g400, tv-out, dolby prologic tv question?

[Bilbo]

I have just ordered a Widescreen Tv with dolby surround sound so I can watch dvd's via the TV-Out on my G400 Dual Head.
I have a straight s-video to scart lead that should give me a good picture but what about sound?
Does anyone know of a lead or set up that will allow me to output the sound to the tv rather than my PC speakers so I can take advantage of the built in dolby and extra effects speakers?

Thanks for any advice!

------------------
G400 32MB DualHead,
PIII450@504,
64Mb,
QDI Brilliant 1 Mobo,
Pioneer 104S DVD ROM,
6.4Gb UDMA SAMSUNG HD,
3.2GB Quantum Fireball UDMA HD,
Int. IDE ZIP Drive,
ASUSCOM ISDN TA (Internal)
10/100MB Fast Ethernet Card,
SB AWE64 Gold,
Belinea 10 70 10, 17" Monitor,
Hmmmm and a Floppy Drive


[This message has been edited by Bilbo (edited 27 January 2000).]

[Lawrence Lin]

If you want Dolby Digital you'll need soundcard with digital out. Of course this means you'll need a receiver that can decode DD but I'm just working on the PC end <G>. Many Vortex 2-based cards have either coax or optical digital out, and as most receivers take either I'd recommend the Aureal Superquad as it's cheap.

[Meek]

If Dolby Surround ProLogic is all you have, then a standard two-channel mini-plug to RCA connector from the sound card to the TV is all you need. However, surround needs the rear channel as well, I do not know how you connect you rear channel to your TV. I suppose you TV, if advertised as Dolby Prologic, comes with some kind of rear speakers.

Anyways, if the Dolby decoder is in your TV,as you seem to imply, you need to connect the soundcards line out to your TV's Audio Line in. If SCART is all you have, then you should find a SCART to RCA converter.
Quite often, if you have separate S-video in, you also have separate RCA connectors for the sound.

M.

[Rob G]

It's possible the encoding will deteriote, but unlikely (at least not by much). The rear effects in a Pro-Logic signal are placed out of phase to the main signal. The decoder then extrapolates the rear (mono) signal and sends it to the speakers. Much the same happens with the centre channel.

However Pro-Logic is nowhere near as accurate in channel separation as Dolby Digital. You will invariably get a large portion of the sound eminating from the centre speaker. There will also be a certain amount of sound from rears, even if a true rear signal isn't present in the signal.

As stated above, all Pro-Logic needs is an incoming two-channel sound signal, be that a movie soundtrack, audio CD or anything else you care to throw at it. Just don't expect great results with stereo material that has not been properly encoded for surround as there will odd anomalies.

[Bilbo-at work]

Thanks for the reply's
I think I have found my own answer.
Pretty much as you say Meek. The Dolby Surround is built into the TV and it has the extra rear and middle speakers for me to place accordingly. As long as I can pass the sound straight through to the TV complete with the surround encoding then it should do the job for me. I have just found in the CPC Catalogue a Home Cinema Lead with S-Video and two phono leads (sound) at one end that converts to SCART at the other (The AWE 64 Gold has gold edged phono connections). So in theory as long as the encoding is still in the sound signal when it reaches the TV and hasn't been lost by going through the sound card then I should get the sound through the TV and full surround... I hope.
I'll post a reply and let everyone know if it works....

Bilbo