Divx Ac3 5.1 Vs. Home Theater?

[hanguker]

Hi everyone,

I need a little expertise. I have my computer attached to my 5.1 home theater system through audio RCA cables. I want to encode my movies in DivX AC3 5.1. Will my home theater be able to play sound in 5.1 from the AVI file via the RCA jacks?... or only stereo. If not...why not? and, if not, is there any way to make this happen?

Thanks of any help,
Han.

[Darth Sushi]

Do you have digital/optical out (sound card) and digital/optical in (receiver)?

[hanguker]

Ummm....the sound card is 5.1 channel built-in to an MSI 865PE board. The out is a standard "headphone" jack with stereo RCA jacks at the other end. These I have running to my home theater inputs. I don't think this is digital. However, my soundcard is AC3 and is capable of outputting 5.1 channel sound. I'm a little confused with the difference between sound card and home theater 5.1...sorry...

Thanks for any help.
Han

[quiksilver_aus]

the headphone jack is only 2 channels (right and left)
RCA cables are not digital, they're analog
if you want 5.1 surround on your home theatre, your sound card should have coaxial digital audio or optical digital audio jacks for all the different channels (right front, right back, left front, left back, centre, & subwoofer). that's what dvd players have for digital output

[3RA1N1AC]

the average 5.1 soundcard does not have a digital surround decoder built in. it usually just has a single digital coaxial output or a single optical output, which you then plug into a surround receiver. you only need to use a single cable between your soundcard and home theater receiver. one or the other. if possible, use the optical one. the digital inputs/outputs on soundcards are usually labelled "SPDIF."

if your motherboard came with an expansion bracket (MSI calls it the "S Bracket") that looks like this, then you are in luck. if you don't have it, then i think you need to get it.
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/img/2002/05/msi_645dx/s_bracket.jpg

here's a picture of a digital coaxial cable. it basically IS an RCA cable, with slightly better impedance and shielding than a bottom-of-the-line RCA phono cable. but for all intents & purposes, a decent quality RCA cable oughta work-- all it's doing is transmitting 1s and 0s in a straight line. it'll either work or not work, and quality should not be an issue.
http://www.dealmore.ru/vivanco/pic/vivanco/7184.jpg

and this is an optical cable. the sound is supposed to be better with this type of connection.
http://www.dealmore.ru/vivanco/pic/vivanco/7172.jpg

[hanguker]

Wow! Thanks for the detailed help guys!

I see that I have the outputs you have described. Your SPDIF output on the card (in the picture) is a little unusual looking, mine is a simple rca jack. Now, if I use the option of the rca...my home theater accepts audio input in the way of two rca inputs (left and right). Being that I run a split rca cable out of my SPDIF jack on my computer, will my home theater system be able to decode the input to 5.1?

I'm having my doubts...but I still have hope! Please...some good news.

Thanks
Han

[mark845]

Originally posted by hanguker@28 November 2003 - 04:18
Hi everyone,

I need a little expertise. I have my computer attached to my 5.1 home theater system through audio RCA cables. I want to encode my movies in DivX AC3 5.1. Will my home theater be able to play sound in 5.1 from the AVI file via the RCA jacks?... or only stereo. If not...why not? and, if not, is there any way to make this happen?

Thanks of any help,
Han.
one more thing u cant encode your movies into 5.1 surroundsound mate

[ezyryder]

I am not that up on encoding, but know about sound hardware and basically audio it's self. what has been posted is great, especially by 3RA1N1AC. I believe however - despite my knoweldge of encoding - that you can encode to what you say. I don't think however that you can put it no VCD and play it through a home-entertainment DVD player that goes through a 5.1 amplifier. If you run it from your pc, i've heard it is possible (if you use a file not vcd)

[Darth Sushi]

Originally posted by mark845@28 November 2003 - 20:55
one more thing u cant encode your movies into 5.1 surroundsound mate
I disagree. You can encode in AC3 5.1 if the vob source is 5.1. In fact, I prefer to use smartripper to extract just the AC3 5.1 stream from the DVD. I then encode just the video (in XviD) and later combine the two. Now I have an XviD movie with an exact DVD AC3 5.1 stream. ;) Of course, I'm limited by having only one language choice. :( Keep in mind AC3 files are huge (usually around 300-500MB) and 1-disc jobs are not possible.

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by hanguker@28 November 2003 - 08:44
Now, if I use the option of the rca...my home theater accepts audio input in the way of two rca inputs (left and right). Being that I run a split rca cable out of my SPDIF jack on my computer, will my home theater system be able to decode the input to 5.1?
noooooooooo. the spdif output is digital, and if your receiver has left & right then they are stereo analogue-- it is not compatible. are you SURE that your home theater receiver does not have a single jack labelled as "coaxial" or "digital"? you must have that, in order to get 5.1. if you use a stereo-to-stereo connection, your home theater system will probably be able to emulate the surround effect, but it's not quite the same as 5.1.

yes i know that picture of the S-Bracket looks weird-- it appears to have a black headphone jack when it should be a yellow RCA jack. but that was the only pic i could find.

by the way, if your home theater system has a dvd player built into it, then you may not have any digital input at all, because the dvd player is already using the 5.1 connection internally and the manufacturer has decided not to include a 5.1 input. if this is the case, then you are unfortunately stuck with using stereo.

[hanguker]

Hey all,

Thanks so much for the input. Looks like I may be out of luck considering 3rainiac's input. The help was wonderful, though. I'm inspired to go out and find a good reciever with a digital input! My "home theater" system is, I think, like 3rainiac said, 5.1 internal. However, it does have sound options in "Video 1 and 2" mode which include a "Dolby Pro Logic setting" "hall" and "theater", but I don't think that offers surround encoding even if the signal is from the digital output of the sound card. Right?

Thanks
Han