PC->Receiver connections?

J

Jospeh

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 29, 2008
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I have onboard sound and a receiver. I was wondering what was the best way of connecting them.

My options are:
Toslink?
3.5mm to RCA?
HDMI via GTX460?
I'd have to buy another cable for HDMI though.

Also, is it worth buying a sound card to use with my receiver?
 
I would personally do HDMI through your 460. That's what I did on my HTPC. Can't speak to the sound card. I've never seen them as necessary, but others can't do without.
 
Mini dvi to hdmi cable is about $4 on amazon. Go with that if your receiver actually does audio and is not just a video pass through. Otherwise toslink.
 
If your receiver decodes everything you need, then connect via HDMI. Get an HDMI cable off monoprice for $2. Only reason to have a soundcard is if you need DDL or DTS Connect and you don't have HDMI because HDMI can take multichannel PCM from a computer game, whereas S/PDIF cannot and needs to be compressed on-the-fly into DD or DTS to get to the receiver.
 
The receiver is a Yamaha RX-V371. For now, I'm only using it for PC audio with a pair of speakers (more will come soon). Looks like I'll have to buy an HDMI cable though.
 
I'm in a similar position, though I don't have an HDMI out on my computer. I actually do use a DVI > HDMI converter on the back of my Radeon 4870, but, as I understand it, that can't output HDMI sound. So here's my questions:

1. How do I get an HDMI out that would send a surround signal?

OR

2. What's a good, cheap option to get DDL to go through an optical out?

I do have an optical cable going to my PC already, but I find out my mobo doesn't support DDL. Here's my current computer specs:

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
VID VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 2.0 x16
PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W
MBO GIGABYTE G Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
RAM 8GB G.SKILL (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
HDD Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
DVD SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA
FAN XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
FAN XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
CAS Lian Li PC-A05B Mid Tower
(OS Win7 64 bit)
 
Yoma44 said:
I'm in a similar position, though I don't have an HDMI out on my computer. I actually do use a DVI > HDMI converter on the back of my Radeon 4870, but, as I understand it, that can't output HDMI sound. So here's my questions:

1. How do I get an HDMI out that would send a surround signal?

OR

2. What's a good, cheap option to get DDL to go through an optical out?

I do have an optical cable going to my PC already, but I find out my mobo doesn't support DDL. Here's my current computer specs:

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
VID VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 2.0 x16
PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W
MBO GIGABYTE G Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
RAM 8GB G.SKILL (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
HDD Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
DVD SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA
FAN XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
FAN XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
CAS Lian Li PC-A05B Mid Tower
(OS Win7 64 bit)
Click to expand...
If you are using the original ATI DVI-HDMI adapter, then yes, it will send audio over the HDMI. A generic adapter will not. Also a 4XXX series radeon will not bitstream HD audio from Blu-Rays, if that even matters to you, but it will send spdif and pcm.
 
For #1, just get any modern video card that has HDMI out and supports audio.

For #2, Xonar DS 7.1 (PCI) has DTS Connect on it for $50 w/ optical.
 
As to the Xonar - it doesn't look like it has an optical out on the one on Amazon. Also, do I need PCI or PCIe for my motherboard? Anyone know?
 
Valaire said:
For #1, just get any modern video card that has HDMI out and supports audio.

For #2, Xonar DS 7.1 (PCI) has DTS Connect on it for $50 w/ optical.
Click to expand...
Also, is DTS Connect all I need to cover anything (I want to play games like Battlefield 3 with it), or do I need a card with Dolby Digital Live ALSO?
 
Valaire said:
I believe the 7.1 rear jack of the Xonar DS doubles as an optical out.
Click to expand...
It looks like that's something I don't understand. I mean, simply put, optical = square port, coax = circle port. How does a circle port double as a square port?
 
DTS Connect: Yes, it does the same thing as DDL, but I believe it may be slightly higher quality.

Optical: It should come with an adapter.

Motherboard: Your mobo has 2 PCI slots, and 4 PCI-E 1x slots. So you can use the DX or the DS. DX is more expensive, but it's future proof. If you get the DS, it's cheaper, but your next mobo might not have any PCI slots on it. On the other hand, your next motherboard/video card will have HDMI audio which is superior to DDL or DTS-C anyway so it's a moot point.
 
