how can i get multiple sources on my speakers?

[jjwestw]

i have a creative t7900 7.1 pc speaker system conected to my pc. when i play my ps3 i plug a double ended 3.5mm headphone cable into the auxillery on the remote control and the headphone socket on the TV however i only get sound through the front and centre speakers and the subwoofer. is there anyway to have 7.1 surrond sound on my PC, PS3 and when watching TV?

help will be very much appreciated

[Aevum]

you can do it cheaply with duplicators, it will increase noise and lower quality,

or you can get an amp with multiple inputs,

[sneekypeet]

why not just plug the 3.5mm into the Pc and tell the control pannel for your audio its an in line. That is how my TV tuner works, and i get full 5.1 with both the PC and the tuner. Shouldnt matter what device you are using to send the ingoing signal.

[AsRock]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

why not just plug the 3.5mm into the Pc and tell the control pannel for your audio its an in line. That is how my TV tuner works, and i get full 5.1 with both the PC and the tuner. Shouldnt matter what device you are using to send the ingoing signal.

You be needing to run the PC while gaming on console that way right ?.


MAYBE some thing like this
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...4&tab=features

Or do what the other guy said pick up a amp.

[Mussels]

the A/V selector is your best bet. Otherwise you'll get interference from the other devices.

[sneekypeet]

Originally Posted by AsRock

You be needing to run the PC while gaming on console that way right ?.

Yeah but just at idle, then just swap selections on the monitor for what imput is running.

[AsRock]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

Yeah but just at idle, then just swap selections on the monitor for what imput is running.

For me that would be 200w idle lol. Or my 3800 x2 setup at 150w idle.

[jjwestw]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

why not just plug the 3.5mm into the Pc and tell the control pannel for your audio its an in line. That is how my TV tuner works, and i get full 5.1 with both the PC and the tuner. Shouldnt matter what device you are using to send the ingoing signal.

i have tried this set up with the same results. i have also thought about buying Y splitters but they will reduce sound quality.

somthing like this would be perfect but as my speaker system is designed for a PC it does not have composite connectors it has the regular 3.5mm headphone ones. it would be a bit annoying to have to have my PC on inorder to hear the sound but i could live wth it.

[Darren]

Originally Posted by jjwestw

i have a creative t7900 7.1 pc speaker system conected to my pc. when i play my ps3 i plug a double ended 3.5mm headphone cable into the auxillery on the remote control and the headphone socket on the TV however i only get sound through the front and centre speakers and the subwoofer. is there anyway to have 7.1 surrond sound on my PC, PS3 and when watching TV?

help will be very much appreciated

When you start asking these sorts of questions you know it's time to invest in a AV receiver and home theatre system! Ideally you need a AV receiver in which the PS3 can connect to via HDMI and the PC would access the receiver via SPDIF. No unnecessary cables no mess. Without a receiver you can not decode the 5.1/7.1 Dolby or DTS bit streams from the pre-encoded PS3 games, hence why you get stereo only

Edit:

For Dolby True HD and DTS Masters you need a specialist receiver.

Edit 2:

Originally Posted by jjwestw

so basicly your saying there is no practical way of doing it. and i would be better off buying a speaker system designed for a TV and conecting the PC to that rather than vice verca.
but is it possible to get sound through all 7 speakers with my current system weather its true surrond sound or not?

Most probably not, because whenever the soundcard outputs the streams from the PS3 it will be in stereo only regardless. You'll need a AV receiver capable of 7.1, HDMI output, fibre/coaxial output with the following codecs: Prologic, Dolby Digital, Dolby True HD, DTS Masters etc.

Edit 3:

The PS3 uses only 5.1 Dolby for games and 7.1 Dolby True HD for BluRay movies.

[jjwestw]

so basicly your saying there is no practical way of doing it. and i would be better off buying a speaker system designed for a TV and conecting the PC to that rather than vice verca.
but is it possible to get sound through all 7 speakers with my current system weather its true surrond sound or not?

[jjwestw]

what if i bought a card with an optical in socket for my pc and conneted it to my ps3 through that?

[Darren]

Originally Posted by jjwestw

what if i bought a card with an optical in socket for my pc and conneted it to my ps3 through that?

You would only get stereo because the 5.1 or 7.1 bit streams from the PS3 can not be encoded by the soundcard whether optical input is used or not.

You have two alternatives:
#1 Buy a proper AV receiver and bookshelf speakers

#2 Buy the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker system. It has a built in AV receiver so you can connect the PS3 to it via fibre optical and have your PC connected via coaxial. You can switch between when necessary.

Alternative #1 would allow for more connectivity and will have longevity as the speakers can be upgraded, the sound quality would be better as well.


Whether you go option #1 or #2 you'll also need to buy a specialist soundcard that can supports 5.1 encoding in real time via SPDIF to get surround to the PC. E.g. Aus Xonar, HT OMEGA etc.

[dcwalker]

Originally Posted by jjwestw

i have tried this set up with the same results. i have also thought about buying Y splitters but they will reduce sound quality.

somthing like this would be perfect but as my speaker system is designed for a PC it does not have composite connectors it has the regular 3.5mm headphone ones. it would be a bit annoying to have to have my PC on inorder to hear the sound but i could live wth it.

