Maximum PC

So we moved. The TV setup has changed and we won't be using the box set Panasonic SA-HT700 any more. So i decided to hook my PC up to it and replace my $10 set (don't ask).

I'm using a Q9550 on an Asus P5QL Pro, with Windows 7 home premium 64 with 4 GB DDR2.

I have a boat load of audio connectors at the back, but the inputs to the sound system are RCA red and white (Left and Right) only. I plug a stereo mini jack into the light green and convery it to RC red and white.

Now if I pop the PS3 into the AUX jack on that I was pretty certain I was getting surround, so why does my PC in a 5.1 realtek manager interface only get stero left and right front.

So I thought that the rear interface handled a split of signal and maybe the front headphone jacks wouldn't, but I just got some sort of feed back there.. So no love.

What am i missing? If the PS3 did it then my PC should be able to.

if its 2 channel analog you can only do dolby pro logic surround (4 channel.. Left, Right, Center, combined Rear). thats a hard limitation of the 2 channel analog signal format. might be the psp can use that mode.

on that particular unit, with its limited inputs, for proper 5.1 (Left, Right, Center, Left Rear, Right Rear, Sub) you will need to use the toslink (optical) input. does your mobo have optical out?

one caveat on optical out from your PC is that games may not give 5.1 over optical, only 2 channel (depends on the drivers and whether they support dolby digital live encoding). however, movies that were encoded with 5.1 will give 5.1 sound.