Toslink on my z77 pro3

[xgeetx]

Hey community, first post here!

I just built a new pc, and got the ASRock z77 pro 3 mainboard. I wasn't too worried about audio as I figured I'd just use headphones, but I hate it and got too used to my laptop just playing music over the speakers. I don't want to shell out more money on speakers, so I messing with using my surround sound for my tv as speakers.

I have the HD 7850 graphics card, and I can use either the HDMI out from there or the motherboard to use my HDTV as a 2nd monitor and use the speakers. I can also get output to the surround sound speakers via the TOSLINK cable from my TV -> receive; however, the computer only sends stereo signal. I'd like to be able to use the full 5.1 (well actually 5.0, I blew out the sub a while back). I've done quite a bit of googling and it seems this is the common problem every cheapo runs into when using their tv as a 2nd monitor + speakers.

My receiver does not have HDMI, and I'm not interested in purchasing anything costing over $25 to fix this problem. My question is whether or not I can get a SPDIF output from my computer to the receiver directly, then I"ll use HDMI for display on my computer as a 2nd monitor when I want, but can use the speakers for audio independently of that.

I noticed the z77 pro3 does not have SPDIF output with coax OR toslink (optical? sorry if i'm messing up some of the vocab). sooooooo my bad for not researching that. Is there a way to hook my computer to the receiver without hdmi to send surround sound signals? I know the motherboard has an HDMI_SPDIF header, but I looked and it's 2 pins while any SPDIF output adapter has a 3-pin motherboard hookup

 

[wiinippongamer]

This'll do the trick : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132020

You just disable HDMI output from the control panel's sound output menu and it'll default to the asus card.

 

[xgeetx]

Hey! Thanks for your reply. I looked at the comments on that card and one of them makes me hsistant to buy it:

Pros: Includes low profile bracket.

Cons: Only supports PCM output through SPDIF. Manual is misleading about this. From the manual,

"Q6: Will PCM sound output through S/PDIF be just 2 channels even with
different analog output channels?
Answer
The SPDIF protocol specification (IEC-6058) can only carry 2-channel PCM
data or non-PCM AC3/DTS data. So, when a user selects PCM output for S/PDIF,
the Xonar sound card will always deliver 2 channel PCM data through the S/PDIF
output port."

With this card you can ONLY select PCM for the output, there is no other option. So the answer to this question is "The Xonar will only deliver 2 channels of PCM audio through the SPDIF port unless you use the SPDIF pass through and a raw AC3/DTS signal is sent using software that is not included with the Xonar"

Other Thoughts: If you want to use this with a receiver, this is not the card for you.



Sounds like it will only send 2 channel sound to the receiver?

 

[wiinippongamer]

My bad. Didn't check the reviews as it had a generally good rating.

This one should work fine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118007

From a newegg reviewer:

"Pros: Adds TOSlink functionality for my laptop. Bought this to use the optical TOSlink with my Envy 14 to connect a Tritton AX720 mini-amp and it works perfectly. Just installed the drivers from Turtle Beach's website to use the 5.1 optical output an voila, perfect digital output. Using the digital out negates any TB audio settings so it's just pure, raw audio going to whatever amplifier you choose. For the price, couldn't find anything better.

Cons: None really. I guess they could have included a mini-TOSlink to TOSlink cable instead of the mini-to-regular TOSlink adapter, but that's just nit picky.

Other Thoughts: Haven't used the analog output and don't intend to."