How to connect AVR to PC

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surinder1508

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I'm using onkyo 807 connected with my PC via optical out of creative x-fi xtreme gamer sound card but I think I'm getting processed audio signal from my sound card so how can I feed unprocessed audio signal to my AVR so it can do all the audio processing.
 
How did you know that sound is processed?
Which Operating system are you using?
Are you talking of movie sound only?
 
I'm thinking that way cause I'm getting all the features and controls available from my sound card's own controller program as earlier without AVR and I'm very use to with sound generated by this ages old card and I'm not getting any significant improvement by hooking up Onkyo 807 AVR. The sound is very similar what I was getting without this AVR.

So am I feeding the AVR processed signal and I have to hook up AVR to PC some other way to get most out of my equipment please suggest.

I'm using Windows XP SP3 and I'm talking about movie and mp3 audio.
 
surinder1508 said:
I'm thinking that way cause I'm getting all the features and controls available from my sound card's own controller program as earlier without AVR and I'm very use to with sound generated by this ages old card and I'm not getting any significant improvement by hooking up Onkyo 807 AVR. The sound is very similar what I was getting without this AVR.

So am I feeding the AVR processed signal and I have to hook up AVR to PC some other way to get most out of my equipment please suggest.

I'm using Windows XP SP3 and I'm talking about movie and mp3 audio.
Click to expand...
Use kernel streaming and bypass Windows Kmixer.
 
If you want to read what is Windows KMixer, see here KMixer

Now you would ideally want Windows not to fiddle/process the sound and sort of pass-through the original unprocessed audio to an external device (here your onkyo 807). To do this you have to use what is called Kernel Streaming (more about it here Kernel_streaming).

How to achieve it?
Use Foobar (foobar2000) as the audio player and use its Kernel Streaming plug-in (foobar2000: Components Repository - Kernel Streaming support).
Or you could also use Winamp (Winamp Media Player - MP3, Video, and Music Player - Winamp) as the player and use its Kernel Streaming plug-in (http://www.stevemonks.com/ksplugin/).

How to know if Kernel Streaming is working?
When you play something with the above players with the aforesaid plug-ins you will notice that you cannot control the audio with any Windows controls (volume, any DSP, etc). The whole unprocessed audio is passed to the external device.
 
surinder1508 said:
I'm thinking that way cause I'm getting all the features and controls available from my sound card's own controller program as earlier without AVR and I'm very use to with sound generated by this ages old card and I'm not getting any significant improvement by hooking up Onkyo 807 AVR. The sound is very similar what I was getting without this AVR.

So am I feeding the AVR processed signal and I have to hook up AVR to PC some other way to get most out of my equipment please suggest.

I'm using Windows XP SP3 and I'm talking about movie and mp3 audio.
Click to expand...


Surinder ,

What media player you are using ?. if you are using windows media player , only 11 or above version only have the support to send raw audio to receiver.

Other players
VLC player
Home cinema media player( open source... its best) - good for music/HD movies/DVD movies
Power DVD player - good for DVD movies/music playback

In these players you can choose the option to send the audio via the digital output and you should be able to set the bit rate. This matters for sound quality. Set the bit rate 32 or 48.

I have windows 7.. having the option in volume control intself to choose the default sound output.

I have a SIIG sound card has digital output connected to my amp via SPDIF.
And works well with these players.
 
My sound card has digital out and I have connected my AVR to PC using it but I'm not sure if I'm getting processed or unprocessed audio please some one do let me know as one forum member on an other forum told me I'm getting unprocessed audio but then again if I'm getting it unprocessed then I shouldn't be able to control all the functions, features and effects of my sound card from my sound card controller program from PC like previously but I can. So what I'm getting right now?
 
@surinder..

I used a XFi fatality also. The issue is Xfi card shove lot of stuff like EAX and what nots and yeas the sound maybe not what u want.

Its better to use kernel streaming as a user above said.

Or try this first.. using the console launcher..turn off ALL the settings that Xfi gives..the crystaliser..EAX..and lots.. and try then. dont think then also u will be getting the pure sound.
 
This may help someone.

Types of S/PDIF(digital) outputs seen in Laptops
========================================================================================
1. Digital Coaxial along with Stereo analog in the same headphone jack (Most common type )

17937875.png
85062074.png


How to connect it to AVR?
I. Get a 3.5mm Mono to RCA adapter. Then connect a coaxial cable from it to your AVR's coaxial input.

ads122.jpg
58608572.png


II. Get a 3.5mm Mono to RCA digital coaxial cable. (hard to find). Then connect it from your laptop's headphone jack to your AVR's coaxial input.

spdifrca35mmec8.jpg

========================================================================================

2. Digital Optical along with Stereo analog in the same headphone jack (Notice the red light coming out from the LED inside the headphone jack)

21802059.png


How to connect it to AVR?
I. Get a mini toslink to toslink adapter. Then connect a optical cable from it to your AVR's optical input.

