3.5mm to RCA to HDMI?

[Blckhaze]

Hi, my soundcard (x-fi fatal1ty) has 4 3.5mm outs for sound:

Front (green)
Side left/right (grey)
Center/Sub (Orange)
Rear (Black)

My reciever has a few HDMI in's and then there is another set for 8 RCA cables in for 7.1.

I think it is possible to do 4x 3.5 to RCA and then 8 different RCA's to the receiver... except the center/sub jack being split into RCA confuses me. How do I know which one is the sub, and which one is the center, once it is split up into 2 different RCA jacks? Or is it the same regardless and the sub/center just naturally take the sound and do their thing?

I would ultimately like to just take the 7.1 out using the four 3.5mm jacks and convert into HDMI, or is that possible?

Right now I'm just running optical, and I would stay like that except the funny thing about this sound card is on certain programs.. it decides that my default output of optical is just unacceptable, and it sends the sound to the empty 3.5mm jacks anyways. Also, 96khz is what the optical goes up to. The 3.5mm jacks go to 192khz.

Is converting these cords to HDMI losing any quality? 8 cords is a little weird, I'll do it... but if anyone could help and tell me how I should do this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance

 

[Blckhaze]

After thinking about it, I guess the best way would just be to do 3.5mm to RCAx2 4 times, bundle the cords and route them to the receiver like that. I assume the sub/center is just a general noise that the receiver will seperate lower frequencys from for the sub. Correct me if I am wrong though. Thanks in advance!

 

[Collie147]

It may not work though. you have to get 4 pole 3.5mm jacks to RCA because the outputs of the x-fi's 7.1 system I have a fatal1ty and a creative 7.1 system. That said it works on mine with 4 poles in the first 2 and 2 pole in the next two, so you could probably reconfigure it to send the left and right front down one, the left and right mid down another the left and right rear down the 3rd and the last one centre and sub, but I'm not sure if it works. But if you have an Optical In on your receiver, just use that, the X-fi Fatal1ty has an optical out.
Or if you've a good GPU generally their HDMI will output the 7.1 which you can put into your receiver and then output that to your display

 

[gamerk316]

Well, if you convert to digital, you WILL lose the high/low end of the sound spectrum a bit, which is unavoidable. Either that, or you go the 3.5mm->RCA route, but thats a LOT of extra plugs...

I don't recommend going the GPU HDMI route if you already have a dedicated sound card; no point in letting a resource [even one made by Creative...] go to waste.

Right now I'm just running optical, and I would stay like that except the funny thing about this sound card is on certain programs.. it decides that my default output of optical is just unacceptable, and it sends the sound to the empty 3.5mm jacks anyways.

Silly Creative and their broken drivers.

 

[Blckhaze]

I ended up buying 4 sets of Belkin "CONNECTPLAYLISTEN" cords made to convert iphone/ipod into stereo cables, and that brand because they had gold on them rather than all the silver ones, at wal-mart.

When I first connected the soundcard to digital to the receiver, I heard a really good difference in the bass response and overall clarity. Was very satisfied... Now, I just hooked this stuff up to 8 RCA inputs on the receiver.. and let me tell you. There is ANOTHER difference! Bass is even sharper.. like a thump vs a bump. Treble is clearer. My music files that used to sound like a adverage CD player.. now sounds like the concert is in the house. I'm turning into an audiophile here.

The jump from onboard sound into RCA x8 from a good sound card is unbelievable.

Thanks for all the help people!