Help with adding speakers to 42" plasma tv

Yes.
But computer speakers don't hook up very well to receivers. They also may not be able to handle the power of the receiver.

What you need is an HTIB (home theater in a box). Here's one: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HT-Z320-Home-Theater-System/dp/B001XCX9K2/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&s=aht&qid=1255003563&sr=1-26
This has one optical input though. You might want to get a system with more optical and digital coax inputs, in case you want to hookup a dvd player, ps3 or Xbox, etc.

What source(s) are you using?  Cable/Satellite, DVD, Blu-Ray, game systems?

A common misconception is that the digital audio out on TVs can be used to feed a surround sound system.  This is not true in nearly every case.

Any audio that is fed into your tv from an external source (like the ones listed above) will be downcoverted to simple stereo before it is sent out of the "digital audio out" jack on the back of the TV.  Only audio picked up from the TV's own internal tuner can be output in 5.1.

If you have multiple sources capable of 5.1 or better sound, your best bet is to get an Audio/Video Reciever and a set of 5.1 speakers.  An A/V receiver serves as the "hub" of the system.  All sources (both video and audio) are routed through the receiver.  A single video cable is run from the receiver to the TV and the sound is channeled to the 5.1 speaker system.  Typically, the TV's speakers (which are nothing to write home about anyway) are completely bypassed.

The most inexpensive solutions (you didn't mention a specific budget - do you have a figure in mind?) like Ed mentioned are all-in-one home theater in a box systems.  Such systems are very easy to set up and convenient, but are often limited in the number of inputs available to them, and the speaker build quality is often their weakest link.

There are a number of good HTiB systems from Onkyo, Panasonic, Samsung, etc.  If you can tell us what devices you want to hook up to the system, whether it's HD or not, and what sort of budget you have in mind, we can probably make some good recommendations for you.

With some TVs you won't even get this much.  Some don't pass anything at all via the digital audio out (coax or optical).  It is only there for digital signals from its own internal tuner.

 

The short answer to John's basic question is "No"  You can't connect external speakers to your TV, and you can't use the optical output to get digital sound from sources other than the TV tuner.   There's no way to upgrade the sound for this TV that does not involve buying some kind of receiver and some real (not PC) speakers.

The recommendations for Onkyo and similar HTiBs above are good ones, but at a miminum John is looking at dropping a couple of hundred bucks on either cheap separates or a good HTiB (a bit less if he goes used) to get decent sound to go with that cool picture.  "There is no royal (or cheap) road to home theater"

Regards,

Joe

Again, what source(s) are you talking about - digital cable?  Satellite?  DVD/Blu-Ray?  XBox/PS3/Wii?

If you have the old stereo receiver, you can probably simply pass the audio (using stereo RCA jacks) from the source (whatever it is) directly into the stereo.  No need to use the VCR.  If you have multiple sources, and your stereo only has one set of inputs, then you're back to square one and need some sort of switching device (i.e. an A/V receiver).

Perhaps it would help if you were to tell us what your eventual goals are.  Do you simply want better stereo sound than what the TV speakers provide?  Do you want any sort of surround sound?  Do you want to "get there in one quick and easy step" or are you willing to invest in/build a system over time?