How do I hook up a HT Receiver to my computer?

[thxsubwoofers]

I have no clue how to hook up my home theater receiver to my computer. I have always been using computer 5.1 speaker systems, but I want to step up another level higher than pc speakers. I have a panasonic SA-XR25 6.1 receiver. Do I need to upgrade my receiver in order to hook it up to my computer? Also what kind of cables and tools do you need?

[Marvel]

I'm mostly a two channel person, but I think you need a sound card with coax/optical out and a receiver with the matching input. Set up the sound card correctly and you're set.

Bruce

[j-malotky]

I hook mine up with a SPDIF coax connection. This way you pass the AC3 or DTS signal directly to your receiver and let it do the 5.1 decoding. Just like you would hook up any other DVD player.

JM

[Shade]

Generally, for the best sound quality, use a sound card with optical or coaxial output to connect to your receiver. If your motherboard has a coax output, do not use this. The sound quality is rather poor compared to a good sound card. Also, stay away from Creative Labs, their sound cards upconvert everything to 48khz.

One card I would reccomend is the M-Audio Revolution. It does not upconvert the sampling rate. I upgraded to one from a Creative labs Soundblaster Live, and the sound quality with the M-Audio was far better.

One thing to note is that PC games will not output 5.1 surround over the digital outputs. This will only work with the analog outputs. If gaming is more of a priority for you, and your receiver has 5.1 analog inputs, then I would suggest a card with quality analog outs. Again, Creative Labs does not do well here either. I've heard the analog outputs on M-Audio cards are pretty good, but have not tried them myself.