Connecting DVD Speakers to PC

[chaosweapon]

I just got some DVD speakers (5.1) and I want to connect them to my PC. The problem is I don't know how. Can anyone help me?

[Furore]

It'd help if you were a little more specific, but I'll give the best general advice I can.
Firstly, see if the speakers came with instructions for connecting to a PC. If not, look at the cords coming from the system and see if there are corresponding holes wherever your soundcard is (if you have the cheaper variety there'll hopefully be three little round audio holes), if you system has a cable that'll fit one of these, stick it in the headphone/speakers hole, recently often (though not always) color coded a light green. If this don't work there's a good chance you'll be needing something as else as a go-between from your PC to the speakers.

I hope this helps you in some way.

[Merlin]

You really need to check the manual before you do anything. Also, posting the brand/model would be helpful.

You should never hook up speakers not designed for computers directly to your computer in the manner Silver suggested. Computer sound boards run at a different impedence level than home theater speakers. Without getting too technical, it basically means you can easily destroy the speakers by hooking them up directly to the computer, especially if you have the output set to MAX. Don't use stereo or RCA outputs to hook them together or you will eventually cook the speakers. It's super-easy for something to change your sound settings to max volume, effectively overloading the speakers before you can do anything about it. Or the really raggedy way, taking the single stereo-out off the computer and using a two-way splitter to RCA onto the speakers/receiver. DO NOT DO THIS!!!

Now, this isn't to say that there's not a safe way to do it. The only way I would ever recommend doing this is if your computer has Digital Out. It's could be an orange RCA output jack. Don't confuse it with a peach-colored input jack, which is usually smaller and for other things. It's bright orange. The other choice is a wierd squarish SPIDF jack. Check your sound card or motherboard(whichever you are using for sound on the computer) manual, etc to see if it has this.

If you have either of these, you can use it to hook up to a receiver or if you bought one of those dvd player/speaker combos, there should be one of those jacks on the back of it for input.

Like I said, if you don't have digital out on your computer, don't even attempt hooking your speakers to it. If you fry them, they won't be covered by any warranty since they will easily tell you the same thing I did. Varying impedance levels is the fastest and surefire way to nuke a speaker or your sound card... or hell both of them.


Note: I feel sure some of you out here currently use the techniques I listed as 'do not use' and will swear it works fine. Yeah, in some cases it seems to work fine. Unfortunately, it is extremely risky and not very smart if you value your money. It doesn't take much power through an analog signal to fry a speaker.

[Furore]

My bad. But it could be put down to a lack of experience in the area on my part as every speaker system I've bought thus far has included a cable that fits directly into the headphone jack of my PC.

Either way I highly doubt an RCA plug will fit into the smaller headphone jack, though it might if you whacked it in with a hammer or something (a practice I personally wouldn't recommend).

As far as me talking about a go between goes, there are some nice amplifiers I have picked up that have more jacks than you can shake a stick at that do make a nice go-between. Yeah you got to be careful, but it's a solution and it's more than doable.
I do trust that people are smart enough to do their own research once pointed in a certain direction, especially if I haven't gone into detail.

[chaosweapon]

Unfortunately I don't have the user guide.

Computer ports:
-Line in (light blue)
-Line out (lime)
-Microphone (pink)
-Coaxial S/PDIF Out

Speakers: ULV1232
Output power: 35W+15W*5(RMS)
PMPO: 1000W
Impedance: 40ohms
AC: 220~240V / 50kHz

The subwoofer has 8 ports which are: Aux L, Aux R, FR, SR, SW, FL, SL, CE.

Thank you for your help.

[Furore]

It don't sound like you can connect them easily in any way from what I'm reading here, at least not without a few other things.
I'd probably recommend getting a nice set of PC speakers that connect through that 'lime' port instead.

Logitech ones are often at a nice price (X-240 2.1 can be bought here at under the cost of a game), but if you have a little money to spend I'd go with these:

Altec Lansing MX5021 (2.1)

They look a bit cheap, but the sound quality is superb, especially when they still cost under the price of two games. Or the same price as one game if you're counting Tomb Raider Ultimate Edition on 360 which matches the price here.

I notice the background sounds more in games and my music gains a nice clarity from them, even at higher volumes. The good thing is that most serious game stores stock them as they are good quality and cheaper than some of lesser quality.

[Merlin]

I would have to agree. The model number doesn't have a brand attached to it, but from what I gather the two are incompatable. It's usually cheaper to get dedicated computer speakers than to try rigging speakers not designed for it up to it.

Myself, I have a good 5.1 set of Klipsch speakers that are designed to work on computers, etc. I have a pre-amp that runs between the speaker system and the computer. The computer sends a straight digital signal to the pre-amp, which then handles Dolby Digital, etc and outputs it to the speakers. This is obviously not a cheap solution.

[chaosweapon]

Right now I'm using the monitor's speakers. I don't know whether 2.1 speakers would be any better.

The speakers' brand is Ultravox. That's what ULV stands for.

[Furore]

I doubt I've ever used monitor speakers that didn't suck in all honesty.
There might be high end monitors that have decent built in speakers, but either way decent 2.1 speakers can sound quite nice depending on the model, and if you're into reduced sound quality for max bass, they can shake my entire house so they're not bad at all.

The only failing is some ambient sounds aren't nearly as good if the software connecting to the speakers through the soundcard supports 5.1 devices well.