Surround Sound not very Surround!!

sahun

Just bought a nice 5:1 surround system for my living room, only problem is it only came with stereo sound leads (you know the white and red ones) so I bought a cheap adapter off ebay to make it into a 3.5 jack.

Using it in my Desktop comp only the front speakers work, and not the back ones or central one. and when used in the TV only one of the front speakers works!!

Is this a problem with the adapter, the speakers or is it just because my TV/PC aren't surround sound compatible??

fwor

If you tell us what product you bought it would be easier to advise.

If the system includes an AV decoder then typically you need to connect that digitally to a digital 5.1 source, such as the digital output of a DVD player.

Some AV decoders can also simulate surround from a stereo input, but that will depend on what product you bought.

dogcat_2

I've also got a problem with surround sound. We bought a tv/surround sound package about 7 years ago. The tv broke quite a while ago. We moved etc. and did'nt bother to put ss on to new tv. Tried recently and we to have the same problem some speakers don't work. Sooo.... frustrating. We've just not bothered!

sahun

Oh yeah sorry,
Its the Vistron 5:1 T-30B - home theatre speaker system. Off ebuyer.com
It doesnt really come with any decent instructions so was peiced together from a diagram (but I do have an idea about how it should go)

fwor

The Vistron T-30B is just a speaker set. Either you need a TV or DVD with separate outputs for each speaker (typically 6 phono sockets including the subwoofer) or you need a separate AV decoder.

If you look at the more expensive Vistron (£100+) packages you'll see that they come with a decoder as well.

If you take a look at Richer Sounds they will probably have an AV decoder for £40-50 or so, but if you go that route make sure that there's a line-level output on the decoder for each speaker, as you've got active speakers which have amps built in.

[Edit: Correction - before Xmas Richer had some really cheap AV receivers in the Clearance section, but they don't seem to have any now :-( ]

sahun

Ohh dear Im an idiot!!!
I had the Red/White cable plugged into the wrong ports...should have plugged it into the stereo ports not the AC-3 ones!
Im going to reclude to my corner now and keep quiet.

Thank you all for your help, muchly appreciated as wouldnt have pointed me in the right direction

Marty_J

sahun wrote: »

I had the Red/White cable plugged into the wrong ports...should have plugged it into the stereo ports not the AC-3 ones!

FYI, you're still not getting surround sound.

sahun

Marty_J wrote: »

FYI, you're still not getting surround sound.

Ohh...well all the speakers are working.
I suppose it isnt sounding as I expected surround sound to be....so I need to get myself a decoder. I thought the subwoofer it comes with did all that. Suppose thats why they were quite cheap.

Marty_J

If it has an optical input and you have Sky, you might try plugging it into your Sky box.

sahun

Theres no optical input in the subwoofer, just ports for the speakers, then ports for the inputs (stereo and AC-3)
i take as the optical ports are the same as used for computer screens...

aliEnRIK

sahun wrote: »

Theres no optical input in the subwoofer, just ports for the speakers, then ports for the inputs (stereo and AC-3)
i take as the optical ports are the same as used for computer screens...

The only way you can get true surround sound, is by using a dvd player with 6 phono OUTS to plug into it