yes, i realize that multimedia speakers are not designed to work on televisions, but as i have a fairly nice quality 5.1 multimedia system that is not being used, i'd like to know how i can hook it up to my television

the television only has one set of audio outputs (left and right, of course)...and yes, i realize that i will not be getting true surround sound because of this, i was hoping that someone might know of a converter box that will allow me to run that one set of outputs to the box and then have the box split the sounds into the 3 stereo channgels (FL/FR,C/S,RL/RR)

any links/ideas would be much appreciated

5/8/2006 1:04:18 PM

If you have a decent receiver it will up mix the audo for you a la dolby prologic.

5/8/2006 1:10:04 PM

What kind of Cable box do you have? It should have digital out and analog out. Just run the analog to the TV and digital to the receiver.

5/8/2006 1:31:45 PM

he didn't say anything about a cable box

5/8/2006 1:34:48 PM

You can get 4 pretty easily from some adapters at radioshack, but it's messy. It'll require an adapter to split each RCA jack, then a Y adapter that'll convert that two a stereo 1/8th inch headphone plug, then an adapter that'll convert that to a 1/8th inch headphone jack. Do that for the L and R and it'll give you a set of speakers on the Left and Right signal. It's messy, lossy, and a pain. Not really worth it. It'd be better to get home-theatre in a box system that accepts input from your tv...

5/8/2006 1:50:14 PM

get a receiver - i got mine from a pawn shop, 600w yamaha. run the tv audio into the receiver, run the speakers and sub out of the receiver. profit.

5/8/2006 1:59:29 PM

^ that'd be tricky since pc speaker systems have the amp built into the sub and usually controlls for the sub amp wired into one of the speakers. He could certainly connect just the speakers by splicing the wires and connecting them to the speaker level out from the receiver IF they have high enough impedence. If they are too low though, the receiver will either go into protect mode or blow a fuse (depending on weather it uses electronic breakers or an actual fuse.) he's then out the subwoofer though. The subs for pc speakers pull the bass out of the left/right/center surround out from the computer normally and don't connect to a seperate "subwoofer" channel. He could get an adapter and connect the subwoofer channel from the receiver directly to the subwoofer/amp from the speaker system then I guess. That'd probably work.

If you have a REALLY nice system, no splicing for the speakers will be needed as they accept standard speaker wiring. It's that if it's a nice enough system the subwoofer will also accept speaker level subwoofer inputs. We'd be better able to tell you what you can and can't do if you could tell us the model number and brand of the speaker system.

Do NOT connect the inputs to the subwoofer/speaker system that would normally connect to the computer sound card to the speaker level connections on a stereo receiver! This will destroy your subwoofer/speaker system! The speaker level outputs from the receiver are amplified while the outputs from your computer are not really.

[Edited on May 8, 2006 at 2:22 PM. Reason : ]

5/8/2006 2:20:49 PM