optical connection

Diamondbak2

i recently got a good lcd screen so im getting ready to have a media center pc. i have a RCA surround sound system and am looking for 2 things to make this happen.

1. A card, motherboard with an optical connection like this one
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=116037&WT.mc_n=4&WT.mc_t=U&cm_ven=COMPARISON%20SHOPPING&cm_cat=GOOGLE&cm_pla=DATAFEED-%3EPRODUCTS&cm_ite=1%20PRODUCT&cm_keycode=4

2. A switch of some sort for the optical cable, i have 4 things now (PC, XBOX 360, XBOX, and PS2) that need that cable and only one input. Ne advice?

Thanks!

JWFokker

Unlikely you'll find a motherboard that has optical out as most on-board sound processors are ass, the exception being the old nForce2 Soundstorm based boards. You'll want to get a PCI sound card like a Chaintech AV-710 or an EMU 1212M. The Auzentech X-Mystique is another good card that supports optical out. The EMU boards aren't very good for PC gaming though.

Xantus

a short googling of "toslink switch" will find you things easy enough. though it seems the mighty designers of the world never fathomed that someone would possess more than 3 optical devices.

http://www.emtcompany.com/products/av-accessories/ads1000-recoton-toslink-optical-cable-selector-switch-box.htm?gclid=CJCpjJGjwokCFSGTYAodnjoOMQ
is pretty uibiquitous but haven't found anything larger than 3 yet.

edit: ok there is http://www.inday.com/da4x/da4x.htm if you want to pay 100$+ for a switch...


also there's plenty of boards that have optical outs (and some with inputs too). onboard sound processors have zilch to do with how your optical out sounds... the main point of the optical port is to externalize the audio processing to a DAC of somekind.

JWFokker

Xantus wrote:

also there's plenty of boards that have optical outs (and some with inputs too). onboard sound processors have zilch to do with how your optical out sounds... the main point of the optical port is to externalize the audio processing to a DAC of somekind.

I should have mentioned that but I was thinking of gaming, and most cards can't output digital from games, which is why you'd still want a decent sound processor. I think the Auzentech card can encode a Dolby surround signal in real time, but I'd have to double check.

The Sphinx

Get one of these: Psyclone PSC-01. Component/Composite/S-video switch with optical audio (Toslink). 4 inputs, 1 output. Also has an ethernet switch. Includes a remote. All for about $100.

I'm very happy with mine.