Optical Output - Surround Sound?

[ajd68]

Hi there,

I have a Vaio A197VP laptop with port replicator. The Port replicator has a digital optical output. If I buy a set of surround sound speakers, with a Dolby decoder that has an optical input, will I be able to get Dolby 5.1 surround sound with my DVDs? Will I need any software additional to that which was supplied (WinDVD) or should it just work?


Thanks.

[intradinkq]

Hi,

It should just work with what you are suggesting. If you have problems, you might need to tweak some of your sound settings in control panel, to ensure that the laptop 'knows' its outputting 5.1 sound. Also you'll need to make sure that you have AC3 audio codecs installed (search google for them). I'd expect them to have been installed with your DVD software, but it might not. AC3 shows up as an option of it's own in my XP pro control panel.

[feederfan]

Im not sure you will need to do anything extra, just buy a TOS-LINK connector, assuming thats what the connecter is on your port replicator, then connect that to your Amplifier/Decoder. The best way to do this is to use an external Decoder, if you have a good quality amplifier it will have one built in. Then change the settings in winDVD or powerDVD, or whatever other DVD software you use to USE SPDIF as the audio output, and everything should work ok! This is how i get my Audigy 2 Platinum to output Dolby Digital and DTS 6.1 to my Decoder box.