analog stereo. I guess the older prologic receiver was decoding it. I'm pretty sure it wasn't simulated...

[zehd]

I use ffdshow to uprate my files to 48000k so my amp will accept the dolby encoding that ffdshow will do on the fly (sounds better than my amps decoder). Then set dts and dolby detected content to passthrough for dts/dd cd's so the amp will get the correct signal passed straight to it without the ffdshow messing with it on real 5.1 content. I prefer to listen to even normal tv though the amp this way rather than the tv.

I'm sure I would probably still use the amp for anything. One reason is I can have the average volume lower and still hear well...

Are you able to do that dts and dolby detected passthrough in ffdshow? I didn't see the setting...

[Etacovda]

I'm sure I would probably still use the amp for anything. One reason is I can have the average volume lower and still hear well...

Are you able to do that dts and dolby detected passthrough in ffdshow? I didn't see the setting...

yep, mine works fine - im not home right now so i cant check, but i just put DTS/DD to passthrough basically - i had to upsample to 48000 for my amp to handle the lower stuff. I'll have a look tonight and see exactly how its set up - but it definitely works, as my amp will show up 'DTS' when i have a dts sound track selected on a DVD. I'll let you know how ive done it.

[Etacovda]

yep, mine works fine - im not home right now so i cant check, but i just put DTS/DD to passthrough basically - i had to upsample to 48000 for my amp to handle the lower stuff. I'll have a look tonight and see exactly how its set up - but it definitely works, as my amp will show up 'DTS' when i have a dts sound track selected on a DVD. I'll let you know how ive done it.

ok, so i have under codecs AC3 and DTS set to spdif

then i have resample to 48k for my amp
and dolby decoder ticked, as well as some volume/mixer/eq stuff, since my setup seems to play fairly quietly, so i increased the gain a bit

under output i have ac3 (spdif encode mode) ticked
as well as 'only encode 5.1 streams'

Seems to work perfectly for my set up, results in DTS/DD being sent directly to amp for dvd and the likes (amp shows 'DTS', so it must be passing it straight through on DTS), ffd show audio decoder doesnt show that its running on DD dvd's, but on live tv it'll encode to dd (amp shows DD) and the ffdshow audio decoder shows up on the task bar.

Keep in mind I pretty much winged the whole thing, and only know rudimentary audio, but it seems to be doing what it should be to me