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Dymetrie
07-08-2007, 23:12
So a few months ago my brother came round my house and saw the ickle mediabox thingummy whatsit that me and Paul built and plugged into our TV. My brother being my brother liked what he saw and concocted plans to steal our technological expertise...

Now, thanks to Morba and MB, next week I should be getting a lovely little shuttle system to turn into a fully functioning media centre for my brother. And this is where it gets complicated.

He's got a lovely Samsung LCD TV with both VGA and HDMI input. I can run the mediabox with purely HDMI but the speakers on the TV aren't great and so he's looking (at my insistence that 5.1 is great) on getting a decent surround system. The problem comes from the sound input.

I've looked at HDMI cables and can get one which runs DVI->HDMI (I has the converter for the GFX card if needed) but where does this leave the sound?

Ideally he wants the sound from everything running through one set of speakers. He has audio output on his TV and obviously there's audio output from the mediabox. But how to get the 2 outputs to work together?

HDMI states that it is A/V, but without an input to the PC sound card then where does it get the audio from?

This leads me to the question: "How do I organise sound from both TV and mediabox without having to get up to change connections and getting decent sound?"

Can I get the HDMI running the sound from the PC into the TV and then out into the speakers?

Can I run the sound from the TV into the PC and then out to the speakers?

Do I just get even more cables and splice the two together?

Suggestions on a postcard to "WTF is Dym on about, Freepost 007, confusedville".

Mark
07-08-2007, 23:20
At this point, the model number of the Samsung TV (to figure out what inputs it has) would be very helpful. :)

If you want the 'keep it simple stupid' HDMI-to-HDMI option, then that's possible, but you'll need to acquire an ATI Radeon HD series graphics card (I don't know if nVidia have an equivalent). These have on-board sound.

Robert
08-08-2007, 09:46
Connect phono leads from t he telly to the PC?

Feek
09-08-2007, 21:28
Ahhhhhh, this seems to be now the sort of thing I could be looking at, but I'd need a cable with HDMI at one end and DVI/digital audio in from the other to take video/audio from a PC with two separate outputs.

Mark
09-08-2007, 21:35
I did try looking for such an implement when the idea was originally suggested, but came up empty. Whether that's absence of Google-fu or mission:impossible, I don't know.

Zirax
09-08-2007, 21:45
Feek, something like this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/88440/rb/0

Dym, you mentioned that he is considering a 5.1 system. Is it not possible to get an "all in one" for 100-200 system that includes an amp? Its likey to support optical and analogue inputs thereby meaning all you need to do is change the input on the amp?

Mark
09-08-2007, 21:48
Feek, something like this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/88440/rb/0
That's the standard cable - no audio there I'm afraid.

Dymetrie
09-08-2007, 21:48
Feek, something like this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/88440/rb/0

Dym, you mentioned that he is considering a 5.1 system. Is it not possible to get an "all in one" for 100-200 system that includes an amp? Its likey to support optical and analogue inputs thereby meaning all you need to do is change the input on the amp?

That's just a video cable Zee :/

As for the rest of your post... *woosh* well over my head :embarassed:

Feek
09-08-2007, 21:48
That does video, but doesn't get me audio in the same input and it's audio inputs I'm lacking in - I'd much rather pump it all up a single HDMI if I can.

Zirax
09-08-2007, 22:22
Ok a pic says a 1000 words or so they say :)

Right, look at surround sound amp speaker systems from the likes of Comet etc. It'll come with loads of connectors on the pic, crucially optical in/out and analogue. Here is my setup in my office to show you what I mean

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/3389/dsc00004rj5.jpg

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8646/dsc00005jb7.jpg

The right hand side has 5.1 analogue inputs from the surround and the left has optical inputs / outputs. This way he'll have great sound and all the connectivity he could need.

There are much better kits then this one, but to give you an idea of what I am talking about, have a quick look here :)
http://www.richersounds.co.uk/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=PANA-SCHT330-MR

Morba
11-08-2007, 00:20
ooh, never considered making a media centre with the shuttles.
they would look pretty good near a TV, especially the red one.

which reminds me, need to remove the HDD and find the rest of the speakers for tomorrow!