how to 2.1 or 5.1 on the new inspirons

i am planning to get a creative 5.1 spk set up,for my inspiron 1720

i know many have been running 5.1 here, so pls can someone guide me on this.. i`ve heard abt this s/pdf, what exactly does this do.

thanks in advance

 

S/PDIF, is a type of optical audio connection, and I've never seen it on a notebook before. It could possibly be on a PCMCIA audio card but I doubt it. It's normally used for desktop PC's sound cards, gaming consoles, and pro hardware.

Some laptops ive seen have 5.1 analog connections which must include a green, black, orange, and pink audio jacks, but laptop's with these built in are very rare.

Though nowadays you can use the HDMI on laptops which have 7.1 or higher sound.

Other than buying a sound card for your notebook that sticks out the side of the express card or PCMCIA slot, you wont get 5.1 sound on your notebook.

 

Clevo M570RU (and all notebooks based on it I assume) have an SPDIF out
i think it's more common these days, especially on the bigger/more expensive notebooks

 

but hey..... wait ,i just checked on my 1720 manual and there is an spdif out on my 1720 through the svideo jack..... only thing is that we need an adapter as shown in the pic,get an optical cable and connect it to your dts dolby digital receiver and get true 5.1 or 7.1...



to enable spdif output u need to open volume mixer in taskbar.click device and change (speakers/headphone sigmatel hd audio codec) to (digital output device spdif output sigmatel hd codec)

now all the sounds on ur laptop will be digitally sent through the svideo jack.

but the downside here is u need a reciever.and i don't think creative 5.1 speakers will have a digital in jack.

 

Yep I saw the similar thing in 1520 manual as well.... The adaptor is a DELL properietary I suppose since I could nt get much details about such an adaptor on the net.... But you can purchase it from the DELL website.....

The only criteria is that your speaker set must have S/PDIF input....

 

don't they supply the adapter?
i think, for my old Inspiron 9100, i got a cable for that purpose
never used it though

 

No they dont supply it and you gotta get it separately only... It is around $10 or something on the US Dell Site.... In the Indian DELL Site they give it along with the laptop for extra around Rs.200 or something....

 

With heaps of laptops with sigmatel audio (like my crappy Acer 3620) chips you can reconfigure the three ports (headphone, mic and other[?]) to output 5.1 sound (left/right, rear left/right, and centre/sub.) You just need to install the manufacturers audio control centre... Thats what I do in XP.

Wonder if you could do the same with the three 3.5mm stereo jacks on the front of the inspirons?

 

I thought that the latest DELL Inspirons come only with two audio ports - one for LINE OUT and other for MIC/LINE IN (configurable using the app in windows) doesnt it ?

 

Nope. The 1420/1400 has 2 headphone out jacks

 

Hmm just now saw the manuals for the 3 new inspirons and guess you are right... The 1420 indeed comes with 2 headphone jacks (dunno why though) and 1 MIC jack while the 1520 and the 1720 come only with 1 headphone jack and 1 MIC jack....

 

Two headphone ports is sweet, one reason I originally considered the XPS series was becasue of the dual headphone output. When I heard that the standard models came with it I jumped on a Vostro 1400. Hope I can get it to output 5.1

I guess the application for that sort of thing would be for two people on a plane or in a library?

 

I hooked up my 4.1 sorround sound KLIPSCH THX Certified sounds system to my Vostro 1400. Man, I'm loving it.

 

You can plug in the Dell's digital out to a 5.1 speaker system with digital inputs such as the Logitech Z-5500. The bonus is that the built-in Sigmatel digital out (via the S-Video) also outputs both Dolby Digital and DTS bitstreams when watching DVDs. Since the Logitech Z-5500 has built in DD and DTS decoder, you will be able to enjoy DVDs with 5.1 DD or DTS sound.

I have an Inspiron 6400 and I had to buy the S-Video to component/SPDIF adapter. I could not get the Component video to work but SPDIF works fine. The downside is the adapter is big and kind of kludgey.

