5.1 sound on a dell 8600

digiman

Is there anyway to output 5.1 sound from a dell 8600, I connected 2.1 speakers to the laptop through the headphone jack, was very impressed witht the sound. These were cheap lidl speakers as well, makes a huge difference when watching
programs or films on the laptop.

Is there anyway that you can get a soundcard for the laptop that would give me 5.1 sound or is it possible to do this with the laptop already?

Sparky

i dont know about the 8600, but my 9100 has 5.1 sound (i think) well anyway some sort of digital sound comes out from the same connector that the s-video go through, but you need an adaptor from dell that has the s-video, composite video RCA and a coaxial RCA output.

All i know is that in dell media experience there is an option to go through SPDIF (sp?) but you still need to plug in your headphones or just the jack with out headphones, its just to route the sound through the digital.

Chalk

should be on the 3.5mm headphone jack.
instead of plugging in a headphone you plug in an optical cable.
trhen go to the hardware properties for your soundcard
> advanced
> enable sp/dif out

if youve got nothing plugged into the headphone jack, youll see a red glow coming out of it.

then that goes to your amp/decoder and your away

godtabh

I dont think it has a digital 5.1 ouput. It would just have the baisc 2.1 out put i.e earphone jack.

I have a Hercules 5.1 external sound card. Plug into USB add speakers and you have 5.1 output.

You can spend alot of money on well know brands like creative but this one does me fine for when I used it.

Bought new speakers that it doesnt work with any more and if Ur interested I'll put it on the forsale fourm later tonight/tomorrow with specs etc.

godtabh

Hercules 5.1 External U.S.B Sound is the model.

I'm not 100% sure but unless your card has 3 ouputs i.e one for center and one for front and rear you cant get 5.1 sound out of you ear phone jack.

I may well be proven wrong do!

Chalk

you can get spdif out of most modern laptop ear phone jacks like i posted.
you need an amp that takes optical in

godtabh

At them time my laptop wasnt the most update (Dell 5100) and I was told that you couldnt "force" 5.1 sound out of your system unless you had the correct system.

I now have a Dell 9300. If I got the correct equipment like a Creative DDTS 100 and the matching 5.1 speakers I can get 5.1 digital using the steps above regardless of what time of sound card I have?

Chalk

bit of googling later and it seems that dell dont supply laptops with spdif out
except on the xps

godtabh

I just did what you said on my work pc. Its about a year oild P4 with a soundMax Digital Audio.

I went to control panel
Sound and audio devices properties.
Can find the advanced tap that will bring me to sp/ dif output.

there is an adavnced button which will bring me to 5.1 ouput do. Is that the same

digiman

Chalk wrote:

should be on the 3.5mm headphone jack.
instead of plugging in a headphone you plug in an optical cable.
trhen go to the hardware properties for your soundcard
> advanced
> enable sp/dif out

if youve got nothing plugged into the headphone jack, youll see a red glow coming out of it.

then that goes to your amp/decoder and your away

Never realised this, Will look into this when I get home. Is there a decoder for 5.1 on the laptop?
Anyone know where you could get a good set of speakers for fairly cheap?

Chalk

probably,
its more than likely jsut labelled differently to mine.
when you turn it on have a look around the heaphone jack on the laptop,
if its dark enough youll see a faint red glow to show its working

theres no hardware decoder in the laptop,
it outputs a dts or ac3 stream to an external decoder.
powerdvd / wmp include software decoders for 5.1,
which they downmix to 2ch

Sparky

Chalk wrote:

bit of googling later and it seems that dell dont supply laptops with spdif out
except on the xps

I have it on my 9100.

Sparky

I got one of these things with my 9100 and it plugs into the s-video port on the back of the laptop


I get DD from my dvd's using dell media experience, just go to sound setup and then select spdif output, then i get AC3 through the black rca on the above lead.

Id assume it would work for some of the other dells.

Chalk

which one of them is an optical port?

Sparky

Chalk wrote:

which one of them is an optical port?

The black one on the left.

Sparky

the amp says its DD 5.1 and i cant get sound through my laptop speakers or headphones because its in AC3 not PCM, to put PCM through the spdif i have to plug something in to the headphone jack, i usually use my 3.5 jack to a slimer type adaptor.

heres a shot of the amp display

smemon

just get an audigy 2 zs & bob's your uncle.

im getting that plus creative's inspire T7900 system. that oughta look/sound sweet with my new ferrari €240 in total.

money well spent if this turns out to be as good as i think it is. there's nothing like crystal clear sound at a high volume.

godtabh

Whats the name of that thing in the picture above? Might try and get my self one of them

digiman

I don't know if there is any specific name on it, it probably only comes with dell laptops, you could try ebay. I have one with my laptop, will look for the name of it later.

