Is there any way to connect old 5.1 home theater to laptop or pc?

DexteR1499

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Jan 13, 2016
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4,510
Hi all,
I have an old 5.1 home theater surround sound system which i want to connect it to my laptop or my pc.
I don't have an audio card.
Only 1 audio jack in laptop and 3 audio jacks in PC.
on the back of my speaker system I have 2 options 1 i could use only 2 channels which is obviously very easy and the other option is i have total 3 jacks (+,--) and S Video output. I also have an HDMI port in my laptop model is dell inspiron 14z.
DO i have to install video card on my pc? which cable should i buy for my laptop to enjoy proper 5.1 surround sound? Is it possible to play 5.1 on this laptop because i already did a little research and i found nothing.

Thanks in advance.
 
take photos of the rear of your model receiver (home theater control box) or link us to photos of the rear of one you find on google images with your model number.

yes its possible, with the right adapters generally as long as your receiver takes 5.1 input (not all do)
 
cannot find much on it but might be a juster dht-515 based on the little i could find that was sold in russian markets.

there is glare from the flash so i cannot tell if its an input but i believe that cluster to the left should be a "ac3 (5.1) input" though you may want to tell me if it is in fact an input or not since i cannot see the text!

if it is an input, then you have a 6 channel (5.1) analog input on the receiver so would need to feed it that. there are two ways you can get this from a laptop:

a cheap usb soundcard that can output 5.1... then use 3.5mm to rca red+white splitter cables (three of them) to connect from soundcard to receiver input. if yu absolutely must use the laptop, this is the cheap option.

or, a hdmi or optical audio extractor (depending on the connections of your laptop) that has 5.1 (6 channels) analog output. this works great if you are already outputting hdmi to the tv from the laptop. this is the not so cheap option.

if you wanted to install to a desktop.. you can use the 5.1 sound outputs you already have on the back of your pc which come on the motherboard. you would need only the three 3.5mm to rca adapter cables i mentioned earlier. this is the cheapest option.

tldr: if you have a desktop it would be cheap to hook it up to this. if you have a laptop it would be more since you need an adapter.
 

DexteR1499

Estimable
Jan 13, 2016
4
0
4,510


Thanks for all the details but could you just share the images of all the devices and cables you have mentioned above because i did a lot of research and so far i have found like hundred types of cables, that's the reason I write a post here.
correct me if i am wrong, i have only 3 jacks in my PC including mic jack I don't have any sound card installed on my pc, are you saying that if i buy rc cable which has 3 audio jacks runs 5.1 smoothly, and the other thing i do have a hdmi option in my laptop its dell inspiron 14z so you are saying there is a cable which has 6 rca type connector that goes into my woofer and one HDMI connector which go into laptop.
sorry for bad English.