17992564.jpg
47882167.png


II. Get a mini toslink to toslink optical cable. Then connect it from your laptop's headphone jack to your AVR's optical input.

pgd582.jpg

========================================================================================

3. Dedicated Digital Coaxial output

12097726.png


How to connect it to AVR?
I. Use a digital coaxial cable from laptop to AVR's coaxial input.
========================================================================================

4. Dedicated Digital Optical output (Most rare)

43604601.png


How to connect it to AVR?
I. Use a digital optical/toslink cable from laptop to AVR's optical input.
========================================================================================

5. HDMI output (which supports audio output, not passthrough)

gatewayp171xl2.jpg


How to connect it to AVR?
I. Use a HDMI cable from laptop to AVR's HDMI input.
cn882product.jpg

========================================================================================

And lastly the most common scenario.
6. No S/PDIF output :(

laptopheadphone.jpg


How to connect it to AVR?

I. Get a 3.5mm Stereo to RCA adapter. Then connect a Stereo RCA cable from it to your AVR's Sreteo Analog input.

72801119.png
hqss3611.jpg


II. Use a 3.5mm Stereo to RCA cable. Then connect it from your laptop's headphone jack to your AVR's stereo analog input.

11994341.jpg
 
Guys I checked settings myself a bit my Onkyo 807 showing audio input signal format as PCM and audio input indicator as digital.

Now after checking a bit deeper with my sound card's controls I found can control and use only front left/right channels from my PC but my AVR controlling and using all 5.1 channels. So is that means I'm feeding unprocessed audio stream to AVR.
 
Well guys I Google bit more about my sound card and found that it can only give stereo sound at max through its Optical out and I confirmed it as well by using AVR's listening mode as direct after doing so only FR/FL are flashing on AVR's speakers indicators and only these two channels are giving sound as well in that mode so I think a was getting virtual 5.1 channel sound generated by my AVR previously by listening mode selected as (THX cinema) Dolby digital pro logic II.

Even in windows 7 I could found (2 channels, 24 bit,48000 Hz) under advanced tab in SPDIF out properties. But in supported formats tab in SPDIF out properties I found DTS audio, Dolby digital ticked and in test there all the 5.1 speakers playing test tones. So where I'm and how can I get proper unprocessed 5.1 channel audio stream of MKV files from my PC to AVR?

And can I even use my mother board's (Asus P5KPL-CM) SPDIF connector to achieve my purpose.

Or can I use three 3.5mm Stereo to RCA cables one for FL/FR, one for RL/RR, and one for center/sub but I think although I'll get all 5.1 channels doing so but these will be firstly analog and secondly processed as well by the sound card.
 
Last edited:
Nothing seems working for me out of these I tried SPDIF out from motherbord to my XFX 260 GPU audio in then used DVI to HDMI converter to hook it up to AVR's HDMI in but to no avail still got damn two channels.

And I have to forget about my x-fi xtremegamer as well as it is no way going to bypass anything beyond two channels.

So I'm going to change my GPU from XFX 260 216 BE to one of 460/5850/5770 as all these support 7.1 channel bit streaming through HDMI hopefully should be a straightforward affair if I believe on what is advertised out there on the net. So I only hope it should work without any further/new hiccups although I'm not very sure about that as well after having very bad and time consuming experience with my sound-card and motherboard SPDIF.

So members please give your inputs on that option.
 
surinder1508 said:
Nothing seems working for me out of these I tried SPDIF out from motherbord to my XFX 260 GPU audio in then used DVI to HDMI converter to hook it up to AVR's HDMI in but to no avail still got damn two channels.
Click to expand...

Getting multichannel digital output from S/PDIF is fairly straightforward.
You are doing something wrong I guess.
If you are taking out S/PDIF output directly from the MOBO why is XFX 260 coming in between?
Take a coaxial cable and hook it from your MOBO's S/PDIF output to your AVR's digital coaxial input.
Why do you want to go the HDMI route?
Post screen shots of the windows controller where you specify S/PDIF output.
If you still face problems, I can help you if come online sometime in some chat messenger.
 
ontherocks said:
Getting multichannel digital output from S/PDIF is fairly straightforward.
You are doing something wrong I guess.
If you are taking out S/PDIF output directly from the MOBO why is XFX 260 coming in between?
Take a coaxial cable and hook it from your MOBO's S/PDIF output to your AVR's digital coaxial input.
Why do you want to go the HDMI route?
Post screen shots of the windows controller where you specify S/PDIF output.
If you still face problems, I can help you if come online sometime in some chat messenger.
Click to expand...

I have to get xfx 260 in between cause I own all the stuff required for this chain like SPDIF cable, DVI to HDMI converter and HDMI cable.

But I couldn't found SPDIF bracket to connect my AVR with motherboard's SPDIF out and I haven't coaxial cable with connectors as well to go other way. So if someone help to get me this braket I can try this option as well.

http://www.helpingwindows.com/_/rsrc/1261816192029/how-it-looks/spdifheaderbracket/spdif_bracket.jpg

And here are screen shots

http://img121.imageshack.us/g/newbitmapimage2r.png/
 
Last edited:
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