How to get surround sound from my PC?? [solved]

[dudebro5]

This is confusing me way more than it should. I want surround sound from my computer, so I'm going to get a 5.1 sound card. But the out put from the sound cards I'm looking at have jacks for front, back, and subwoofer/center. While my reciever and other recievers I've looked at online only have inputs for right/left, and then I'm assuming they use their own algorithm to create a fake surround sound? Do I need to find a reciever with the correct inputs?

Answer: Well after further research I found the answer myself. Updating this for anyone else who might be confused. You would in fact need a reciever with 5.1 inputs for the analog 5.1 outputs of audio cards. Unfortunately modern recievers don't have 5.1 input. The best solution is to run your hdmi through a reciever and let that handle the audio.

 

[Rocky Bennett]

Yes you do if you want "REAL" surround sound. Those receivers that only have left/right inputs only have matrixed 5.1 which does not sound good.

 

[robert600]

Answer: Well after further research I found the answer myself. Updating this for anyone else who might be confused. You would in fact need a reciever with 5.1 inputs for the analog 5.1 outputs of audio cards. Unfortunately modern recievers don't have 5.1 input. The best solution is to run your hdmi through a reciever and let that handle the audio.

I agree that hdmi is the best solution however since you specifically say 5.1 ... another perfectly acceptable one is with digital out (S/PDIF, etc) cabled either with RCA (coaxial) or TOSLINK (optical). The reason I'm mentioning this is ... as more and more folks switch over to hdmi receivers .... there are a lot of really good 2nd hand receivers out there that use these inputs so ... someone on a tight budget could get amazing sound for very little investment. The only drawback is that with this type of digital out ... 5.1 is as good as it gets. For 7.1 ... you need hdmi!