Surround Sound with 3.5 AUX Cable?

[kalizar]

My motherboard came with 7.1 surround sound. This means I have the 6 colored jacks in the back. I have a stereo that was designed for home audio, not necessarily to be connected to a PC, and I have surround sound set up. I use a 3.5mm auxiliary cable to connect to the stereo, but it will only allow 2 speakers to work at a time. Whether I'm using 5.1 or 7.1 surround or stereo, it is the same results.

For example, if I plug the aux cable into the front speakers jack, only the front two will play. If I plug it into the back speakers jack, the back two will play, etc etc. Is there a way to set the computer to just use one of the ports as an audio out? I don't want to have to have two sets of speakers set up....

I have Realtek HD Audio ALC892, driver version 6.0.1.6251

EDIT: Scratch that, sound only ever comes out of my front speakers. The sound comes through the front speakers corresponding to the jack I have it plugged into. So basically no matter where I plug the cable in, the sound comes out the front two speakers, but it only makes sound when that jack should be receiving input....

I don't know if I'm explaining this right... please ask if you need more/different information.

[Veedems Veteran]

3.5mm aux can't carry 5.1, just stereo sound, hence why PC speaker setups usually include so many wires. Nothing you can really do other than getting a sound card with optical out if your receiver has an optical port.

[+Mud W1ggle Subscriber²]

This is an over-simplification, but a 3.5mm plug outputs stereo sound.

To get surround sound from your PC, either connect multiple 3.5mm to 2 x RCA from the PC to the amp, or use a coaxial cable (RCA to RCA) or Optical cable instead.

[Slacker]

There may be a setting in your BIOS to allow for digital out (SPDIF) on your computer. If your stereo also has SPDIF, you can get full surround with only one wire.

Otherwise, your only options (from what I see), would be to either run multiple cables between the computer to the stereo to support all the channels, live with having only two channels (front), or see if your stereo has a mode to mirror the front channels to to rear as well.

[kalizar]

Okay, well with the setup I've got I'm not expecting phenomenal sound. I've also got close neighbors so I can't crank it up and enjoy the full surround sound experience anyway. I just want sound coming from ALL the speakers.

Is there any way I can use stereo sound, but coming from all the speakers? @Slacker I think maybe that's what you are saying. I'll try looking through my receiver's settings, but is there a way to do it straight from the computer?

[Miuku.]

As an example;

Your amplifier should have multiple analog input ports, usually these are RCA ones and for that reason you need multiple cables to connect your computer to your stereo setup to output 5.1. You'll need 1 cable for front speakers, 1 for rear ones and one for sub woofer.

It would help if we knew what your amplifier was.

[Slacker]

No, if you plan is to use only one analogue 3.5mm cable, there will be no setting on your computer that you can use to have sound come from all the speakers. You'll have to read up on your stereo; many have a setting that mirrors whatever is coming from the front speakers to the rear ones too.

If your motherboard has digital coax out and your stereo has digital coax in, use that. Almost everyone has a spare RCA cable lying around their house, or $2 can get you a new one; this would give you full surround support from computer to stereo and you could have your computer mirror the audio from front to back instead of the stereo if you wanted.

[Ambroos]

For the record, it usually isn't a good idea to interpolate stereo audio on multiple speakers. You usually completely lose the 'stereo' feel of music. In any case avoid having your center speaker mixing left with right when listening to stereo audio.

[Twrp]

Hello, I do have a similar setup with RCA only input...can I use the coax output of TV and connect that with a Dolpy Prologic II decoder ...with the decoded analog audio I plan on plugging 3RCA into the DVD 6 channel input of the Subwoofer. I believe the subwoofer has an amplifier so can I do this setup to bypass an A/V receiver? I've attached an img of the back panel of the subwoofer.

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