Sound card to connect HTPC to Receiver

landale · #1 03-21-2006, 03:18 PM

I am putting together a HTPC around a Gateway computer that was given to me a few months ago and I plan on having the sound go through my Pioneer surround sound receiver. It seems that all I need is to have a sound card with a S/PDIF out jack and that since the signal will be decoded by my receiver all I need is a basic card.

Ideally I would like to get a USB device for this as I have limited PCI slots and would like to reserve those for tuners. It seems that for what I am doing anything with a S/PDIF jack would work the same.

I was looking at the Creative Labs Sound Blaster MP3+ USB as I can get one on the cheap (around $20). I know its a stereo card but since the digital output is being decoded on my receiver, does it really even matter? If needed I could always go up to the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! USB but it just doesn't seem like I need to spend the extra money for my purposes.

As a HTPC the only things I will be playing on it will be TV's shows I record, both in SD and HD as well as DVD's that I rip to the hard drives. Hopefully that helps.

stanger89 · #2 03-21-2006, 04:32 PM

Take a look at the M-Audio Transit.

landale · #3 03-21-2006, 04:38 PM

Seems kinda pricey compared to what I have been looking at. Anything in particular that makes it better then any other external USB sound card with a S/PDIF jack?

Fallen Kell · #4 03-22-2006, 12:03 AM

I think the things you need to make sure it supports are pass-thru of DD surround sound streams and DTS streams. I think others will be able to help more then I can about some of this, especially with dealing with TV shows that have surround sound, since I have not had the chance to test those things out yet (are they even supported?). In anycase, I use a XPlosion sound card now (upgraded from a X-Mystique), which does DD Live encoding and hardware assisted DTS streams from regular discrete audio streams so that surround sound from video games can be sent to my home theater reciever and speakers.

stanger89 · #5 03-22-2006, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by landale

Seems kinda pricey compared to what I have been looking at. Anything in particular that makes it better then any other external USB sound card with a S/PDIF jack?

The biggest thing for me is that it's not from Creative. Plus I'm pretty sure it's known to pass DD/DTS and CD audio unmolested.

alijiwani · #6 03-22-2006, 09:32 AM

I have several Audigy 2s sitting around. We used one in my dad's new SageTV box but configuration seems to be a !@#$%. I have to launch WinDVD to get optical pass through to work for DVDs. With Sage via optical, all I get is 2 channel sound no matter how I tamper with the settings. I ended up connecting it both via optical as well as 5.1 channel - but still only get 2ch sound.

Anyone know what I can do to his machine to make it output 5.1 sound from Sage? Heck, even simulated 5.1 would be appreciated.

thanks
-ali

stanger89 · #7 03-22-2006, 11:03 AM

If you're using WinDVD/Intervideo decoders you need to go into the registry, to the SageTV specific WinDVD decoder settings and set them to S/PDIF.

landale · #8 03-22-2006, 11:25 AM

So if the Creative ones are a bad choice how about the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro? According to the website even though its only simulated 5.1 sound it does indeed pass dolby digital and dts through the s/pdif jack into a receiver. So if this is the case then isn't that all I really need?

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