1056 and playing music from computer

[jhschlak]

I have been trying unsuccessfully for the past few days to hook up my computer to my rotel 1056. I have been utilizing an interesting adapter that I never knew existed. What you can do is hook up this adapter to s-video output of your computer and hook up the digital audio output from the other end of the adapter to the digital in of the rotel. In theory it should be simple, but I am not getting anything. A signal is going out because I hooked up the video portion to my tv and it produced a signal. I am trying to use windows media player, and I think I have checked all the boxes stating "use spdif". Has anyone tried this or have any ideas on this?

Thanks,
Jeff

[PewterTA]

Uhmm, if you are only using the S-Video feed, that does not produce any audio signal. That's your problem.

You need to hook up your sound card to the Rotel unit as well. Either through RCAs or optical or digital coax (depending on what your sound card uses).

I have the optical cable from my computer to the my receiver using the Creative Labs Audigy 2 Platinum. Works great.

I think you are either missing something or that "unit" that you got is not hook up properly. The S-video feed will only get your video, not audio.

[VGuarino]

Jeff,

Which computer are you using? I'm guessing it's a Dell. Not all Dell S-Video out connectors will have the Digita audiol out connected. I did some experimenting over the weekend. I found that the Latitude C800 does pass along the sound through the S-Video connector (with adapter). Other's do not. The documentation will reveal if it is supported.

Vin

[Andrew Pratt]

I know my Inspiron 5100 doesn't pass digital audio via the s-video port.

[VGuarino]

Andrew,

If you double click on the volume icon, then click on the advanced tab (under volume control). Do you see a check box to enable SPDIF?

I am curious if that selection is there, whether or not you can actually get to it. I have a Latitude D600 but no way of getting digital out (that I know of).

Vin

[jhschlak]

I have a dell 8600 and in the manual it talks about and shows diagrams on how to pass along a digital audio signal from the computer to a receiver. I have enabled the spdif check box in the master audio advanced properties as well as in windows media player. I don't know what else to do. It seems like the rotel is not detecting the signal. The digital coax signal does not light up like it does when I switch to my dvd player or cd player.

[ajpoe]

I have seen these types of connections with ATI cards and never has much success getting them to work either. I came to the conclusion that the digital out through their adaptor only works with their DVD software and not very well... You'd be better off getting a soundcard that will do SPDIF out and then you can use any software to pass along the signal.

AJ

[VGuarino]

I just looked up what the 8100 had to say....looks like the same adapter I used this weekend on my wife's Latitude C800. I got it to work. But I'm using Windows 2k.

Vin

[68Ballistic]

Hello,

I just bought a RSX1056 a week ago. I hooked my computer up to it a couple days ago. I used a Xitel product that was supplied with my Mini Disc player. It connects to my USB port and outputs a Digital Optical signal. Very slick. I just got a new optical cable and some USB cable and I was set. I just had to select the USB device as my preferred sound card in the control panel(I have Win2000). I just spent $20 on a USB High-speed connectivity kit which has 32 feet of USB cable and $12 on a cheap 6ft optical cable. Sounds nearly as good as my CD's if not better.

Xitel makes a couple products specific to this. Here's their link: http://www.xitel.com/products.htm

Check out the Pro Hifi Link. It connects to your computer's USB port and supplies Coaxial and Optical output along with analog outs. It has it's own DAC. I will also transmit dolby and dts data. I found it at Comp USA for $100. It includes 30 ft. of cable too.

Hope that helps, Mark

[Joelp]

Another option is to use a network media player. They're LAN based, so you hook it up with a network cable, or it can be wireless. The player itself usually has an optical out, component video out and DVI, and the really cool thing is you can surf all the computers on you home network for media files, AVI, MPG, DIVX, MP3, CDA, jpeg, etc... they're browsers and html based so yo can customize them and I believe you can search the net.

check out these two links

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1491&Langue_ID=7

or with DVI and apple support

http://www.neuston.com/en/mc500.asp

[phillipk]

Also, check out: www.slimdevices.com I have two of them and think they're great.