Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have recently integrated my PC with my HDTV.

I am connecting through my home theater with an RCA into my TV and mini adapter into my Realtek onboard sound card.

I would like to be able to split the use of my PC between gaming (which I use mic and headphone) and other audio applications (through the home theater).

Is there a way to keep everything connected and not switching out the plugins and onboard sound settings everytime I want to switch over?

Additionally I am curious whether my present setup even takes advantage of 5.1 sound through speakers and multichannel sound through my headphones.

I am willing to buy a specialized sound card if it would allow better connectivity and audio fullness.

It appears I've answered one of my questions.

In messing around with plugging my mini jack used for home theater I can only get sound output to the front 2 speakers regardless of what I specify as their sound output. (Example: configured as rear speaker the sound still comes out of the front 2 home theater speakers).

The versatility of the speaker assignments is great. If I had seperate speakers to be driven from the onboard soundcard I could achieve 7.1 audio, but in going through the TV on the way to the receiver I can only expect to have sound through the front 2 speakers.

Furthermore I can not dampen out the sound going through the home theater while the headphone is plugged in. In the control panel voice test I hear my voice through the headphone speakers and the home entertainment speakers.

Has anyone here on the forum came up with a solution of splitting the sound outputs from different sources, while taking advantage of multichannel sound?

There must be a way to easy switch between listening to audio over the PC to PC gaming with a mic.

I couldn't follow your posts.

From what I could grab, you want to be able to watch movies with the receiver sound, then...go right back to the pc and game via headphone/mic?

Thats pretty simple if you have digital sound out...just run your gaming stuff with analog and turn off the receiver when not in use. I did that for a while.

If you want stuff separate...just buy a soundcard OR enable your onboard, use whichever for one and assign a separate card for gaming. That works really well because then you can game WHILE using the sound for the theater

I couldn't follow your posts.

From what I could grab, you want to be able to watch movies with the receiver sound, then...go right back to the pc and game via headphone/mic?

Thats pretty simple if you have digital sound out...just run your gaming stuff with analog and turn off the receiver when not in use. I did that for a while.

If you want stuff separate...just buy a soundcard OR enable your onboard, use whichever for one and assign a separate card for gaming. That works really well because then you can game WHILE using the sound for the theater

Sorry for not being clear about what I am hoping to achieve, but I believe you've answered fairly close to what I asked about.

I would just like to have an easy transition from gaming to listening to audio on my PC, as well as pulling together true surround sound for both applications.

From that point it has been confusing to know in what direction to accomplish something that integrates well.

You have mentioned buying another sound card which I believe would allow the seperation between gaming and home theater. My sound from the headphones and mic would be available for any time I'd want to get into a game. My home theater speakers would also be active, but I could turn them off through the receiver anytime I was in a game. Conversely I wouldn't really have to do anything if I wanted to listen to music through the home theater because the headphones would silence the noise.

Until I make the decision of what I really want to do I bought a $5 splitter. I will operate this exactly in the way I believe you mentioned above.

Where this gets confusing is in the method of achieving 5.1 sound over the home theater. I don't believe I have the equipment on hand to achieve this. I could get lucky and find an HDMI PCI Express card that handles full audio, that integrates with the 2 8800 PCI Express cards that I have configured in SLI. If that didn't get me the 5.1 sound I would hopefully have an SPDIF connection that somehow would allow me to patch in the 5.1 sound. (I'm not sure of how this would connect) Or another possibility would be in buying an expensive sound card which has an HDMI output, and hopefully achieve 5.1 sound through this. (Once again I'm unclear of the connections necessary) I hope I don't sound stupid; I've just read a lot of misleading information in getting the sound connections right.

Another thing that confuses me is whether I want to try making my mic input and outputs go through an independent channel seperate from game sound (such as what I mentioned with bluetooth through teamspeak), or if I should disconnect the home theater sound completely when I want to get into a game with a mic.

The route that I really want to take, might be the one that would cause the most grief in getting there. I would like to incorporate my home theater sound in my games, and have voice in a seperate channel which would go through a headpiece.

It appears I won't be putting this all together this weekend; if you have a successful sound setup you'd like to share I would be very interested to hear about how you achieved this.

can't you just unplug the headphones when you want to use your speakers?

can't you just unplug the headphones when you want to use your speakers?

What I was running into was having to look for the other cable end, unplug the one plugged in, find the correct outlet and plug it in, then reconfigure sound card settings.

That is what made me ask the question whether there might be a way to just automatically switch out speaker connections.

Since that time I've decided that the best way around this would be to turn off volume and just leaving both plugged in with a splitter.

Right now my main concern is that I am not getting 5 channel sound through my home theater. Through testing a lot of things out I have concluded that I should get a new sound card to get 5.1 dolby digital for gaming.

I'm in the process of deciding which card to buy.

its time to go optical. Anything really works. X-Fi would be the best choice since you want to game, just avoid the budget cards and your fine. M-Audio makes great audiophile ones. Just depends on your poison.

if you have a pci-e slot available I'd head this way.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102023

Digital 24bit out is a must. It depends on what your pushing out, but in my case it is noticeable.

its time to go optical. Anything really works. X-Fi would be the best choice since you want to game, just avoid the budget cards and your fine. M-Audio makes great audiophile ones. Just depends on your poison.

if you have a pci-e slot available I'd head this way.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102023

Digital 24bit out is a must. It depends on what your pushing out, but in my case it is noticeable.

I did pick up a Dolby Digital sound card but I opted to go with the Auzentech Prelude card. This will good in my case with a PCI outlet, and it has a digital coax output which I need to match the input on my receiver.

I'm anxious to get back to gaming in a new sound environment.