 

Hey thx dude. . . So the logitech 5500 is the one huh. . . I'll look into it. . . . And BTW did you get the adapter from dell or is it available for purchase elsewhere?

 

I bought it from Dell... As I said, the one I got was the S-Video to component with SPDIF dongle.

Here is an image I took:



The Coaxial Digital output is the jack with black color on the far right. If you want to experience 5.1 DD or DTS surround sound through a receiver or through a PC Speaker system such as the Logitech Z-5500 (with built in DD and DTS decoder fed via Coaxial Digital cable) you need this dongle.

 

Very interesting, it seems that this may be the best option for connection my z5500s to my vostro 1400? On that adapter however, is there an optical out? or an adapter similar but has optical out, because currently my dvd player is plugged into the coax of my z5500s..

 

No optical out on the adapter/dongle, only Coax digital output. If your dvd player has optical out, use that to connect it to your Z-5500 and connect the dongle's Coax to the Coax input of the Z-5500. Otherwise you might just have to craft a Coax switcher.

I believe Dell also sells an S-Video to S-Video plus Coax Digital adapter/dongle (as in the graphic provided by anime_freak). Unfortunately, that adapter is not available at Dell Canada. That might be the better option, as in my Inspiron, the component outputs don't appear to work... although I did not really try that hard as I was mostly interested in getting the SPDIF digital out to work.

 

On a sidenote, to get the display working properly for the TV output you gotta follow these steps I suppose :

I got this from DELL Support manual....

 

All i need is the sound, anyone know if I can get an svideo to SPDIF anywhere? How good is the quality by the way?

 

is the S-Video to TV-Component Cable with SPDIF Adapter for Dell XPS M1710 Notebook only sold in the u.s

cant find it anywhere for europe.

 

It probably is sold only in the US. Here in Canada, they did not have the S-Video to S-Video with SPDIF like the one pictured in the graphic in the first page. This is the reason I got the S-Video to Component with SPDIF. I only needed the SPDIF out anyway.

 

gonna call dell norway, strange that it isnt offered here.

looked now through stuff from the 8600 machine and found this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-Video-Adap...Jack-Plug_W0QQitemZ130141599478QQcmdZViewItem


The sound did not work from xps 1710 to reciever coax

 

composite is s-video right?? if so, it is available on the site for 14 bucks.

 

jonpet, that looks like the dongle in the graphic on the first page... It lappears it has S-Video, Composite (Yellow), and SPDIF (Black) outputs. That was what I was originally looking for but Dell Canada did not have it.

 

yes, it came with dell 8600 years back. neevr used it on that machine.

Tried it on 1710, connected to coax on reciever. Changed primary sound on 1710 to digital but got nothing. test buttons was not active, and couldnt change.

on properties of the digital device it changed from no information, to rear panel rca jack.

so dont know if this old dongle works correctly on 1710

 

I bought the sound card, and I'm gonna get some Bose 5.1 speakers for my laptop. Hopefully it will be sick.

Question: If I have both the Wireless N card and the X-fi card, will I need to switch them everytime I want to use one or the other? I'm guessing I can't use both at the same time.

 

use your mini internal PCI-E slots.

 

M1330 with 2 line out/1 line in

here is a 5.1 setup

 

I have no clue what those are. lol. I'm not very smart.

I was just curious how everything works, how Dell would build my PC with everything I ordered, and if I ordered too much where I would have to switch stuff out, or if everything is inside. I have two order numbers, one seperate for my sound card, I don't know if that meant anything.

Do I have two slots for two cards? Probably not smart ordering a PC when you're not sure of everything.

 

your sound card is either USB or express card (little thing on the side of your notebook)

 

Composite and S-Video are different.... Composite carries the luminance and chrominance signals in a single cable while the S-Video has two pins/wires to carry them.... So S-Video is slightly better in quality compared to Composite..... But you would not see any appreciable difference in visual quality on the TV though

 

gotcha...i appreciate that!