//Side question, I want to put my specs in my sig using HTML, but it's disabled for me. How do I get the privilege?

It'd be like this:
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz, VID VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 2.0 x16, PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W, MBO Gigabyte GA EP45-DS3LATX Motherboard, RAM 8GB G.SKILL (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800, HDD Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s, CAS Lian Li PC-A05B Mid Tower, (OS Win7 64 bit)
 
to OP:
Don't do analog if possible
There will be no difference in audio quality b'ween spdif and hdmi
hdmi COULD passthru hd audio, while spdif can't, but I'm not sure if your video card will support this anyway. I have one too many issues with nvidia gpu hdmi out, I'd just do onboard spdif out to make things simpler
 
What does DTS Connect have to do with HDMI? DTS Connect is for encoding 5.1 to a DTS stream allowing multichannel over S/PDIF. HDMI allows up to 7.1 to be transmitted uncompressed so DTS Connect isn't needed.
 
yeah my mistake dts connect is not needed, but also i didnt realize newer video cards did bitstreaming, need to read thread...haha.
this would have been true some time ago though, even with HDMI, the HDAV1.3 was the only bitstreaming hdmi device.
 
BoredSysAdm said:
to OP:
Don't do analog if possible
There will be no difference in audio quality b'ween spdif and hdmi
hdmi COULD passthru hd audio, while spdif can't, but I'm not sure if your video card will support this anyway. I have one too many issues with nvidia gpu hdmi out, I'd just do onboard spdif out to make things simpler
Click to expand...

Analog and HDMI would both be better quality than S/PDIF for surround sound. S/PDIF can only pass uncompressed audio in 2 channels. For 6 channel surround you need analog or HDMI to send the signals uncompressed.

Dolby Digital or DTS are the only way to send 6 channel audio via S/PDIF and not only would you need an encoder to do this, you would also lose quality from the compression.

Best bet is HDMI from your GTX 460. It's uncompressed like analog, but slightly better because its easier (and cheaper) to send a digital signal that analog.
 
As far as I can tell nVidia seems to have worked out HDMI Audio. So much tidier than running 4 stereo RCA cables out the back of the PC.
 
Sorry if this is slightly hijacking the thread, but hopefully someone can clarify something with HDMI audio through receiver for me. I've run my HTPC through my receiver to my tv viaHDMI and been fine getting audio through the receiver and the corresponding display out. However, I've never run HDMI solely for an audio connection. Does running HDMI to receiver from your gpu for audio alone have any consequences?

I have 3 screen hooked up via my 6950, none via HDMI, but 2 via DVI. I know that there is a physical limitation in how many devices can be output via DVI/HDMI (which is why you cant run eyefinity solely on DVI/HDMI, but must use at least 1 DP). However, does this impact running just an audio over HDMI connection? I'm switching my main rig's setup to a receiver, and debating using optical from my sound card or playing around with the HDMI out, so any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.
 
SirMaster said:
Best bet is HDMI from your GTX 460. It's uncompressed like analog, but slightly better because its easier (and cheaper) to send a digital signal that analog.
Click to expand...
So wait, rather than spending $200 on a sound card, you're saying I'd be better off just upgrading my video card for $200? I mean, I haven't looked in to video cards for a couple years now, but is the GeForce GTX 460 much better than my Radeon 4870? And would that card work with my motherboard (gigabyte GA EP45 DS3L)?

Because if so, and if that card would also output HDMI audio, then it sounds like it's time to upgrade my video card. I was wanting to get a few more fps out of BF3 anyway - assuming that would bring that kind of improvement.
 
Yes, you should upgrade your GFX to enable HDMI audio as that is superior to S/PDIF. Your motherboard has 1 PCI-E x16 slot so you can get any single GFX. Getting a sound card would not be productive, and if you game, upgrading your GFX is typically the #1 thing you can do to influence FPS. You will need a new GFX for BF3 anyway, if you play at any reasonable resolution.
 
Oh, I thought you already had a GTX 460. You could go with something like and AMD 6850 for $150 which can also do the full uncompressed audio over HDMI. And is about twice as fast as your 4870.

Any AMD 5xxx or 6xxx series and any Nvidia 4xx or 5xx series will do HDMI audio.
 
Awesome, thank you for those responses. That's very helpful. Now I just need to return the Xonar sound card that is on the way.
 
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