# information on ports and cables(for a beginner)



## manav.kaushal (Dec 18, 2009)

I am totally dumb when it comes to different ports and jacks. Pro terms fly over my head. SO I NEED SOME HELO OVER HERE!!!....i have some questions(please bear with me because it can be irritating for u all)

I have a pc with ati hd 5850 as my gpu and i am going to buy an hdtv and a home theatre speaker system. I have tons of high quality movies(1080p) on my hard drive. I want to watch these movies on my hdtv and connect my sound card to my home theatre system to get surround sound.

THE PROBLEM COMES HERE AND MY QUESIONS ARE:

1.Can i connect my gpu to hdtv with an hdmi-hdmi cable.Will i get the same yummy picture quality that i get on my lcd monitor attatched with a dvi cable.

2.NOW!!!.....in order to get surround sound what kind of sound card should i have so that i can connect my 5.1 speakers to it. What kind of ports it should have and where all should i connnect them.

PLEASE HELP ME.....AS YOU KNOW NOW HOW I WANT my system to be so please tell all the information i need to know..:4-dontkno


PLEASEEEEE!!!!!


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Yes the HDMI cable will work. And you will not need to use your sound card at all. The ATI card has sound onboard and it will be supplied along with the picture via the HDMI. Once connected to the TV you will need to go into Windows control panel to enable or select the HDMI sound device.


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## manav.kaushal (Dec 18, 2009)

so to get dolby surround sound or dts..... i will need to get a speaker system that has these decoders onboard. Am i correct? or even if the speaker system doesn't have these decoders then i will get the feature because this card supports them.

I want to know where will i connect my 5.1 audio system????.........( sorry i am a bit laggy in these tech talks...plz bear with me .... and explain me everything that how to connect all my devices to my pc.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

If your TV has a HDMI input connect the HDMI cable from PC to TV. Then feed the audio out signal from the TV to the A/V receiver via optical or other cables depending on what connections your units have. There are other ways but this seems easiest to me.


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## manav.kaushal (Dec 18, 2009)

I don't want to involve the a/v receiver in it. so then do i have to get a sound card????.
Then how do i connect???

And thanks for your quick responses.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Then the sound will play from the TV speakers.


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## manav.kaushal (Dec 18, 2009)

if my hdtv has an optical out then can i connect it to my home theater speakers using optical wire???


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## manav.kaushal (Dec 18, 2009)

now let me get this straight AND please work out a way for me:

I want to connect my pc to my hdtv and want to connect 5.1 speaker system also from pc(NO A/V RECIEVER)

plz suggest the best way!! and i also want high quality image and surround sound.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

OK, I think you are saying want to use the TV for the picture and use your computer for sound and you will be watching it near the computer. If so, you'll need something like this for the audio. In this case you would not enable the HDMI audio device and instead use the sound card or mobo integrated audio output. 

http://www.google.com/products/cata...ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q8wIwAQ#ps-sellers


Connect this to the computer's integrated (or sound card) audio out with a stereo jack cable (should come with it). You should check the specs on your mobo integrated audio or sound card to see if it has surround sound but most today do. The above speaker system has decoders for all the major modes.


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## manav.kaushal (Dec 18, 2009)

thanks for this.

if the above speaker set has decoders onboard then i don't need to buy a surround sound card. Am i correct?(just for info)

I will be buying this card:
http://in.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=17927&nav=0

can i connect this card to speaker amp with optical wire and then connect the speakers to the amp.....
Will i get better audio by this?

Why can't i connect any other home theatre speakers to my sound card using a digital connection??


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Yes, the mobo audio or sound card has to be able to encode the audio to combine the surround sound into the stereo stream, then the speaker system or A/V receiver has to decode the signal and send each part to the appropriate speaker. So yes, you need a sound device that can process surround sound.


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