Sparky_S and chalk, what soundcards do you have in your laptops?

Sparky

digiman wrote:

I don't know if there is any specific name on it, it probably only comes with dell laptops, you could try ebay. I have one with my laptop, will look for the name of it later.

Sparky_S and chalk, what soundcards do you have in your laptops?

Mines a Sigma Tel C-Major Audio, card

Chalk

via vinyl afaik

digiman

My 8600 has the same soundcard as yours Sparky, if I got a set of 5.1 speakers could I just take the optical from the dell cable that you have in your picture and get 5.1 or dolby digital like that? or would i have to put it through an amp like yours first?

Also can you get the digital out to work from the headphonw jack?

Chalk

optical out


and how i enable it
http://homepage.eircom.net/~austinville/shiny.JPG

digiman

I have this enabled on mine and ain't getting no red laser light

Chalk

seems on dells you have to use the adapter sparky_s has.

Chalk

Sparky_S wrote:

the amp says its DD 5.1 and i cant get sound through my laptop speakers or headphones because its in AC3 not PCM, to put PCM through the spdif i have to plug something in to the headphone jack, i usually use my 3.5 jack to a slimer type adaptor.

heres a shot of the amp display
http://members.boards.ie/sparky_s/DSCF1264.JPG

have you set power dvd [dell media centre] to use spdif out?
right click on the screen>
config>
audio>
speaker environmet>
pass to spdif.

Sparky

Chalk wrote:

have you set power dvd [dell media centre] to use spdif out?
right click on the screen>
config>
audio>
speaker environmet>
pass to spdif.

Yeah i have done that, but i also noticed that if you wanna play music, sound then comes from the laptop speakers and through the digital out, but i have to either plug in the headphones or a jack adaptor to give full sound output via the digital,
Put it is in PCM not dolby digital.
When dvd's are played it give full DD 5.1 output through the digital and no sound is heard from the laptop speakers.
And on someones other post.
You will need some sort of DD decoder for 5.1 sound as the digital audio from the spdif is in undecoded AC3 format, where as if its in PCM format you dont need a decoder.

Sparky

digiman wrote:

Also can you get the digital out to work from the headphonw jack?

AFAIK, dell only routes the spdif signal through two pins in the same output as the s-video port.

But you will need that adaptor thing i have or if you wanted to you could fabricate (sp?) a lead with 2 pins and a rca outlet as your coaxial outlet

Sparky

heres a page from my 9100 manual about the connector

digiman

That adapter came with my laptop, I was hoping that I wouldn't need to go buying amp and that a speaker set like what was posted by smemon. Are you sure this wouldn't do?

Sparky

you can use the adaptor for outputing digital sound in pcm format, which needs an amp to receive a digital sound, but the amp doesent have to be a DD amp.
Basicly PCM is exactly the same format that comes raw from a cd but you need an amp to recieve the info and send it to the speakers.
DD is the same but you need an amp with a DD decoder onboard.

So if you need to use your digital output you might as well go and get an amp with a coaxial connection and a DD decoder in it.
Its not possible to just connect your digital output to a speaker system because you will need some sort of digital to analogue converter, so usually most decoder/amps or commonly know as receivers have DD in them.

godtabh

I read my dell manual.

Its says go to powerdvd in programms. Double click on it to bring you to options/settings. Go to audio and U can select the digital ouput. You then have to do the same in the powerdvd program its self.

Any one got any ideas where to buy (cheap) decoders speakers?

Chalk

youll be ripped off in most shops in town.

ebay would be a good place to start imo.
try ebay.de as they seem to have loads of that kind of thing.

godtabh

Had a look on ebay but pardon the pun but no luck!

Sparky

you could try ringing dell and say you had one and lost it or it got broken on you (although they might want you to send them the broken one) and would love to buy a new one off them.

I looked at the adaptor and it has these codes on it

DS/N CN-044CTV-48404-497-4048
DP/N 044CTV C/O CN Rev A00.

Just say to the dell guy that you have the label of it and these are the codes

I may work for you, if you get the right person.