PC Surround sound system and a TV

[SimAda00]

Hello

 

I am thinking of purchasing a surround sound system for my pc, In addition i am planning to buy a new TV.

 

I have cables to connect my pc to my tv for watching dvd's and playing games, and naturally i would connect the surround system to my pc. I was wondering if i could get some cables to connect my tv to the surround sound system. So i could swap between the 2 by swapping the cables over?

[Mcshammer_dj]

you should be looking at a surround sound system with different inputs and as such there would be no cable swaps required

[mac_shinobi]

Hello

 

I am thinking of purchasing a surround sound system for my pc, In addition i am planning to buy a new TV.

 

I have cables to connect my pc to my tv for watching dvd's and playing games, and naturally i would connect the surround system to my pc. I was wondering if i could get some cables to connect my tv to the surround sound system. So i could swap between the 2 by swapping the cables over?

 

If you got a surround sound amp that has optical in assuming your sound card supports optical out and you hooked your surround sound speakers to the amp and and your computer to the amp via the optical cable then you should have the inputs on the amp to accept the connections from the tv to be able to swap between the TV and the computer

[richardp]

I do exactly this with a cambridge audio amp which accepts hdmi, component, optical and coax digital inputs plus the normal left right stereo intputs. All I have to do is select the correct input on the amp for the ps3 / virign box / htpc etc... Coupled with some mourdaunt short speakers it really out performs and "PC" surround sound system by a mile.

 

Have a search arround as there are some really good deals on amps at the moment.

 

Richard

[maniac]

Depends how much you want to spend.

 

I have one of these Sony STR DB 940 QS Amplifier on eBay (end time 07-Aug-09 20:00:00 BST) which has as many inputs as you could ever want. It also switches the vision as well as the sound, so you only need one AV input on the TV and you can hook everything else into the AV box - simples

 

You can then select speakers of your choice (I have 4 B&W 601 speakers and a Kef Q95 centre speaker) and a sub woofer if you'd like one (not essential, but does give films that 'wow' factor, totally useless for listening to music with thou.) Total cost second hand for a reasonable set-up, about £300 if you hunt around. Probably more than you'd want to spend, but trust me you'll never look back!

 

I've had my system about 5 years, and it still sounds as awesome as the day I brought it.

 

You can do it a lot cheaper than that by the way, those AV amps start at a lot less - some of the lower powered ones only sell for £30 or so on e-bay, but as a result they have lower outputs and less inputs.

 

Mike.

Edited August 4, 2009 by maniac

[SimAda00]

Cheers this seems alot simplier than i expected, I was expecting their to be annoying issues with cabling or compatability. Cheers for your help, hopefully when i finally sort a monitor out for my pc this is the next phase of my master plan.

[Mcshammer_dj]

I have a Sony Bravia TV with a Sony DVD surround Snd system. I have this linked to my Cable box and my Pc and can use it for surround sound for each.

 

as mac_shinobi has stated an optical in is useful as is hdmi