ElementalVibe
Auditioning
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2009
- Messages
- 3
- Real Name
- Stephen
I'd just like to start out by saying I'm relatively new to the whole Home Theater Setup and such. I recently acquired, over the past few months, a great interest in the workings of speakers, HT setups, and the like. I've researched some things in my free time but still have some lingering questions on setting up my own little thing in my room.
My dad left me a DVD "Home Theater in a Box" system that comes with its own basic speakers and subwoofer (it's 5.1 surround). Here's the model and its specs: www.retrevo.com/search. The Front L/R, Rear L/R, and Subwoofer speakers are all plugged into the back of the system. It's nothing special, really, but as a beginner that's experimenting and all, it does me just fine I think.
I am looking to purchase a monitor for Christmas and am pretty confident on buying this one (multiple inputs for video was my main interest): www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx. The reason I am looking into a monitor rather than a TV is, one, my room wouldn't be able to display anything bigger very well, and two, it's practically a portable HDTV I can use at college and such.
Ok... With all that being said:
I plan to use my laptop's HDMI out port to plug into one of the back HDMI input ports on the monitor as well as plugging my game console (be it PS3 or XBOX 360) into the other HDMI input port (there's 2 total on the monitor). The monitor has a headphone out jack on the right side, allowing output of sound (it also has an optical audio out on the back). I would also like to plug my iPod into the RGB Audio IN Port via a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable.
My question lies here: If I were to use a 3.5mm male to 2 RCA male cable (www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp), would the monitor be able to take the digital input of audio from any given HDMI cord and output it through the analog left/right ends? The 3.5mm end would connect into the monitor, obviously, and the left/right analog ends into the audio output jacks on the back of my DVD/HTiB system. If so, will it output 2-channel or 5.1 audio to my speakers? Does it depend on whether or not the source supports 5.1 (e.g. playing an older game that doesn't support 5.1 versus one that does)?
In regards to the above questions, I devised another possible plan if the above option wasn't plausible. How would a Digital to Analog Converter Box work? Something like this: www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp. I figured I could use an Optical TOSLINK cable from my monitor and run it to this converter. Then from there I would have left/right audio cables (male on both sides) plugged into the converter on one end, the other end plugging into the DVD/HTiB audio out jacks. Should I void this method completely? This method, as I see it, produces the same result as my first configuration with the 3.5mm/RCA cable, just way more expensive. Would there be any advantage to this method?
I guess my main concern is what option will actually give me sound to my speakers with my game consoles, laptop, and iPod? Which option will then give me a 5.1 surround sound? Will both work the same way? Any recommendations on a more efficient way of setting this up?
Meh... I know this is a lot of random questions/information. xD Nonetheless, any advise is greatly appreciated, and I value any poster's time on helping me with this whole thing. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Stephen
My dad left me a DVD "Home Theater in a Box" system that comes with its own basic speakers and subwoofer (it's 5.1 surround). Here's the model and its specs: www.retrevo.com/search. The Front L/R, Rear L/R, and Subwoofer speakers are all plugged into the back of the system. It's nothing special, really, but as a beginner that's experimenting and all, it does me just fine I think.
I am looking to purchase a monitor for Christmas and am pretty confident on buying this one (multiple inputs for video was my main interest): www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx. The reason I am looking into a monitor rather than a TV is, one, my room wouldn't be able to display anything bigger very well, and two, it's practically a portable HDTV I can use at college and such.
Ok... With all that being said:
I plan to use my laptop's HDMI out port to plug into one of the back HDMI input ports on the monitor as well as plugging my game console (be it PS3 or XBOX 360) into the other HDMI input port (there's 2 total on the monitor). The monitor has a headphone out jack on the right side, allowing output of sound (it also has an optical audio out on the back). I would also like to plug my iPod into the RGB Audio IN Port via a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable.
My question lies here: If I were to use a 3.5mm male to 2 RCA male cable (www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp), would the monitor be able to take the digital input of audio from any given HDMI cord and output it through the analog left/right ends? The 3.5mm end would connect into the monitor, obviously, and the left/right analog ends into the audio output jacks on the back of my DVD/HTiB system. If so, will it output 2-channel or 5.1 audio to my speakers? Does it depend on whether or not the source supports 5.1 (e.g. playing an older game that doesn't support 5.1 versus one that does)?
In regards to the above questions, I devised another possible plan if the above option wasn't plausible. How would a Digital to Analog Converter Box work? Something like this: www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp. I figured I could use an Optical TOSLINK cable from my monitor and run it to this converter. Then from there I would have left/right audio cables (male on both sides) plugged into the converter on one end, the other end plugging into the DVD/HTiB audio out jacks. Should I void this method completely? This method, as I see it, produces the same result as my first configuration with the 3.5mm/RCA cable, just way more expensive. Would there be any advantage to this method?
I guess my main concern is what option will actually give me sound to my speakers with my game consoles, laptop, and iPod? Which option will then give me a 5.1 surround sound? Will both work the same way? Any recommendations on a more efficient way of setting this up?
Meh... I know this is a lot of random questions/information. xD Nonetheless, any advise is greatly appreciated, and I value any poster's time on helping me with this whole thing. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Stephen