MadGrip

I'm starting to piece together a PC that will be used as a media centre. The idea is to get rid of the hi-fi & DVD player and relace it with a media pc . I figure I can store loads of music on it , loads of films, surf the net and use it for PC games.
One of the things I'm not sure about is which sound card. I'm wanting to plug it directly into my digital Amp via a digital coax, I've seen these cards available, but will it give me true 5.1 (will card send a digital signal & the Amp decode it) or will it only produce pro logic II ?
I could get a card with the 5.1 sockets & plug these into the 5.1 sockets on the amp ,but I dont really want all the wires, I'd rather just use digi coax
any advice/opinions appreciated
cheers
Phil

MadGrip

anyone

HHxx

I haven't seen coax digital on a lot of cards, only the more expensive ones..

Does the motherboard have built in sound? Most, if not all will have a optical digital out. Does your amp not have any toslink connectors?

If you do have to buy a card, don't go nuts on it. You'll be buying a card with a load of dac's that probably will not ever get used.

John@TunerUK

As above, are you sure you don't have an optical input?
Or, most decent amps will also have individual RCA inputs for each channel. If yours has those you wouldn't need a digitan connection, just 3 x decent 3.5mm jack-twin RCA's, and something like This


P.S. Pc components aren't my thing, so I don't have a clue whether that card is any good, but it does have Dolby Digital and more importantly DTS.

HHxx

How about this one?

HHxx

Also depends on the case/motherboard you use, you may need a half height card.

John@TunerUK

Very nice price! Doesn't mention DTS though

HHxx

I might be wrong, but I think if you are outputting on digital only, then the card doesn't need to decode the steam, it just need to output it/pass through the encoded ac3/dts signal. I'm not sure if that Trust card will do passthrough though..

I know the M-Audio cards will do ac3/dts passthrough, but I think some of them are not MCE compatible.

John@TunerUK

Well at that price, it's worth buying one just to try anyway!

MadGrip

thanks guys. I got the trust one for £11 off of ebay,

My Amp does have optical, but the sky+ box currantly uses that. It also has loads of jacks (in and out) but the amp (2 years old~) only converts the jack signals to pro logic II.

I have 1 optical & 1 coaxial, so.. sky+ using optical & card is going to use Coxaial.

I've ordered everything I need now, apart from the pc3200 ddr, so I'll post up the results next week and let you know how it all comes together

cheers

Phil

John@TunerUK

When I mentioned the jacks, I meant that some amps will have a jack for the centre speaker, a jack for front right, a jack for front left etc etc etc. Exactly what most PC sound cards output via a 3.5mm connection.
Doesn't sound like your amp has that though. Real shame because it's a nice feature.

MadGrip

hi John. I know what you mean mate. my amp has 5.1 Jack inputs, digital coax or optical. it also has stero jack inputs for loads of other AV appliances.

John@TunerUK

Excellent, you don't necessarily need a digital coax then, just 3 decent 3.5 jack to twin RCA leads.

GC8

Phil, you need to pick a sound adapter that is supported by MCE; as opposed to finding one that you think will fit the bill and then trying to get it to work. As I advised in the other thread, Id suggest that you use a sytem board with an integrated high-definition codec and an S/P-DIF.


Simon