Why dont you buy a better product? x

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Darren

You would only get stereo because the 5.1 or 7.1 bit streams from the PS3 can not be encoded by the soundcard whether optical input is used or not.

You have two alternatives:
#1 Buy a proper AV receiver and bookshelf speakers

#2 Buy the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker system. It has a built in AV receiver so you can connect the PS3 to it via fibre optical and have your PC connected via coaxial. You can switch between when necessary.

Alternative #1 would allow for more connectivity and will have longevity as the speakers can be upgraded, the sound quality would be better as well.


Whether you go option #1 or #2 you'll also need to buy a specialist soundcard that can supports 5.1 encoding in real time via SPDIF to get surround to the PC. E.g. Aus Xonar, HT OMEGA etc.

not true, with the Z-5500's he can just run his PC over analogue

[Darren]

Originally Posted by Mussels

not true, with the Z-5500's he can just run his PC over analogue

Analogue with the Z-5500 is indeed possible, and if he gets any problems use the prologic feature, I forgot to mention that, however it may create too many wires or complicate things as he would need an additional wire with to connect the fibre cable to the PS3.


So essentially you'd have: with the Z-5500

PC to Z-5500 via analogue (use Prologic feature for surround)

and

Z-5500 to PS3 via fibre (Dolby Digital bit streams will decode in games, unfortunately BluRay movies require a dedicated True HD decoder)

But as I said before the Z-5500 or a dedicated AV receiver is the only two ways.

Edit:

The above theory requires use of both analoge and digital to achieve your end result. My previous post was using just digital. Obviously the Z-5500 only supports 5.1, if you wanted a 7.1 solution you'd need to go the AV receiver route as explained in my previous post.

[jjwestw]

now you've lost me at first i could understand what you were talking about but now
what i can understand so far is that a: i need to buy a new set of speakers that can do what i want on their own
or
b: i need a dedicated A/V reciever that will do somthing to make it work right? with somthing about digital and analogue

[Mussels]

Digital and analogue are the two connection types you use, one for PC, one for the PS3.

The Z5500's, come with a receiver that has both those inputs - and a remote to toggle between then.

If you buy a seperate receiver/switcher, you'll need to make sure its compatible with your PS3 and PC, as finding one with 3x 3.5mm analogues (for the PC) *and* optical passthrough (for the PS3) will be hard.

[Darren]

Your best bet is to buy the Z-5500, its your cheapest alternative. Dedicated AV receivers and home cinema speakers will get far too expensive and can be complicated to set up. You'd be limited to 5.1 sound only with the Z-5500

It can be purchased here--->
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...120&Tpk=z-5500

You would have to connect the Z-5500 to your computer as normal with the Prologic feature enabled, however the PS3 will be connected using a fibre optic cable to the Z-5500. PS3 games support Dolby 5.1 so you'll get surround because of the Z-5500s built in decoder.

I'll try to explain the buzz words:

Decoder - Decodes the existing pre-encoded Dolby bit streams
(PS3 games are Dolby pre-encoded)

Dolby Digital - Dolby's algorithm for 5.1 surround sound. (needs coaxial or fibre)
- PS3 games are encoded in Dolby 5.1 by default so the Z-5500s receiver can decodes the streams.

Prologic - Dolby's up mixing algorithm to convert stereo into 5.1 or 7.1
- You may need this feature enabled as your PC may only output stereo initially.
(hence the problem you are having currently with your creative t7900!)

[AsRock]

HOLLY CRAP! $300 for that lol..

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by AsRock

HOLLY CRAP! $300 for that lol..

and they are soooo worth every cent.

[jjwestw]

thanks for the help i get the idea of what your saying. and will consider buying them. unfortunatly i have on more problem i cant seem to fix. its that my DVD-Rw/ram drive wont recognise DVD's anymore ive tried eveything i can think of. it plays/burns CD's fine but when i put a DVD in it does notthing its like there is no disk in there atall. ive tried uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them, i've tried unpluging it and puting it back. al the drivers are upto date and windows says its working properly. anyone got an idea of what it could be?

[Mussels]

lol, stop looking at software! theres probably some crap on the lens, just blow some air in there/get a brush in there.

[jjwestw]

no luck. i might take it out and open it up tomorrow but i thought it would be a software problem because if there was somthing on the lens then i figured it would not play any discs at all but its specificly DVDs.

[dcwalker]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjwestw
wtf's wrong with my speakers you goon their better than anthing you've got


If your speakers are so good, explain this. Why do you have a problem with it and consulting a forum to help you out? x

[jjwestw]

If your speakers are so good, explain this. Why do you have a problem with it and consulting a forum to help you out? x[/QUOTE]

dave what are you doing. i know full well you you dont have a clue what my problem is/was coz i already spoke to you plus you wouldn't know technology if it smacked you in the face with a crow bar. so do us all a favour and just walk away you complete dip shit. btw you doing anything for your birthday on friday? or are we just gona get a shakaway again lol.