help with home audio equipment needed!

[DGR Designs]

ok i would like to hook up 4 speakers to my computer. i have 4 in total. but there not amplified and at radioshack i was told id need to buy a reciever to hook the speakers into then have a cord with 2 rca jacks and a stereo headphone jack run from the reciever to the back of my computer for it to work so they could be properly amplified. i DO plan on getting a good reciever/dvd player type one. also, i don't know if you can help me here but if i do buy the dvd player how can i hook that to play on my computer? ive seen vcr's do this before as we have this at our school. so basically i was wondering how to hook this up if my new reciever doesnt have the surround capability and how to hook up the reciever through my computer so i can see the videos. will the matrix system work? (the reason it will go through my computer is so i can use the surround for my games also) if you could help me i would really appreciate it!
thank you an happy new year.
~Dave

[DGR Designs]

bump... anybody? c;mon someone must know about this stuff

[beerock]

Originally posted by roost_maker
ok i would like to hook up 4 speakers to my computer. i have 4 in total. but there not amplified and at radioshack i was told id need to buy a reciever to hook the speakers into then have a cord with 2 rca jacks and a stereo headphone jack run from the reciever to the back of my computer for it to work so they could be properly amplified. i DO plan on getting a good reciever/dvd player type one. also, i don't know if you can help me here but if i do buy the dvd player how can i hook that to play on my computer? ive seen vcr's do this before as we have this at our school. so basically i was wondering how to hook this up if my new reciever doesnt have the surround capability and how to hook up the reciever through my computer so i can see the videos. will the matrix system work? (the reason it will go through my computer is so i can use the surround for my games also) if you could help me i would really appreciate it!
thank you an happy new year.
~Dave
im workin on it........

Ok first, to get the surround sound feature for your games you need a surround sound(or 4 channel) sound card....

The surround sound reciever will not play your games in surround sound. What it can do is play your front/rear speakers.
the surround sound reciever you buy has to have surround sound inputs.Some only have an input for the dolby pro logic coding coming from the dvd to tell the reciever what sound goes were. It runs (the coding)through either a single fiber optic wire or a rca wire(a video type rca)called a coaxial.
Usually they dont have inputs for the surround sound, only outputs. Certain brands DO have inputs but you have to look for them.

if the one u get comes with surround sound inputs you can plug your front and rear sound card outputs into the front and rear inputs of the surround sound reciever.Make sure your surround reciever has an amplifier in it.

you have to make sure your reciever has the dolby pro logic decoder IN IT. if it doesnt the computer is gonna interfere with the amount of surround sound inputs you have because the dvd with decoders will have outputs to connect to the reciever via the surround sound inputs . you would have to use a y connector for both fornt and rear inputs on the reciever to run your comp with the dvd this way.(this is complicated so im just explaining)

you want a dvd player without dolby pro logic(and just a coaxial on the back for the coding information so the reciever can decodethe info), you want a surround reciever WITH DOLBY pro logic you dont want DOLBY pro logic READY .

if you get the right setup, it will work.

I have the matrox g450 card and the video in works good, but the program that runs it is buggy and locks up sometimes. I had the early software version and im sure they updated the drivers and software issues...

[wheeltrax]

well, if you get an audio card with RCA outputs on it, you can do it that way. Or you can take a headphones speaker end that goes into the RCA ends and put that in the reciever. I did the second one. It makes a difference. For DVD, some computers have S imput thing, and you can buy the rca inputs for the video card also. They are handy for cameras also for converting film.

[beerock]

i just got done editing. if you have any other questions, or are confused just ask....:)