Connecting An Interface To Home Theatre

[Genious]

This is my first post so please bear with me as I'm prone to asking dopey questions. My hope is to somehow use an interface like the Tascam US-366 or the Steinberg UR28M and connect it to the optical input on a home theatre so that I can record/playback in 5.1. I use Cubase with a MOTU interface downstairs in my playroom but I'm planning on a good laptop that I can work on in the living room. I am married (therefore whipped) and he is not going to tolerate another 5 monitors in the living room. I just want a more low-key set up to mix but I have a feeling it's not as simple as connecting optical out of an interface into the optical in of the surround sound receiver. Any info or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Jake_JW]

It will very much depend on how the interface software works, but you should be able to do exactly that (providing the optical in/outs on the interface and Hi-Fi are using the same standard).

You my be able to assign your stereo output to spdif. The user manual's for interfaces are normally available online and are a good place to look.
UR28M Manual:
ftp://ftp.steinberg.net/Download/Hardware/UR28M/UR28M_documentation/UR28M_OperationManual_en.pdf

Page 4 states that the SPDIF output can carry your DAW OUT signal (i.e. stereo out). You might be able to do surround, but it's probably a bit more work to set up as SPDIF won't carry surround signals as uncompressed audio (wikipedia) so it probably won't be useful for mixing.

 

[Genious]

OK-thanks for the reply. I did try to do it in my actual home studio awhile back-just on a whim with the MOTU 828 MKII using both an optical cable and also the SPDIF output using the proper cable into the SPDIF input of a surround receiver as well, but no luck. It wasn't that big of problem there because I did have 5 analog inputs on that receiver so it works that way as expected.

 

[ecc83]

Back in the day! Soundcards and interfaces such as the M-Audio 2496 and Fast track Pro had "Dolby 5.1 passthru" meaning that a surround sound source on a PC could be played out digitally to a ssound amplifier. The S/PDIF output on both those devices is co-ax but an optical converter is easily found and cheap, £15, $20?

I am not sure that modern AIs still have this facility?

Dave.

 

[xb2003]

I have struggled to make this work. SPDIF carries 2 channels of audio over an optical cable, and ADAT can carry 8 (at 48kHz). Optical can carry Dolby Digital, but that is not discrete audio tracks, but rather information to be interpreted by a decoder. So...

Most sound cards seem to be able to output in either SPDIF or Dolby Digital, but not ADAT. So we can either send 2 channels of audio or Dolby. Audio Interfaces usually support both SPDIF and ADAT, but they do not have a Dolby Decoder in them. If your source is your interface, then they can output in either ADAT or SPDIF, but not Dolby. So then you are going to your receiver that generally supports SPDIF and Dolby, just like your computer most likely does. So you have no way to get the 8 channels of audio to the receiver you want to. I have been fighting this same thing. I am yet to find a decent way around this, at least digitally. You can always resort to the analog i/o, but you will likely run into noise.

Hope this helped..
Jesse

 

[ecc83]

Amazon.com: Wiistar 5.1 Channel AC3/DTS Audio Gear Digital Surround Sound Rush Decoder HD player with USB Port: Electronics

I may be reading this thread all wrong but won't the above do the bizz? Ok you would need to run a long USB cable but I have never had a problem up to 5 mtrs with a decent quality one. Past that you can run repeaters ad inf?

If you HAVE to run long, multiple analogue wires here is a way to minimize noise....

For 4 channels use CAT5 shielded patch cable treat each pair as "hot and cold" and connect the shield drain wire to "chassis" at each end. Modern soundcards/AIs have a low OPZ and there should be no HF loss over even tens of mtrs.

Better of course would be balanced feeds but to do it with high quality would be expensive.

Dave.