Advice Wanted: PC Output to Yamaha HTR-5740

[null_pointer_us]

I've got a nice 5.1/6.1 channel receiver and a mix of new and old speakers. The receiver is fairly expensive and supposedly a very good receiver in good condition, but it's also rather outdated. I'm hoping that SageTV can be configured to output 5.1 audio for 5.1 sources and stereo for stereo sources, w/o killing the voices.


Overview

To make things simple, here's the desired setup:

• SageTV PC
  • PC Audio --> HTR-5740 Receiver
  • PC Video --> HDTV (DVI/HDMI)

Forget about video passthrough. The receiver is so old that its best video pass-through is component, which is inferior to the D-SUB/DVI/HDMI input on the HDTV.

I will not be connecting audio to the HDTV; it's got nothing better than stereo input, the internal speakers are crap, and the built-in volume control is useless when the internal speakers are muted.

The receiver seems to accept an audio delay, and the TV's video processing effects can be disabled by setting something called a gaming mode, so I should be able to work out any sync issues on my own.

Speakers

• Connected
  • Front L (A) --> (8 ohm) Sony SS-6000P Floorstanding w/ int. sub
  • Front R (A) --> (8 ohm) Sony SS-6000P Floorstanding w/ int. sub
  • Front L (B) -->
  • Front R (B) -->
  • Surround L -->
  • Surround R -->
  • Center --> (8 ohm) Sony SS-5000N Center
  • Back -->
• Unused
  • (6 ohm) Yamaha NS-AP4400M (large bookshelf)
  • (6 ohm) Yamaha NS-AP4400M (large bookshelf)
  • (6 ohm) Yamaha NS-AP4400S (small)
  • (6 ohm) Yamaha NS-AP4400S (small)

The receiver expects an 8-ohm connection to all speakers, so how well would the 6 ohm bookshelf speakers work with this setup? There's some capability to configure per-channel volume levels, but I'm not sure whether that allows for separate volume levels for front channel pairs A and B.

Due to the layout of the room, speaker wire is impossible to run for the surround/back channels. Would a wireless audio kit conflict with 2.4 GHz wireless networking? We had some problems with the microwave and 2.4 GHz cordless phones before.


Receiver

Here is the product page for the Yamaha HTR-5740. The manual is available there. Note: free Yamaha account required for downloads.

On the back of the receiver, there are the following audio ports:

• DTV/DVD Input
  • Optical
  • RCA (mono) L
  • RCA (mono) R
• MULTI-CH Input
  • RCA (mono) Front L
  • RCA (mono) Front R
  • RCA (mono) Surround L
  • RCA (mono) Surround R
  • RCA (mono) Center
  • RCA (mono) Subwoofer

PC Audio Out (option 1)

I've got a PC motherboard with a Realtek ALC662 audio chip. Analog output appears to be stereo-only. I'm not sure if those three jacks are programmable.


PC Audio Out (option 2)

The second option is some Montego-based sound card (DDX?) laying around that is supposed to do realtime encoding of all audio to some dolby digital out, but I could never get this to work with the receiver. I'm not sure if the drivers are compatible with Vista.


So, out of this huge mess, how would you set things up?

[gplasky]

Best bet would be optical (SPDIF) out. Your mb has an internal connector for it if you don't have it on the back panel. That easily gives you any and/or all options you could want with your receiver. Forget the Montego with real time encoding. With the optical out stereo will play stereo and 5.1 is 5.1. Use AC3Filter if you feel a need to be creative with the output. But passthru is really all you need.

Gerry

[Fuzzy]

I am guessing that the 3 jacks on the back of your motherboard ARE configurable. Download the newest drivers, and try plugging jacks into them. Most times it will allow you to configure them in the RealTek app that runs in the system tray. This would actually give you quite a bit of flexability running analog into the multi-channel inputs on the receiver. You might want to check that your Audio is configured to use the 'Azalia' chip in the BIOS. This will enable the higher audio capabilities, over use the basic AC'97 version.

