Using 5.1 PC speakers for TV/Music

Spunge

Is it possible for me to use a 5.1 PC speaker set on just a TV?

I was thinking if it was possible/easy/practical to use these :http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002WPSCG/sr=1-1/qid=1155455985/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6561787-6347206?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
or a similiar set, for watching TV and more importantly, listening to music from my xbox through my tv.

Is this possible by just using the headphone socket of the TV?

Idleater

Spunge wrote:

Is it possible for me to use a 5.1 PC speaker set on just a TV? ...
...
... Is this possible by just using the headphone socket of the TV?

yes, but most likely (99.9% sure) you will only get stereo sound - i.e. sound from the left and right speaker (with possibly the sub chipping in with the low frequencies if wired to handle it). You would not get 5.1 surround sound, if that is what you are asking - unless (the .1% chance left over) your t.v. has a pro logic decoder in it with outputs for rear surround speakers and your speakers can handle the connections.

Spunge wrote:

...for watching TV and more importantly, listening to music from my xbox through my tv.

Why, would you want to listen music from your xbox on your TV?

If you are looking for 5.1 surround sound from the XBox, you will need to plug the optical output into a Dolby Digital decoder. This will give you sockets for your 5.1 speakers. This is entirely independant from the TV which is just a display then for the visual games et al.


L.

Spunge

I guess i'll need one of those then. Can you recommend a model or a place to buy one online?

Lump

It depends if any of the sources you are using are encoded 5.1 sound, in Ireland and England there is no Surround Sound on tv. When Freeview was brought in, they decided to have more channels and drop surround sound. Pity if you ask me. American stuff is mostly broadcast with 5.1.

Hardly any music is 5.1, classical etc is more likely to be 5.1.

John

godtabh

I've the above speakers.

Have them set up with my xbox 360 and dvd player.

Not sure how you would get 5.1 out of the tv alone but if you can watch your tv threw your dvd player you can use your dvd players outputs to hook up to you 5.1 system. Dont think it will be true 5.1 sound

godtabh

Lump wrote:

Hardly any music is 5.1, classical etc is more likely to be 5.1.

John

This got me interested and I checked my music collection (well some of it)

CJ Bolland - The Analogue Thearte appears to be 5.1.

You an also play music threw 5.1 and it comes out all speakers but i dont think its "real" 5.1

andy1249

SACD 's and DVD Audios come in 5.1 but they are mostly classical , there have been a lot of re-issues lately in 5.1 such as Neil young , Pink Floyd , Bob Dylan , also some newer stuff , such as Nora jones , Katie Melua , The Flaming lips and stuff like that.

While the stuff sounds excellent its all pretty much typical 5.1 material , for instance Dark side of the moon , while released in the 70's , was always going to be a candidate for surround sound , likewise with classical as it puts you in the conductors position.

These also dont rip to MP3 , SACD's are typically hybrid and have a stereo track as well and when backed up to MP3 this is what is ripped.
DVD audio wont rip to MP3 at all.

Most Music DVD's are also 5.1 .

However I think that the effect you are looking for with music is a repeat of the left and right front channels fed to the rear to give a pseudo surround effect which is very popular at the moment and listed on most amp specs as Dolby Pro Logic II ( Music ).

Sky broadcasts most movies in 5.1 these days , along with a lot of the music channels and the performance channel. You need a Sky+ box or better for this though.

For all of the above the 5.1 channels must be fed to a proper decoder , which is going to be in an AV amp Reciever of some sort , even if its only a basic amp and speaker package.

Incidentally , surround sound history runs like this ,

Dolby Surround = Analog , with the front channels summed and fed in series through the back rear speakers.

Dolby pro logic = Analog , almost identical to the above but with a centre channel added for speech , which is filtered from the front left and right.

Dolby digital 5.1 = Completely digital system whereby at least Six channels of audio are recorded and fed through individual channels to six speakers , Front left , front right , Rear left , rear right , Centre speaker , and subwoofer , .

Note that Dolby Digital can also refer to PCM stereo tracks , or Dolby Digital 2.0 as it would be called. Just saying Dolby Digital in itself does not automatically mean its 5.1 surround. !

DTS is Digital theatre system and is very similar to Dolby Digital , consisting of separate digital tracks for the channels.

6.1 and 7.1 add extra channels to the rear for more clarity but very few sources have yet to use them , most movies are in 5.1 still.

So Dolby pro logic is not the same as Dolby Digital , not even remotely.

Your TV will most likely have a RCA stereo output consisting of left and right stereo only.
If its a rare expensive model it may well have a multichannel input/output but in this case will most likely have shipped with surround speakers as well , if not , your only option for surround is to by an amp and speakers.

Hope this helps.

godtabh

Where does 5.1 stuff come in i.e stuff that isnt digital but is surround sound?

andy1249

There is no non digital 5.1 , if its marked as Dolby Digital 5.1 then the source has at least six digitally encoded tracks , the closest non digital version is Dolby pro logic and that is derived from a stereo track , but that should never be marked as 5.1 as that would be misleading.

godtabh

I've a set of speakers. It doesnt say digital on them but there seems to be 5.1 sound comming from them ie you can hear sounds in all directions. An example would be a helicopter coming the back and flying over head.

The speaker connections has front, rear and back connections

andy1249

Then they are either digital 5.1 or analog pro logic , it should say on the amp or in the manual .

godtabh

andy1249 wrote:

Then they are either digital 5.1 or analog pro logic , it should say on the amp or in the manual .

Must check it out. I dont think it mentioned either. I just bought it cause it had surround sound and they were handy for gaming.

Edit:

I use these speakers with this external surround card for the laptop and I also hook the speakers up to the xbox 360

Fallschirmjager

well i wont get involved with the is music and tv 5.1 or isnt it discussion. these thread has deviated a bit so i will add a bit about the pc speakers to non pc sources...



you can use 5.1 PC speakers for you tv but you need to keep a few things in mind before you purchase.

if you get the creative labs 7.1 pc speaker kit and you want to run a dvd player of it you will also need to buy their ddts-100 externl box. this works by passing thru the signals to the typical 3 cable analog pc speaker kit. to explain. these are powered by the sub. so the sub powers the speakers. normally u connect your pc to the sub. creative have an external product called ddts-100 (almost like a converter) that allows you to pass say a dvd player, or xbox, mp3 player to the speakers without your pc switched on. it turns it into a home theatre. i have not tried this DDts-100 unit but it has got a lot of fairly positive reviews. i am thinking of getting it as i have their 7.1 speaker kit and i have to say that it is very very good.

since you have logitech already , you may want to check out if you can pass thru already so you may just have to link up your decivices...the ddts-100 will work with logitech as well as i recall.

the logitech digital (cant remember the product code) 5.1 kit has this ability built in already. you attach other devices to the unit (i.e. dvd player etc) and the subwoofer powers the speakers. so again you dont need your pc switched on.

i will be using the latter logitech upstairs with a tivx media streamer for movies. if this solution is good enough for stored movies on hard drives i will move to that downstairs also.

you can get these to fake 5.1, but emphasis on the word fake....