SOLVED best or most reasonable way to connect surround sound from my HTPC to Receiver

[pinky33]

MOBO: ASRock P67 Extreme4 gen 3

ASRock > P67 Extreme4 Gen3

Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors; Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 2 Power Phase Design; 2 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA Quad SLI™; Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS...

www.asrock.com

Receiver: YAMAHA HTR-5890

I believe I need to invest in 4 mini pin stereo to RCA style to go from PC to Receiver.

The manual for MOBO states

Side speaker (gray)
Rear Speaker (black)
Central/bass (orange)
Front Speaker (lime)

I would then go to receiver MULTI CH INPUT

This should allow for a 7.1 system.

Then its just trying to find the correct settings on VLC player, Windows audio out, receiver settings and hope it works smoothly between music that I like in stereo vs tv, movies, netflix, youtube, blue rays, DVD's ......

What are or is my limitation. As you can see I am trying to keep this budgeted and I have no HDMI reciever and I hope to keep it that way for the time being unless you know something I don't and its worth an upgrade....????

 

[pinky33]

Looks like a I will want 2

3.5mm to 2-Male RCA​

and 2 mono

3.5mm to 1-Male RCA​

 

[EarthDog]

If there's no optical on the receiver thN that's your only option, I believe, yes.

 

[pinky33]

I have optical, but had issues getting LFE woofer to work with it.

I have it working now with 3.5mm to adapters to extentions to rca to multi channel input.

I read the throughout of audio optical might compress (degrade) Sound quality.

Be great if I could run my 4.1 with just a single optical. or even 6.1 setup one day. I don't want a center channel though.

 

[EarthDog]

That's weird, LFE works through optical (did on my old Sony).

I read the throughout of audio optical might compress (degrade) Sound quality.

It can do that, yes... if you'll notice or not... I doubt it.

Be great if I could run my 4.1 with just a single optical. or even 6.1 setup one day. I don't want a center channel though.

I'd imagine that receiver has 'fake' surround modes that would run without a center channel... or set up your speakers on a and b and run both if you just want stereo.

Why wouldn't you want a center channel for surround sound? Using any modes that include one and not having it is not ideal.

Worth noting, you can mark your own thread solved with the dropdown, you don't have to add the title. Did that for ya.

 

[JLK03F150]

I think the best connection available is S/PIF coax from the PC to the receiver.

 

[EarthDog]

I think the best connection available is S/PIF coax from the PC to the receiver.

That's optical/SPDIF, right?

Does your LFE/sub work with it?

 

[JLK03F150]

That's optical/SPDIF, right?

Does your LFE/sub work with it?

It's not optical, the optical cable is fiber optic. The coax S/PIF has connectors that look similar to RCA jacks, but are identified with an orange color.
It carried 5.1 on my old HTPC & receiver before I replaced both with HDMI.

 

[EarthDog]

It's not optical, the optical cable is fiber optic. The coax S/PIF has connectors that look similar to RCA jacks, but are identified with an orange color.
It carried 5.1 on my old HTPC & receiver before I replaced both with HDMI.

Gotcha. I always called the optical/fiber SPDIF and the other coax/digital out.

 

[JLK03F150]

I read the throughout of audio optical might compress (degrade) Sound quality.

I seem to remember reading that at AVS forums many years ago, but the audio was not compressed on the coax SPIF. I circled the connector on the back of your PC, Pinky.

 

[pinky33]

That's weird, LFE works through optical (did on my old Sony).

LFE and optical is hit and miss depending on factors. I have 3 Yamaha receivers and one wont work with my upstairs TV. Never could figure it out.

It can do that, yes... if you'll notice or not... I doubt it.


I'd imagine that receiver has 'fake' surround modes that would run without a center channel... or set up your speakers on a and b and run both if you just want stereo.

Why wouldn't you want a center channel for surround sound? Using any modes that include one and not having it is not ideal.

Worth noting, you can mark your own thread solved with the dropdown, you don't have to add the title. Did that for ya.

I was able to figure out removing center from receiver options so redirects to main left/right speakers. At least in multi channel impute mode. I have also learned that multi channel impute only seems to work with AC3 audio format for surround to work.

I never had good luck with center channels. Anytime I added one it sound poor or out of place. I even tried a $250 klipsch. Then again even a mid range center vs my custom huge left/right speakers is not a good comparison. Basically it sounds better out of 2 very nice main speakers vs 2 nice mains and a mid range center.

With that said I might have a lead on a nice center channel to try out soon. Polk elite series 35 slim

I think the best connection available is S/PIF coax from the PC to the receiver.

I was having issues trying S/PDIF at first. I now have it working as 2.1

For the life of me I can't get receiver to sense DTS or anything over 2.0/2.1 from S/PDIF

INFO

I have learned that multi channel impute only seems to work with AC3 audio format for surround to work. Can't seem to get DTS to send, which makes sense since DTS is digital. I thought VLC might decode DTS and send to receiver...........

I set receiver as a 4.1 system(no center). use static tones receiver puts out and test all channels. Seems to work. But when ever I play a movie that is stored on my HDD via VLC media player and set to 5.1 or DTS or anything it only plays 2.1 (unless it has an AC3 format).

I am running low on patients and about to drop some money on my first HDMI receiver. This will be my first and I would rather spend my money on other upgrades as my current YAMAHA HTR-5890 is a beast and if I "upgraded" to any HDMI in my budget it would be a decrease in quality I feel. I also wonder if running audio through my video card (r9 200 series) would fix all my issues???? If you think cutting my losses and upgrading to a HDMI receiver will make my life easy and just make things work I might just do it.

I have Netflix but rarely use it. How do I check to see if it is or force it to make sure it is putting out surround sound or DTS or what ever.

The only other time I was able to have surround sound work well was from xbox optical to receiver and it just worked great, but that was 15 years ago.

 

[Evilsizer]

dts/5.1 will depend on the audio source, unless you get the receiver to do that. some options if it is there will let you to do with no problem. only times i got dts/5.1 from mine hooked up to a PC is with the dvd/blue rays. it worked in games but i do not think the games were setup correctly for that, last game i tried was bioshock, the first one, not the remastered. only card i can say for a fact worked perfect for games in 5.1, A3D vortex II cards. i did get one of those asus digi? cards that people raved about for audio, but i never used it. my hearing is not what it use to be so i look at head phones people rave about with the mid-range/bass, coupled with my usb-dac and headphone amp.

 

[freeagent]

I would use the coax connection. A nice 75ohm or a good component video cable will work instead.. Its just like riding the light.

For the sub to be activated the speakers have to be set to small, and it has to be encoded content. If your AVR can do like a multichannel stereo that would be your best bet for "always on" subwoofer action.