# Help Request for Home Theater Setup with HT Omega Striker 7.1 Sound Card



## aholland1 (Jan 3, 2009)

Hello,

I recently purchased an HT Omega Striker 7.1 card from Newegg for my Home Theater PC. The integrated audio on my DFI Infinity NF4 SLI Board does not provide the level of audio quality I desire for my home theater setup, so I thought I would give this a go.

My home theater consists of a 40in. Samsung TOC series 6, model 650 and a corresponding Samsung Digital Home Theater System, both equipped with digital audio out and in respectively. My plan was to feed the home theater’s digital audio in to the out port on the sound card and the in port on the card to the TV’s digital audio out. In addition to this, my TV has an HDMI channel that converts to DVI through which video from the PC feeds that has a corresponding RCA audio channel that I have a red/white cable that converts to stereo plugged in to the card’s line in connection.

In this fashion it was my hope to be able to channel audio from the PC to the TV’s speakers and also be able to channel the TV’s audio through the PC to the surround system or from the PC to the surround system directly to achieve the level of audio quality I desire.

My media PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium and the drivers installed flawlessly. My problem however is that I am not getting any sound at all through the TV speakers or the surround system from the PC and the TV will not produce sound either when the surround system is on set to the digital-in channel. However if I turn off the surround system, the sound returns to the TV (when not set to PC. I.e. when set to satellite or my PS3). The PC sound also is not feeding through the line in audio connection to the TV speakers whether the surround system is on or not.

I would like to be able to use both sources for sound as I do not always need surround sound for normal PC usage, but would like to be able to utilize the 5.1 channel surround for movies, music, etc. through the digital audio connection on the fly.

I have figured out how to set the sound card app to allow digital out to the receiver, but I can't get sound to go from devices attached to my TV (PS3, satellite, etc.) to the surround sound system. In other words, the card is not providing throughput functionality.

Switching to loopback on two channels as I have in the screenshot for the TV setup lets the sound go to the TV from the PC with the home theater off. Switching to PCM with the home theater on though still just outputs to the TV through the analog cable. That's ok though since I would prefer to use the optical cable to the receiver

So there is no way for it to autodetect though when the home theater is on or not and switch the settings accordingly? It is not feasible for me to have to switch the settings all the time based on what I am using.

Also getting sound to the home theater from the other devices (satellite, PS3, Wii) is still a problem as I'm not sure how to set up the pass-through on the out from the TV through the sound card to the home theater. I have it set just like the first screenshot in the previous email and it's not passing through to the home theater from the satellite when I have the TV on that HDMI input (1). The sound is just nonexistent unless I turn the home theater off, then the sound comes back through the TV speakers.

I also bought a bi-directional switch/splitter from amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Bi-Di...6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231001217&sr=8-6) but it seems to have failed for me. It seems it cannot switch the signal if the light is traveling through both cables at the same time (PC and TV). So at this point I am stuck but am debating getting an actual switch that allows for a single input but you have to physically turn a switch depending on the device which does not appeal to me at all.

I have attached a diagram of my setup in addition to some screens of the HT Omega sound card app that allows configuration, the set up that passes through to the TV, and the setup that only passes Digital audio out to the receiver.

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

aholland1


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

Welcome to TSF...

It appears that you have the system hooked up correctly. My guess is that the TV does not pass all inputs back out. So the card is not getting and signal to pass to the receiver. I suggest an email to Samsung with that question.


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## amdnut (Feb 22, 2009)

I agree with said person. I once tried to do something like this. Only I ended up having to call one of my IT Professional friends over to fix it up for me. Most IT Professionals know all about what you were hooking up and stuff. Hopefully you got it working if ya dont, and calling Samsung doesn't help ya out much. Call a friend (if you have any that are IT people) and im sure they can help you out.

amdnut


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## aholland1 (Jan 3, 2009)

Thanks for the replies!

I actually managed to get everything working, in a manner of speaking. I wound up getting one of those manual TOS Switches from Amazon that can take 3 optical outputs to the single optical input on the home theater. I now have the output from the HT Omega sound card, my TV, and my PS3 going to this switch and just turn the switch depending on which device I'm using. It's not ideal, but perhaps one day I can afford one of those remote controlled ones when I've got $150 to blow, who doesn't right? 

I also needed to talk to someone at HT Omega about the proper settings for the card on the PC to get the sound to pass through, which I have figured out and can switch easily depending on if I want to use the PC on the home theater or the TV's speakers. Now when I can afford to drop some coin on 2 terabytes so I can archive my entire movie collection to Windows Media Center, I'll be ready to rock. It's a good setup that works for now though and my box has ample space to house the movies I watch the most. Thanks again for the replies. Have a nice day!


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## amdnut (Feb 22, 2009)

You're welcome! Glad you managed to get it working. Tech geeks are all around us, lol.


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