Help with setting up Sound system

[mikeatlam]

Hi all,

I have a dilemma on my hands and just to point it out from now I suck when it comes to setting up sound systems lol.

I have an Onkyo TX-SV525 which I would like to set up with surround on my PC, Now my sound card is 5.1 capable.

So this is how I connected everything:

4x Speakers:

L & R
Ls & Rs
Centre
No sub for now.

Since I am connecting to a PC I used a RCA to jack cable on the main output on the pc, Now I am sure that I need to connect the green and black to enable the LR surround and Centre however on the CD part of the amp I only have the 2 Red and white connection.

It does not support SPDIF unfortunately.

I was thinking to getting an RCA splitter but to get it three pairs of outputs Ill end up have a splitter within a splitter and making a meme out of it

Hope someone can shed some light on this situation.

Thanks!!

Rgds,
Mike

[kalniel]

You can't. Your onkoyo isn't a surround capable amp, it just takes stereo input and pretends.

Take the stereo/front out from your computer and plug it into the CD input to the amp - a 3.5mmjack to phono cable will do.

[mikeatlam]

I am pretty sure it does to be honest as it takes the speakers and on the manual it says it is surround capable considering its got dolby- sound (not sure if that makes a diff the Dolby) however on the back their for Centre Sub-woofer Left and Right Speakers and also Ls and Rs, I mean why have them their if they don't work, When I plug the RCA to jack on my PC on the green output of the sound card the left and right speaker works however the Left Rear and Right rear do not, thus when I plug the jack in the black output of the soundcard the Rear Speakers work, So their must be something I must require in order to achieve this no?

Thanks so much btw for the reply however I think (might be wrong) that their must be more to it.

[mikeatlam]

This is the product info of the amp

Product description
Product Information
Plenty of pristine power drives your home theater system perfection. In surround mode you get 60 watts per channel to your front L/R and center speakers, plus 20 watts per channel to your L/R surround speakers.Onkyo's intelligent Power Management (IPM) system switches on the TX-SV525 and automatically selects video-1 when you turn on your TV. Giving you instant surround sound.Onkyo's RI (Remote Interactive) remote control gives you command of the major function of virtually any Onkyo component the bears the RI symbol.

Product Identifiers
Brand Onkyo
Model SV525
Family Line Onkyo TX
Product Type Home Theater Receivers
MPN TXSV525

Key Features
Channels 5.1
Output Power 220 Watt
Amplifier Output Details 20 Watt - 8 Ohm - at 1 kHz - THD 0.8% - 2 channel(s) ( rear ), 60 Watt - 8 Ohm - at 1 kHz - THD 0.08% - 1 channel(s) ( center ), 60 Watt - 8 Ohm - at 1 kHz - THD 0.08% - 2 channel(s) ( front )
Sound Output Type AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
HDMI No
3D Ready No
Built-in Decoders Dolby Pro Logic
Receiver Tuner Type Digital
Receiver Tuner Bands AM/FM
Response Bandwidth 20 - 30000 Hz

Connectivity
Connectors Type 1 X Composite (Video) output - rear, 1 X Headphones output - front, 2 X Analog Audio output - rear, 2 X RCA (2 Audio Channels) output - rear, 3 X RCA (2 Audio Channels) input - rear, 4 X Analog Audio input - rear
Headphone Jack Yes

Miscellaneous
Remote Control Type Remote control
Cables Included Remote control cable
Bass Control Yes
Included Accessories AM antenna, FM antenna

Dimensions
Height 6.69 in.
Width 17.91 in.
Weight 26.01 lb.

[mikeatlam]

I did more research, you were right it's impossible which is stupid really considering it offers 5.1 surround, Gotten my hands on an Digital to Analogue converter to get it to work, Now to wait for it to arrive.

Thanks for the help Kalniel!

[Barakka]

This is the product info of the amp

Key Features
Channels 5.1
Built-in Decoders Dolby Pro Logic

This is the key info, it's a Dolby Pro Logic capable amp. Pro Logic encodes the Ls and Rs (or Ls/Rs/C/Sub in Pro Logic II) into the stereo left & right channels. So if you feed the stereo output from a Dolby Pro Logic source (like a Wii) into the amp it can decode the surround channels from the stereo signal.

Pro Logic Info

[davitalord]

follow instructions

[mikeatlam]

Thanks all to the help, I read the instructions and followed them none indicated to set up the settings ,

I got the anolouge to digital converter and now have it connected as so:

RCA from amp to converter (input) and the output is now SPDIF to the sound card on the pc.

Still no luck though :/

Any ideas?

[mikeatlam]

This is the key info, it's a Dolby Pro Logic capable amp. Pro Logic encodes the Ls and Rs (or Ls/Rs/C/Sub in Pro Logic II) into the stereo left & right channels. So if you feed the stereo output from a Dolby Pro Logic source (like a Wii) into the amp it can decode the surround channels from the stereo signal.

Pro Logic Info

Won't a PC or sound card be capable of that though?

[Barakka]

Won't a PC or sound card be capable of that though?

I've not had dealings with Dolby on PCs only on dubbing stages and the odd home cinema setup, but if I was guessing i'd say no. The Dolby algorithms are highly guarded and individually licenced so implementing them comes with a cost to the manufacturers. Effectively what you're after is the PC to take the sound signal, I imagine already in Dolby or DTS 5.1, decode it to discreet channels, and then re-encode it into Pro Logic or PLII to play out via the stereo outputs. With PL/PLII being an "old" standard that was never massively popular I would have thought it doubtful many manufacturers will be licensing the encoder from Dolby these days, happy to be proved wrong though, not something i've looked into. It will be software/driver based rather than hardware based, hardware Dolby encoding is very expensive, only places like Sky/BBC/ITV have hardware encoders as their content is delivered in 6 discreet channels and then encoded to 5.1 / PLII on-the-fly at broadcast, even big studios hire equipment like that when needed to avoid the high costs. What you "may" be able to do is take video files with 5.1 audio and re-encode them with some software to create a PLII audio track ?

[mikeatlam]

I initially wanted to the surround for Games to be honest I guess Ill just be happy with Dolby on left and right only or press my dad to give me his Marantz .

Thanks for the the help it makes sense really but sound was never my thing xD

Peace

[Preacher]

I have got a 5.1 system linked up with phono red and black to 3.5mm jack.

I set the surround amp to pro logic II and it gives me the 5.1

You could try that?

[mikeatlam]

I have got a 5.1 system linked up with phono red and black to 3.5mm jack.

I set the surround amp to pro logic II and it gives me the 5.1

You could try that?

I discovered from this Forum that the AMP I have does not have Pro Logic II supported on :/, So I guess I must attach the amp that can decode it to Pro Logic II.

Thanks just the same for the suggestion