Laptop 3.5 Jack to Surround Sound 3.5 Aux. Input

Ssb22

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Jul 4, 2015
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Just purchased a Samsung HT-c650w Surround Sound System. I honestly, do not know which one it is, could be a 5500 or something, the guy I bought it from told me he thought it was from the 650 series or something. Anyhow, the receiver, it has this written on the back ah63-02058u. It does look like a C6500.

Regardless, Here is what I'm trying to do. I have my laptop sitting on top of the receiver. The laptop has a 3.5mm audio jack and the receiver has a 3.5mm input jack on the front. So, using a 3.5mm male to male aux.cable, I have my laptop hooked up the surround sound system.

when I play music (like through groove on windows 10) Sound is only available through the two main speakers. The front speaker, the sub, and the two wireless back speakers have no sound.

My theory, is that my laptop is only outputing stereo and this is the cause.

Now, I know I can get a 3.5mm Male Audio Video Extension Cable RCA Male Extension Cable and go that route to the receiver. What I'm wondering, is if I can simply change some settings on my laptop to change the output from stereo to dolby 5.1 or whatever is necessary to push out that sound to all the speakers. Suggestions?

My laptop has two audio drivers in device manager>sound
- AMD High Definition Audio Device
- Conexant SmartAudio HD

I'm trying to get 5.1 dolby output to my 3.5 laptop jack. Thoughts?
 
Solution
3.5mm will only ever be stereo. there are three cables, one for left, one for right and one for ground. yes, virtual surround is a thing (for headphones) but it will still only go to the front speakers in this case (and will sound bad).

if you want to use all speakers on your home theater but only have a stereo source, use dolby pro logic or ext stereo (or whatever your model calls it) mode to push front channel audio to the rear (it acts like two front lefts, two front rights).

want true surround out of the laptop? hdmi or optical are generally your best options. hdmi natively supports surround. optical 'can' support 5.1 but only if your hardware on both sides supports it (if your laptop doesnt, an external soundcard could but doesnt...
Hi, your system may have a mode called '5 channel stereo' or '5 channel mode' which will output a stereo sound over the 5.1 system. this will give you two left speakers and two right speakers, plus your sub woofer. Have a look at the modes the unit has, and maybe your unit has that. I cant find any specific details of weather or not it has, but a quick look in the manual (if you have it) should confirm this, or simply have a poke about in the on-screen menu.

You will not however, achieve 'true' 5.1 Dolby surround from a stereo input.

Hope this may help!
K.
 
3.5mm will only ever be stereo. there are three cables, one for left, one for right and one for ground. yes, virtual surround is a thing (for headphones) but it will still only go to the front speakers in this case (and will sound bad).

if you want to use all speakers on your home theater but only have a stereo source, use dolby pro logic or ext stereo (or whatever your model calls it) mode to push front channel audio to the rear (it acts like two front lefts, two front rights).

want true surround out of the laptop? hdmi or optical are generally your best options. hdmi natively supports surround. optical 'can' support 5.1 but only if your hardware on both sides supports it (if your laptop doesnt, an external soundcard could but doesnt mean your home theater does). another thing to keep in mind is that not all home theater in a box sets support surround sound input from other than any included dvd/br players or might be limited to one type of source input for surround (likely hdmi). with that said.. playing music on the pc is still going to be stereo without purposefully pushing the front audio to the rear like i said earlier.
 
Solution