Help me connect my surround system on my

[ropefly]

I want to connect this surround system to my PC.

Problem is I don't have an optical in but my mobo (Gigabyte B450M-DS3H) supports "Support for S/PDIF Out". After some googling and asking several friends and even online webshops and they all tell me different stuff..

Contacting gigabyte itself apparently takes 10 days+ and I'm getting pretty frustrated..

so

1. Can I install an accessory from gigabyte itself listed here . There's several accessory which plugs in the mobo so I have an optical input. Will this work? And which one do I need ?


2. Or is my only solution to buy an extra soundcard with a direct optical input?

3. Is there a difference in sound quality between the 2 options (assuming both work) as soundcard is like 60$ and the accessory is only 5$





My rig :


AMD Ryzen 7 2700x 4,35GHz AM4 20MB Cache Wraith
Gigabyte B450M-DS3H (B450,AM4,mATX,DDR4,VGA,AMD)
2x 8GB DDR4 PC 3000 CL16 G.Skill 8GISB N
Toshiba 8.9cm (3.5") 1TB SATA3 Desktop DT01ACA100 7200 32 bulk
Gigabyte RTX2070 WINDFORCE 8G 8192MB,PCI-E,HDMI,2xDP,USB-C
stille 700 watt Cooler Master 12cm fan ATX 2.31 voeding met 80+ efficiency
Dragon AZZA Midi ATX Titan 240X kas

 

[dvo]

assuming the green 3.5mm audio port on your motherboard does indeed support sp/dif, which Gigabytes website implies it does, then you could use an adapter like this.

https://www.amazon.com/HTTX-Toslink-Connector-Adapter-2-Pack/dp/B01HAVUF8S/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545135132&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=sp%2Fdif+3.5mm+optical+adapter

I used one of these on a laptop that supported it once. In that case I was able to verify compatibility first by enabling sp/dif in my sound settings and peeking inside the audio jack and seeing the red light that the optical signal would use. Im not sure if that is always the case though.

One question though: is your surround system an audio receiver, and does it have HDMI inputs? HDMI would be a far better choice for audio source because unlike optical, HDMI supports lossless audio and 7.1 audio signals

 

[ropefly]

assuming the green 3.5mm audio port on your motherboard does indeed support sp/dif, which Gigabytes website implies it does, then you could use an adapter like this.

https://www.amazon.com/HTTX-Toslink-Connector-Adapter-2-Pack/dp/B01HAVUF8S/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545135132&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=sp%2Fdif+3.5mm+optical+adapter

I used one of these on a laptop that supported it once. In that case I was able to verify compatibility first by enabling sp/dif in my sound settings and peeking inside the audio jack and seeing the red light that the optical signal would use. Im not sure if that is always the case though.

One question though: is your surround system an audio receiver, and does it have HDMI inputs? HDMI would be a far better choice for audio source because unlike optical, HDMI supports lossless audio and 7.1 audio signals

Thanks for the reply, I really do not have a clue about all this but the surround system is actually an "pretty older" Panasonic "DVD home theater sound system" with Model no. SA-PT860 if that helps anything.
The hdmi av output (on the picture) is the only hdmi connection.

I guess I can always try the fiber optic connector for only 5$ but if someone could confirm this would work 100% that would be great 😀

 

[dvo]

upon further reading, i noticed the motherboard specs say the spdif is through a header. i looked at the manual and there is indeed a header on your motherboard in the lower left corner. it is vertically oriented and has 3 pins total with a space between two of them. to utilize that you would need something like this, which looks similar to some of the items in the link from your original post, however the ones on the gigabyte page you linked do not actually appear to have the same pinout style as what your motherboard appears to have. The one in this link below looks to me like what you would need.

https://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Bracket-Gigabyte/dp/B07FJMD7BF/ref=pd_day0_hl_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FJMD7BF&pd_rd_r=7cd9bc1f-0303-11e9-976d-331c5380a38c&pd_rd_w=sg0ui&pd_rd_wg=dIcGC&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF&psc=1&refRID=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF

 

