Noob question (1 Viewer)

[hunterjwizard]

Hi folks,

So on the advice of this helpful forum I went and got a ONKYO HT-S5800 "home theater in a box" system. Finally got the last of the cables for it threaded today. I use a PC as my video source, so I attached the optical cable from my sound card to TV port on the reciever, and after some futzing to get the computer set to the right output, it worked! I of course immediately set about testing it in the only way the gods of technology would allow: by blasting mid-90s j-pop(don't ask, I've been testing my sound systems this way for 20 years and long ago forgot why). Without even having done any calibration/leveling I can tell it's going to do exactly what I need; I get good clear lows and not terribly loud highs. So success there.

However... I'm not even sure how to go about asking this, but it *looks* like it's designed such that sound and video sources are tied together; meaning I can't set it to the optical "tv" input while running a video signal through one of the HDMI ports. I'd be fine with this - except it looks as if I need a display to access the more advanced on-screen features(like the auto-calibration I bought it for). I'm sure this is the dumbest question anyone's ever posted, but I'm not really sure what to do here.

Thank you for your patience.

 

[JohnRice]

Doesn't the hdmi output on your computer also output audio?

 

[hunterjwizard]

The HDMI output is not always attached to the TV. I frequently run with the TV off and using one of the monitors on my desk as a TV, hence the need to use a sound card.