Making my PC a part of my budding home theater (1 Viewer)

This will (hopefully) be my one and only post, at least in 'Basics'. I got here by Googling 'Home Theater Forum' (saw a thread where someone wondered about "1 posters").

I have a PC with a Creative X-Fi Elite Pro soundcard going out to a Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 speaker set, and an ATI HD3600 series vid card.
I have a Vizio 47" LCD TV.
I have some Sony integrated DVD receiver thing with 5.1 speakers.

I want to hook the PC up to the TV and sound system. I can hook up the TV no problem (DVI, but I can always upgrade the card to something with HDMI later). I'm running into trouble/ confusion over the sound system.

First, I know I'll need a REAL receiver, and I've got the research on that, that's no problem. And I know I can use mini plugs to stereo RCA wires to connect the sound card to the receiver (it's only a 5.1 system, not a 7.1, I'm not greedy). The speakers from the Sony thing (because I'm trying to cannibalize as much as I can here) all use regular speaker wire, and for the front and rear speakers, the receivers I'm looking at have compression clamps for speaker wire - if I remember correctly, even for the center channel. And that's good, because I do like the speakers from the Sony DVD receiver thing.

I'm running into confusion over the subwoofer.

The subwoofer as part of the Sony DVD thing is not powered (speaker-level input?), connects on both ends with regular speaker wire.

The receivers I'm researching look as though the subwoofer connects via an RCA jack. Bearing in mind that I just started reviewing this 2 hours ago: Is that likely the case? As an example, one of the receivers I'm looking at is the Yamaha RX-V365. And if it's the case, would a simple speaker wire to RCA wire (or an RCA wire with 1 end cut off) work, because it's a speaker-level input? If I understand correctly, I don't want to connect the z-5300e's sub to the system (it uses a mini plug input) BECAUSE it is powered and that would only end in tears. Or will I have to get a separate subwoofer?

I'd appreciate any advice. I say this will be my one post because I'm a computer ninja, but a home theater dunce, and won't be any help to anyone in that regard.

 

[Al.Anderson]

The subwoofer as part of the Sony DVD thing is not powered (speaker-level input?), connects on both ends with regular speaker wire.

The receivers I'm researching look as though the subwoofer connects via an RCA jack.

There are powered and passive subwoofers. Although most people would consider a passive sub as not really a sub. The reason they are powered is that it takes a fair amount of power to push the low frequencies. You'll get much better sound froma powered sub.

The input to a powered sub is "line-level"; that is, not amplified. (Since the sub does the amplification.) I'm not sure what would happen if you ran an amplified signal to a powered sub, except I sure that you'd have crappy sound.

I couldn't quite tell where you're going with the Logitechs, but you don't want to be using the PC speakers with your HT receiver. It probably won't work, and it definitely won't work well.

 

[CB750]

I have an ATI 4800 series video card which has an HDMI output. Although I have not tried this from what I have read this video card will pass both Video and Audio signal on the HDMI port. If this is true then the ideal connection would be Video Card HDMI out to Sony receiver HDMI input, Sony receiver HDMI video out to Vizio TV.

I have the Logitech Z5300 on my computer and although you didn't list what model Sony you have it sounds like a HTib, I don't think the Sony 5.1 would offer much if any sound improvement. Perhaps your better bet would just retain the Logitech as your sound system and connect your PC to your TV as you would a computer monitor.

Perhaps it would help if you told us how the TV fits into the mix. Do you use cable or satellite signal.