PC and Home THeater Integration

A

akasixcon

New Member
I have a PCVRS430G Sony VAIO PC of many years ago. I recently bought a Home Theater System, a Phillips HTS3440. I was disappointed that there wasn't any Fiber Optic Input, as my older home theater system did. I did find an Digital Input for the "Coaxial" cable. I want to hook up my computer on my Home Theater system.

So I have a few questions:

1) Which of these would be considered an "SPDIF Output"? According to Sony, my computer has this out put, but I can't quite find it.




2) If I watch movies (DVD) or play video games that supports surround sound, will it be able to do this using the SPDIF Output on my 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System?

3) What advantages does Fiber Optic Audio Input than a SPDIF "Digital" "Coaxial" Input?

4) According to an article I read, the Coaxial cable would be the same as the "Composite video cable" that comes with every Home THeater System. Is this true?

5) On my manual on the Home Theater System, it says to "Connect the FM Antenna to the FM jack. Extend the wire and fix its END TO THE WALL". On the capitalized part, how do I put the wire to the wall? I'm confused.

6) Should I return this one and get a better deal that supports Fiber Optic Input?
 
1) It seems none of those are S/PDIF out. It should be a single yellow RCA port on the back of your case. All I can see is an optical out.

2) You will have surround sound for movies but games will convert to stereo because for some reason digital connections aren't supported with games.

3) Some would say the signal is cleaner because it uses light instead of electrical pulses but they are both digital so it shouldn't make a difference.

4) Yes any RCA cable would work with it.

5) Tape it?

6) You will probably never notice the difference between a S/PDIF and optical connection so no need to upgrade. But that PC doesn't have a S/PDIF out so I'm thinking you'll have to get a receiver that has optical in.
 
SP/DIF is the standard for transmitting pcm/ac3 through a digital line to an external decoder, and your computer has an optical out, that's why it says you have one, it's just the wrong one.

if you really like that receiever, you can get a sound card with a coax spdif output pretty cheap.

and like the previous poster said, you'll only have surround sound for movies encoded with ac3 sound. everything else will just be 2-channel pcm 44/48/96
 
How unfortunate of my computer. It says on the Sony Website that my computer model does have the S/PDIF out. Someone said its just the regular rca yellow thing.
 
I see. What do you think the best solution would be? I already have a Optic Cable. Should I just return my home theater and get another one with a receiver that has Optic In? The only downside is that my budget is around the $200 mark and usually the ones around it are either too cheap ($140 ish) and the high costing theatre systems ($250+ish).

If I were to stay with my receiver, I'd have to buy a soundcard (which I can't even find one that I need) and the coaxial cable. Or I can just get a headphone line-out jack and connect it to my Receiver's Audio In. That would sacrifice sound quality.

Overall I think just returning it would be the best solution, dont you think?
 
I found a FiberOptic port- in the first picture, just to the right of printer port, or above the left set of USB ports. I have one on the back of my motherboard.
 
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