As for the speaker arrangement, the 6 ohm speakers should work okay, just go through and try to match the volumes as even as you can with the receivers speaker test.

[MitchSchaft]

Component isn't inferior . Is it?

[Fuzzy]

no, not really. Though marketing will tell you that digital >> analog...

[null_pointer_us]

Hmm...it looks like there are two very good ways of doing this.

My P31-A7 motherboard only has a 3-pin SPDIF header, not the jacks. I checked the pin assignment in the manual and located a combination coax/optical bracket with compatible wiring. We have a nice, long optical cable for this.

But I read somewhere that if I use digital pass-through like an optical cable, it will not be possible to control the volume via SageTV. Is this true? Among other things, I'm trying to reduce the number of remotes (currently, 6 total!) people need to deal with to watch or listen to something in the entertainment center.

We don't have enough cables here for six-channel analog, so I must buy something either way.

[gplasky]

Yes-if you go optical you'll have to control the volume via the receiver. That is why I use a Harmony remote which can also learn all the codes. One single remote for 6 audio/video components.

Gerry

[Fuzzy]

Almost any universal remote on the market anymore offers the capability to control volume on the receiver (no matter what 'mode' it is in).

[null_pointer_us]

That's good to know, but I'll just stick with the old Firefly remote. There are three of these remotes in different rooms; switching the living room remote to something else, with multiple modes (), would cause confusion. I'd rather just get the tech-savvy people in the family into the habit of ripping stuff into the SageTV server so that everyone can access any digital media we've got with the familiar SageTV UI + Firefly remote (or mouse) from any TV or computer.

EDIT: Is HD normally so incredibly quiet compared to SD? We switched from an HD recording with -5 dB on the receiver to an SD recording, and it nearly blew the house off its foundation. With the receiver at -25 dB (i.e. 1/4 the volume?), the SD recording seemed fine. How do you deal with this?

[Fuzzy]

That's totally up to the source. The HD recordings audio is basically exactly as it was broadcast. the SD could have any number of differences in it (volume on the STB, playback volume in sage, etc).

[Polypro]

Will your HTPC be decoding and outputting Blu-ray audio via TMT or PDVD? if so, wouldn't you want to go analog out (Green/Black/Orange 1/8" to RCA) from the motherboard...to the analog inputs on the receiver...to get TrueHD/DTS-MA via LPCM once the player decodes it? It may be downsampled 16/48, but it'll sound better than DD or DTS. I do this with my Xonar and Onkyo 606 via the DVD Multichannel Input.

P

[Fuzzy]

Yes, analog will be better quality, especially when dealing with TMT3. however, digital will also still 'work', even with the HDAudio channels. TMT3 (and I think PowerDVD) can re-encode to DTS or DolbyDigital on the fly. It's not HD, but it's decent. Still, if I had my HTPC anywhere near my Receiver, I'd be running analog multi-channel, because it WILL be better quality.

[null_pointer_us]

I haven't looked into Blu-ray yet. The drives and media had a big price premium over DVD stuff last I checked. But it's good to know that the analog 5.1 quality will be great for when we do upgrade to Blu-ray.

We ordered this case and these audio cables. I'll add a 1.5 TB Green HDD and some DVD ripping software (from Slysoft?). This way anyone can rip DVDs.

This weekend I trudged into the cable jungle behind the entertainment center, armed with only a flashlight and some wire ties. I popped the removable back panel off the entertainment center to make adequate airflow for the soon-to-be-occupied computer shelf. Nearly all the cables were in the way, so I redid every connection (video -> TV, audio -> receiver). Luckily, everything worked fine during post-setup testing. How rare that is!

EDIT: Does anyone have experience with wireless speaker connection hardware? We already have the speakers and the receiver; we just need a way to connect them from across the room without running speaker cable.