[ropefly]

upon further reading, i noticed the motherboard specs say the spdif is through a header. i looked at the manual and there is indeed a header on your motherboard in the lower left corner. it is vertically oriented and has 3 pins total with a space between two of them. to utilize that you would need something like this, which looks similar to some of the items in the link from your original post, however the ones on the gigabyte page you linked do not actually appear to have the same pinout style as what your motherboard appears to have. The one in this link below looks to me like what you would need.

https://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Bracket-Gigabyte/dp/B07FJMD7BF/ref=pd_day0_hl_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FJMD7BF&pd_rd_r=7cd9bc1f-0303-11e9-976d-331c5380a38c&pd_rd_w=sg0ui&pd_rd_wg=dIcGC&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF&psc=1&refRID=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF

Thanks for all the help and your time I indeed have a header on my mobo that's why I thought I needed some kind of accessory ^^ can you say for certain it will work after installing the accessory you linked ?

Thanks again! It's been really frustrating to find an awsner regarding this issue

 

[madmatt30]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SPDIF-Optical-and-RCA-Out-Plate-Cable-Bracket-for-ASUS-Gigabyte-MSI-Motherboard/272563710974?epid=621680137&hash=item3f76102bfe:g:XfUAAOSwtJZXXhjX

That's the one you want

 

[unknownofprob]

upon further reading, i noticed the motherboard specs say the spdif is through a header. i looked at the manual and there is indeed a header on your motherboard in the lower left corner. it is vertically oriented and has 3 pins total with a space between two of them. to utilize that you would need something like this, which looks similar to some of the items in the link from your original post, however the ones on the gigabyte page you linked do not actually appear to have the same pinout style as what your motherboard appears to have. The one in this link below looks to me like what you would need.

https://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Bracket-Gigabyte/dp/B07FJMD7BF/ref=pd_day0_hl_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FJMD7BF&pd_rd_r=7cd9bc1f-0303-11e9-976d-331c5380a38c&pd_rd_w=sg0ui&pd_rd_wg=dIcGC&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF&psc=1&refRID=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF

Thanks for all the help and your time I indeed have a header on my mobo that's why I thought I needed some kind of accessory ^^ can you say for certain it will work after installing the accessory you linked ?

Thanks again! It's been really frustrating to find an awsner regarding this issue

Hi Ropefly,

That adapter will definitely work for you. The optical will only support two channels fully uncompressed or 5 channels with dolby digital live compressed. As said above, using HDMI would be a far better alternative to take maximum advantage of the bitrate and frequency with more channels. Even if you do not want to run the screen through the amp, using the HDMI alone to the amplifier will just be seen as another display (which you can set to a very low resolution to minimise GPU loading - but being static would barely affect its performance regardless). being digital audio, there will be no sound quality difference using a dedicated sound card as the audio would not be decoded - that would be done by the external sources DAC (digital to analogue converter). If you have any further questions please feel free to let us know!

 

[ropefly]

upon further reading, i noticed the motherboard specs say the spdif is through a header. i looked at the manual and there is indeed a header on your motherboard in the lower left corner. it is vertically oriented and has 3 pins total with a space between two of them. to utilize that you would need something like this, which looks similar to some of the items in the link from your original post, however the ones on the gigabyte page you linked do not actually appear to have the same pinout style as what your motherboard appears to have. The one in this link below looks to me like what you would need.

https://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Bracket-Gigabyte/dp/B07FJMD7BF/ref=pd_day0_hl_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FJMD7BF&pd_rd_r=7cd9bc1f-0303-11e9-976d-331c5380a38c&pd_rd_w=sg0ui&pd_rd_wg=dIcGC&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF&psc=1&refRID=WS7QWK8SPMKYCVVNMCKF

Thanks for all the help and your time I indeed have a header on my mobo that's why I thought I needed some kind of accessory ^^ can you say for certain it will work after installing the accessory you linked ?

