what kind of cable/converter do I need to look for

[Kuciwalker]

I recently acquired a 5.1 speaker system. It comes with this media player... thing, which includes a DVD player and whatnot. It has an optical input that looks like this:



My computer has an optical output that looks like that too, but upon closer examination it doesn't appear to be hooked up to anything. (It's far away from all the other ports for my sound card). However, next to all the regular 3.5mm audio ports is a slightly smaller, about 2.5mm port that's always flashing and says OPTICAL OUT next to it.

What kind of cable do I need to plug into that, and is it possible to get a converter between the two types?

[snoopy369]

Do you mean an optical S/PDIF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPDIF , where you presumably got that image from?) connection?

You would need ... an optical s/pdif cable. I don't think you can 'convert' between optical and anything else, but you may be confused and it may well be the same port (as I've never heard of a different type of optical connection than S/PDIF).

[Kuciwalker]

I have an optical S/PDIF cable. (I actually have two of them.) They look like the picture I posted. My audio card claims to have an S/PDIF out, and when I use it the OPTICAL OUT on the back of the computer lights up. However, that port is just a circle, about 2.5mm wide.

Presumably I just need an optical cable with a different connector at one end.

[snoopy369]

Ohhhhhh. You probably need this:

http://www.amazon.com/TOSLINK-TO-OPTICAL-MINI-ADAPTER/dp/B0002MQGRM

or something like that.

[Asher]

Yes, that is what you need. That is what I use to connect my MBP to my A/V receiver to get DD5.1/DTS.

Note that while it is $2.99 in the US, no one who sells them ships them to Canada and the cheapest they are in Canada is ten times that price...

[Kuciwalker]

Thanks.

[snoopy369]

Optical sound is wonderful, by the way The sound from my current setup is 10x better than my previous arrangement... admittedly having 5.1 instead of 2.0 is probably part of the difference But still...

[Asher]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Optical sound is wonderful, by the way The sound from my current setup is 10x better than my previous arrangement... admittedly having 5.1 instead of 2.0 is probably part of the difference But still...

Optical is obsolete...HDMI 1.3a for the win.

Lossy sound.

[snoopy369]

Optical is lossy? Didn't know that.

Anyway, it's a 1000% improvement from RCA connectors

When my cable box gets nonlossy sound/HDMI sound output, I'll use that. (actually I could run the regular HDMI connection through the 'multimedia' box, but that doesn't have HDMI input I don't believe)

[Asher]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Optical is lossy? Didn't know that.

It depends on the format.

It can do 2-channel PCM lossless (but 16-bit only).

All 5.1 (Dolby Digital, DTS) are lossy.

Optical lacks the bandwidth to have 5.1 lossless.

[snoopy369]

Ahh, gotcha. I don't think my cable box provides any lossless signal in any event, so ...

When bluray gets a bit cheaper, perhaps i'll get a BR player that can act as the media center hub (or whatever you call the thing that connects the speakers and whatnot, and takes the sound output from the cable box)... presumably by that point it will have an HDMI input.

[Kuciwalker]

That's what I have now, except w/o bluray (just an upconverting DVD player).

[Sir Og]

Originally posted by Asher


Optical is obsolete...HDMI 1.3a for the win.

Lossy sound.

Do you output HDMI with multichannel lossless audio from your PC?

I haven't checked recently but 6 months ago there were very few solutions to output 5.1 or 7.1 lossless from a PC and they were too expensive.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Sir Og


Do you output HDMI with multichannel lossless audio from your PC?

I haven't checked recently but 6 months ago there were very few solutions to output 5.1 or 7.1 lossless from a PC and they were too expensive.

No, only from my PS3 right now (Bluray and streamed audio/video from the PC).

I'm not sure there's much of a point in lossless audio using PC speakers, unless you have a HTPC.