Connecting receiver 1056 with home PC question

[Cooldmitriy]

Hello folks,

I just received my new 1056 receiver and would like to ask you a question. I noticed RS-232 port in the back of the unit for computer connection. The main purpose of that port is to perfom firmware upgrade of the unit.

Is there any way to connect my PC and 1056 to play great selection of MP3 files and DVD movies stored on the PC's harddrives. is there any third-party software available to perform that task.

Thank you all in advance.
;x(

[VGuarino]

Hello folks,

Is there any way to connect my PC and 1056 to play great selection of MP3 files and DVD movies stored on the PC's harddrives. is there any third-party software available to perform that task.

Thank you all in advance.
;x(

Yes. There are multiple ways of doing this. You can use your analog line out to any analog audio input. Or you can use digital out (S/PDIF, coax or optical) to the appropriate digital input on the 1056.

I have a laptop with an M-Audio USB Transit (under $100) connected via optical. I have all my musice saved in lossless format(s) and I can also listen to internet radio as well.

Oh yes, if you have a video out on your computer, you can also redirect the monitor to your tv.

My next step is dvd's etc through the pc.

Vin

[Cooldmitriy]

Vin,

What about that RS-232 port. Can it be used to transmitt audio/video from PC to 1056 receiver?

[aud19]

Not as far as I know. I seem to remember someone writing programming a long time ago for the 1055/1066 that would control them via a PC but the RS-232 port is just not made for transmitting A/V signals. You can certainly connect digital audio and component video from your PC to it though and I suppose if you found the above mentioned programming (or wrote some yourself), you could control the 1056 that way....

[Cooldmitriy]

Thank you guys. The reason why I wanted to use RS-232 and ethernet cable is the limited number of toslink digital inputs in 1056. One is connected to CD player and another to sattelite receiver. There are 3 more, but they coax digital inputs.
Do you know of any PCI sound cards with digital coax output? I doubt it

[Kevin D]

Do you know of any PCI sound cards with digital coax output? I doubt it

Most that I've seen have them... Usually on the back.. Usually only the higher end ones have optical..

Kevin D.

[aud19]

Alot of new motherboards have them onboard as well The Asus A8N-E I'm getting at the end of the month has both coax and optical onboard

[Azeke]

Alot of new motherboards have them onboard as well The Asus A8N-E I'm getting at the end of the month has both coax and optical onboard

Asus boards have always been on the cutting edge. Optical and coax on board, impressive :T .

I digress,

Azeke

[Cooldmitriy]

Guys,

how much money are we talking about for that PCI board? Who has the best price?

Thx

[ILuvDefTech]

I would suggest heading over to htpcnews.com. You will find a wealth of info over there. I use an HTPC for everything(movies,radio,lossless music). I have the Gigabyte K8N Ultra-9 motherboard which has coax s/pdif out. I wouldn't suggest using onboard audio though. In my experience it is never as good as a separate sound card, and most of the time, for me anyway, the onboard audio makes a popping noise in all of my speakers. I use the X-Mystique card for audio. It does everything you would need and more. Another card to check out would be the Chaintech av710. It costs mere peanuts. Try newegg.com and pcalchemy.com when you decide what to get.

[aud19]

Guys,

how much money are we talking about for that PCI board? Who has the best price?

Thx

I'm paying $131 Canadian for it and it also has support for PCI-Express (as well as PCI)

I will second the recommendation for a stand alone card though if you want top notch audio quality from your PC. Something from M-Audio or Lynx would be good :T Otherwise for more PC related questions I suggest a seperate post in the PC section of the board

[Cooldmitriy]

Guys, thank you all for sharing your knowlege.

I just checked out M-Audio site, but found nothing with RCA digital

[aud19]

Sorry, I forgot about the optical conundrum. I was recommending those brand based on their audio quality.

Are you totally out of coax inputs on the 1056 and none of your other gear has optical outs?

Another option could be a converter, I beleive I've seen others post on converters for optical/coax.

[Cooldmitriy]

aud19, here's my settings of 1056:

1. Digital audio in # 1 is used by a CD player
2. Digital audio in #2 is used by DishNetwork receiver
3. Digital RCA audio #1 is used by Sony mini disc player

I have 2 more RCA digital inputs to play with.

[aud19]

So I'm not sure what the problem is then.....?

[Kevin D]

So I'm not sure what the problem is then.....?

He's trying to find a sound card that has a coaxial output, since he's out of optical..

Most of the $50+ Sound Blaster Audigy cards have coaxial out, you could probably pick one up at Walmart..

Kevin D.

[Cooldmitriy]

Thanks Kev

[Armbender]

A little off topic but VGuarino where do you burn your lossless music?

[aud19]

He's trying to find a sound card that has a coaxial output, since he's out of optical..

Most of the $50+ Sound Blaster Audigy cards have coaxial out, you could probably pick one up at Walmart..

Kevin D.

Well that's why I'm confused, he said he needed optical. The M-audio has coaxial.... :scratchhead:

[VGuarino]

A little off topic but VGuarino where do you burn your lossless music?

I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for about 90%, into Monkey's .ape lossless. I use EAC on my fastest computer. Then move the ape files to a 200gb drive which is connected via USB. I use J River's Media Center to play back.

I have two laptops with JRMC and wireless. One is connected upstairs to my old audio system. The other has an M-Audio USB-Transit sound card and is conntect to the RSX-1056.

Eventually, I will make a file server with RAID. I thought I'd need it for all my audio, but I guess I don't have as big a collection as I thought :-) I copied about 250 CD's. Only took up 60gb using lossless. If or when I start doing the same thing with video, then I will definitely need the large drive space.

The only drawback so far with the USB drive is the time it takes to copy the files to the drive. Oh yeah, the other drawback would be if it crashed. :-} That's why I want to move to RAID eventuallly.

Vin

[grit]

250 CDs on a lossless format? I didn't realize there was such a thing. I thought any compression would kill the sound quality. Is there someone that can offer some detail? I've long been concerned about burning CDs without losing quailty. This would be very helpful.

[ILuvDefTech]

250 CDs at 60GB lossless seems kind of weird. I have 120 CDs in WMA lossless at 55GB.

If you have a computer, you can rip your CDs lossless. If you don't mind using WMA, just open windows media player and under tools -> options -> rip music choose WMA Lossless with Best Quality. Technically all lossless formats should sound the same, if they are truely lossless...

[VGuarino]

250 CDs at 60GB lossless seems kind of weird. I have 120 CDs in WMA lossless at 55GB.

I just checked, it's about 74gb. 3183 tracks.

If I've done the math correctly:
2774 APE files (65,037,371,463 total bytes, ~23.5 mb average file size)
409 WMA files (9,234,167,149 total bytes, ~22.5mb ave file size)

I'm using "Normal Lossless compression" in EAC (which spawns to Monkeys Encoder).

My file format is NTFS as well.

Vin

[grit]

Thanks for the info! I've got something new to explore now.

[aud19]

Guys, thank you all for sharing your knowlege.

I just checked out M-Audio site, but found nothing with RCA digital

I believe just about all, if not all, of these boards have a digital coax out

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.list&ID=pciinterfaces

Personally I'd recommend either the Revolution 5.1 (or 7.1 if needed).