Thanks again! It's been really frustrating to find an awsner regarding this issue

Hi Ropefly,

That adapter will definitely work for you. The optical will only support two channels fully uncompressed or 5 channels with dolby digital live compressed. As said above, using HDMI would be a far better alternative to take maximum advantage of the bitrate and frequency with more channels. Even if you do not want to run the screen through the amp, using the HDMI alone to the amplifier will just be seen as another display (which you can set to a very low resolution to minimise GPU loading - but being static would barely affect its performance regardless). being digital audio, there will be no sound quality difference using a dedicated sound card as the audio would not be decoded - that would be done by the external sources DAC (digital to analogue converter). If you have any further questions please feel free to let us know!

I'm gonna try to have sound with hdmi, extra gpu will not be an issue anyways as I have just got a new PC ^^ but I find it strange it would work with just a hdmi cable ? We even had to use an optical cable on our tv (we got a new one, so I just get the old one for pc) but I will just test it out later today and will let you know!

If this method however works, I don't get why 2 webshops (alternate.be and .nl) and the webshop from my pc didn't know something as simple as this..

thanks for your time !

 

[madmatt30]

Hdmi won't work as you don't have an hdmi input on that receiver.

Optical is your only option.

 

[ropefly]

Hdmi won't work as you don't have an hdmi input on that receiver.

Optical is your only option.

Yeah I tried it ant doesn't seem to work.

Do you have perhaps have a website other than amazone that ships to Belgium (I kinda have to wait almost a month)?

EDIT: ordered from ebay, after googling for 2 hours seems ebay is the only way unless I had to order from shady website with a lot of bad reviews on trustedpilot..

Here's to waiting 30 days on my package :x but thanks for the help everyone !

 

[ropefly]

Hdmi won't work as you don't have an hdmi input on that receiver.

Optical is your only option.

I installed the thingy you recommended, but I have to connect with optical right?
It works but only 2.0 🙁 it seems my mobo requires DTS/Dolby to make it work 5.1 🙁

It only works if I watch something on netflix with 5.1 Audio settings, is there any way to make everything 5.1? Something about splitting steroo sound or something dunno or some unlocked drivers from realtek?

 

[madmatt30]

Ignore the realtek drivers.
Use Windows audio settings & set speakers to 5.1

Stereo sources will still play stereo only unless you use the Pro logic option on the receiver for speaker fill.

Games etc, need to go n into game audio aetti ga & change to surround sound.

Movies etc, what player are you using?

 

[ropefly]

Ignore the realtek drivers.
Use Windows audio settings & set speakers to 5.1

Stereo sources will still play stereo only unless you use the Pro logic option on the receiver for speaker fill.

Games etc, need to go n into game audio aetti ga & change to surround sound.

Movies etc, what player are you using?

https://gyazo.com/f5e2d8acf90db4850c578033e3e7d7ef

When I tested the speakers it only rings twice, front left + right I can't seem to make it active as 5.1
but ti does seems to work (now)

Youtube and anything website related works with the 5.1 and so does netflix but if it doesn't support 5.1 the back 2 speakers don't work(woofer, front and centrum speakers do work) but I guess that's normal ?

I just googled and read all that confusing stuff you need DTS/Dolby support to convert real time audio during games etc? But it seems to work on games and music so in th end it's all gucci


Thank a lot for your help and time 😉

 

[dvo]

technically speaking, dolby digital and DTS 5.1 is actually a 2 channel signal. optical is only capable of two discrete channels. it uses a technique called Matrixing to add in the other channels. the receiver should be able to decode that. i ran that setup for years and it always said 2 channel on the PC (which is correct) but i definitely got DTS 5.1 to my receiver. this was a couple years ago now, so i dont know if windows has better support now or not, but I had to download and install AC3Filter (a small free utility) and force it to not downmix DTS and DD signals to actual 2 channel and instead allow DTS and DD (ac3) passthrough, and had to set VLC or whatever program you use to use AC3 filter instead of the built in codec.

when i had mine set up this way i never tested with games or youtube or anything like that. that machine was strictly for movies in a home theater scenario and my only goal was DD and DTS playback.

stereo sources ideally should still play only stereo, so it sounds like you have that working properly

http://www.ac3filter.net/