how to connect my PC to my Yamaha reciever

[oymd]

Aloha to all...

I have a Yamaha RX-V 550 reciever with a set of wharfedale speakers...8.4s front, 8.1s rear, 8 center and a Powercube 10A sub.

In my SAME living room and in the same corners was my OLD setup of CREATIVE CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS 5.1 speaker setup which was connected to my COMPUTER (also in the living room).

Well..the creative setup HAD to go...too many wires ...and i was hoping of connecting the PC to the reciever....

I have a few questions:

1- I used a wire which on one end looks like a headphone plug and on the other end has 2 RCA plugs..one red , one white....and connected these RCAs to the "CD input on the receiver"....IS this RIGHT???

2- Should I have plugged it into the MD\Tape Recorder input instead??

3- The soundcard on my PC is a soundblaster Live! 5.1.....the plug went into the "BLACK" output on the card....I left the "GREEN" "YELLOW" "BLUE" "PINK" outputs empty.....I can hear sound when I use "CD" on my amp.....BUT I WONDER...AM I GETTING 5.1 SOUND???
FOR EXAMPLE...IF I PLAY doom 3..WILL I GET 5.1 SOUND??

4- aM i PLACING THE AMP UNDER ANY DANGER BY CONNECTING IT TO THE pc??

thanks!!

[corwin99]

1- I used a wire which on one end looks like a headphone plug and on the other end has 2 RCA plugs..one red , one white....and connected these RCAs to the "CD input on the receiver"....IS this RIGHT???

This is right if you want Stereo (2-Channel) sound.

2- Should I have plugged it into the MD\Tape Recorder input instead??

Either should be fine so long as you are not plugging it into the MD/Tape Recorder Output.

3- The soundcard on my PC is a soundblaster Live! 5.1.....the plug went into the "BLACK" output on the card....I left the "GREEN" "YELLOW" "BLUE" "PINK" outputs empty.....I can hear sound when I use "CD" on my amp.....BUT I WONDER...AM I GETTING 5.1 SOUND???
FOR EXAMPLE...IF I PLAY doom 3..WILL I GET 5.1 SOUND??

No you are not getting Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Using the 3.5mm to RCA converter on the analog out will not give you 5.1 sound, but you can get prologic..In order to get digital sound I think you need to do this: you need to use the 3.5mm Digital output on the SBLive and use a Mono 3.5mm to RCA converter, and plug that into your Digital input on your Yamaha (the cable you have right now might work as well on one of the channels). I've seen this on a soundcards before but i am not sure if this is the case with the SB Live 5.1. At any rate, you need to output a digital signal to the Amp to have it decode the 5.1. You might be able to output all 5 channels from the Soundcard as well and use the channel inputs on the Yammie too, but i am not sure.

4- aM i PLACING THE AMP UNDER ANY DANGER BY CONNECTING IT TO THE pc??

No, most likely not.

[oymd]

This is right if you want Stereo (2-Channel) sound.



Either should be fine so long as you are not plugging it into the MD/Tape Recorder Output.



No you are not getting Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Using the 3.5mm to RCA converter on the analog out will not give you 5.1 sound, but you can get prologic..In order to get digital sound I think you need to do this: you need to use the 3.5mm Digital output on the SBLive and use a Mono 3.5mm to RCA converter, and plug that into your Digital input on your Yamaha (the cable you have right now might work as well on one of the channels). I've seen this on a soundcards before but i am not sure if this is the case with the SB Live 5.1. At any rate, you need to output a digital signal to the Amp to have it decode the 5.1. You might be able to output all 5 channels from the Soundcard as well and use the channel inputs on the Yammie too, but i am not sure.



No, most likely not.

Well...I have a bracket that came with my motherboard...it has SPDIF and a Coaxial outputs....can i use any one of these...if i'll use it..i'll have to diable the soundblaster card and activate the ONBOARD audio..

[corwin99]

Well...I have a bracket that came with my motherboard...it has SPDIF and a Coaxial outputs....can i use any one of these...if i'll use it..i'll have to diable the soundblaster card and activate the ONBOARD audio..

The SPDIF should give you a digital signal that you can output to your Yammie to get DD5.1 sound.

[bobhaze]

"Well...I have a bracket that came with my motherboard...it has SPDIF and a Coaxial outputs....can i use any one of these...if i'll use it..i'll have to diable the soundblaster card and activate the ONBOARD audio.."

No you won't. If you're into gaming you may keep some of the Creative enhancements you may lose by using motherboard audio. The SBLive! series all had a digital out option of some sort. On the first ones, there was a separate bracket with both Optical and Coaxial in/out. According to the Creative site this is still available. On later models, the Digital out was either the topmost jack on the card, or on some versions it is also on the Green jack. You select "Digital Output Only" in the Creative mixer app. (or in the windows mixer by selecting advanced settings below the master volume) to change from Analog to Digital out.

However, your receiver will only decode Dolby Digital games, not EAX four point surround. For non DD multichannel games with four point surround you'll need to let the card do it's thing by using three 3.5mm to RCA adaptors in the green, yellow, and black jacks and plugging these into the 6-channel direct in on your receiver, assuming your receiver has one. Green is front l/r, black is rear l/r and yellow is center/sub.

[vr6ofpain]

My sound card's green 3.5mm("headphone") jack is the analog stereo output. The black 3.5mm jack is the digital out. I can get digital output(for movies) if I wanted, but would need a wire with a 3.5mm mono "microphone" jack on one side and a single RCA ("digital coax") on the other. I assume you can get these at Radio Shack, but if not, it would be incredibly simple to make one with 3 runs of ~18-22awg wire(braided), an RCA connector, and a 3.5mm mono connector(all sold at Radio Shack or www.partsexpress.com ).

You would then obviously need to connect the RCA side to the digital coax input on your digital receiver(which may not be possible if you have already used it and dont have more than one digital in, or you only have a toslink input!).

Your options are open.