Need a PC Cable

Adam Sanchez · 09-14-2005, 08:04 PM

I am looking for a certain cable... if it even exists I would sure appreciate a link where it could be bought.

I am looking for a cable that can go from my Audigy 2 ZS SPDIF out into my Home Theater Reciever's digital input, either Toslink or Coaxal. So I need a plug that is kind of like a stereo mini plug on one end, and a single plug optical/coaxl on the other.

Any help, thank you very much!

Kevin T · 09-14-2005, 10:30 PM

are you talking about a mini-plug optical cable? kinda like this:

if so, just click this link and find a store you like:

http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/se...plug%2Btoslink

kevin t

Adam Sanchez · 09-15-2005, 01:52 AM

Kinda... but not sure that is it exactly. The SPDIF plug on the soundcard is a standard sound card plug.... same format as the other plugs, namely stereo Mini Jacks... you know likw you use to plug in a set of headphones or PC speakers. I have 3 line ins, mic of course, line out, and the SPDIF.

Jesse Blacklow · 09-15-2005, 12:57 PM

You should be able to use a Radio Shack RCA coaxial cable and an RCA to 1/8" adapter. Check your soundcard's manual just to be sure.

Adam Sanchez · 09-15-2005, 01:23 PM

I want to keep it digital. SDPIF do a digital input. If I just use Stereo RCA, it wont let my reciever decode what I send it from the sound card digitally.

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Tekara · 09-15-2005, 01:40 PM

yeah it will, digital pulses over any medium are still digital pulses. All you need to do is use a standard RCA connector (which is all digital coax is really) and just use a mono to RCA adapter that you can buy from the ratshack.

Christian Behrens · 09-15-2005, 01:55 PM

Jesse and Rob are correct, I used to do the exact same thing when I still had an Audigy: normal mono coax cable with a 1/8" mono adapter at one end to plug into the soundcard.

-Christian

Ken Chan · 09-15-2005, 02:00 PM

That is confirmed here. It also mentions some other cables you can get from Creative.

Adam Sanchez · 10-04-2005, 02:31 PM

Hey guys, I thought I would revisit this thread instead of making a new one. I got a new LCD TV recently which is nicely hooked up to my computer but now I wanna get the PC SOUND hooked up to my receiever so my whole PC sound and video is on my HT.

Anyway I have been a little confused. Will a Mini Optical Plug work in my sound card? I always though optical was special, and used light and would only plug into a special plug. Does the mini optical basically make it work in any 3.5 mm jack? (AKA the SPDIF on my Audigy ZS 2?

If that's so, then http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...t=1#largeimage would do just the trick am I right?

I also found http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/RCA-mini-spdif.html but it seems to be alot more, as I would need about 12 feet. My Receiver does have spare Coaxal AND Toslink plugs so either would work as far as my reciever is concerned.

Quote:

Jesse and Rob are correct, I used to do the exact same thing when I still had an Audigy: normal mono coax cable with a 1/8" mono adapter at one end to plug into the soundcard.

I tried this I also wanted to mention. I just took one side of a stereo standard RCA cable and bought the adapter to make RCA into a Miniplug. (It's a MONO miniplug, if that matters.)

The thing is, it didn't work like I thought. If I put a DVD in my PC, load up my DVD player software and use SPDIF passthrough and then set the soundcard itself to passthrough the signal goes to my HT reciever and plays in 5.1 no problem. The little sony multichannel light comes on and all that.

The thing I am confused about is when I play anything ELSE from my computer to my receiever it ONLY plays it in stereo no matter what I do. Just 2 speaker stereo, not even stereo + the sub. The reveiever cant -or wont- even upconvert it to prologic. When I press any of my receivers sound buttons, AFD (Auto format decode) Normal surround, etc, the reciever says "Not in use."

I would like to have the option to have my PC games in Pro Logic, like World of Warcraft for example. Is there a setting I have wrong... or is this simply the way it is going to work? Just really odd my receiver will not do anything with the PC's sound signal unless it's 5.1. It plays 2.0 sound DVDs just fine when I watch old TV shows on DVD. (Play them from my DVD player normally, not my PC's DVD just to be clear.)

Thanks

Ken Chan · 10-04-2005, 04:49 PM

Quote:

it ONLY plays it in stereo no matter what I do. Just 2 speaker stereo, not even stereo + the sub

That would be controlled by the receiver setup. If the mains are set to "Large" then a stereo signal will play over just those two speakers. No redirection of bass to the sub.

Quote:

The reveiever cant -or wont- even upconvert it to prologic

This should be no different than if you play a CD over a digital connection. All the receiver sees is two (digital) stereo signals. 2.0 DVDs are different because that's an AC-3 bitstream that specifically has a flag saying whether it's Surround encoded (which is hopefully set correctly). The receiver may forbid manual overrides of a digital source -- it seems to be saying that as far as it can tell, surround sound is "not in use". With analog, there is no place to include a flag one way or the other; all you have are the two analog signals. So there, you get the option.

If you just want to be "surrounded by sound" you may have better luck with a four- or five-speaker stereo mode, if your receiver has it.

When a PC game has multi-channel audio, they directly drive each channel. To get that audio across into your home theater through a single digital connecti