Need optical output from my notebook

Hello,

I have a pair of Tritton AX Pro surround sound headphones that I originally bought for my PS3. They have two methods of audio input; optical and and 3.5mm jacks for front, center, rear, bass, and mic. My notebook (Sager NP9262) has minimal options for utilizing these headphones properly. So from this my question arises.

What options do I have to fully utilize my headphones on my notebook?

I see that there are some USB sound cards that may or may not be able to solve this, but I do not know too much about them (nor do they give sufficient information).

If I am to use optical to do this, I was wondering if anyone has heard of an optical splitter of some sort so that I won't have to keep moving the optical cable from my PS3 to my notebook.


Any and all info is appreciated and I thank you in advance.

 

I wouldn't use a splitter. I'd just get a second cable for your laptop: Audio Cables - Optical Toslink

That said, I have no experience with USB soundcards, but I have heard that they're pretty decent. If you really want to use your headphones with your laptop, that's probably the only way to go. You might try just plugging the front speaker plug into your laptop headphone jack and seeing how well that works as it is, though.

 

The purpose of the splitter wouldn't be the lack of a cable, it would be more of a thing where I don't want to keep changing the cables around whether it be just the part that connects to the headphone's amp or anything else. I want to set it and forget it.

The jacks on the notebook do not support the headphones properly. So it ends up only using two out of the 8 total speakers inside them. This ends up making them sound worse than any other pair of headphones.

I saw in another thread that someone uses (Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1) and enjoys it. These would most likely solve my problems, but I do not need all the bells and whistles from it as my headphones already do everything like conversion to 5.1. I simply want a way to connect them fully to my notebook (be it optical or the 3.5mm jacks).

There are these cheap alternatives on eBay, but I would want to know if they will cover my needs before buying.

 

Invest in a quality dac with optical out and use it as a bit perfect transport.

 

Audinst HUD-MX1 seems like a good option.

 

Not really looking to spend $180 on it. I would rather just get the PC version of the headphones for that much.

I'm leaning towards getting the Turtle Beach Micro II, but I'm not sure if it will properly do the trick.

 

Fleabay is full of adapters like these:
USB 2.0 Audio Adapter / Converter Pro with SPDIF & Analogue Audio Support | LINDY UK

And yes, the Micro 2 would do the job.

Bear in mind though that these solutions pass through surround, and aren't capable of encoding it themselves.

I've unearthed an Audiotrak Optoplay not so long ago which I'm finding useful from time to time. It's basically the same thing as the Micro 2.

And once again, fleabay is full of TOSLINK switches. These are basically just rotating prisms on a block.

 

Those toslink switches are perfect thank you.

 

I was in a similar situation about a couple months ago when deciding on a laptop to buy. Another issue you have too at is if the usb adapter/sound card, or your onboard sound card, which ever will be driving the sound, needs to support dolby digital live or DTS Live(think it might be called something else). Games on a console support this function, allowing for 5.1 surround video games, this is different from what a movie does, the movie has 5.1 individual tracks on the disc , not having to mix anything in real time. But for video games, they rely on real time mixing of surround sound.

My G73jh laptop has a 3.5MM JACK slot that backs as an optical audio slot, movies map the 5.1 audio perfectly, but games dont recognise it, they stay at a stereo set up ignoring 3 speakers and the sub. Thats because my onboard card doesnt support DDL or DTSL. Just read carefully make sure they support that.

 

No onboard solution, or indeed USB solutions, does this yet. There are PCI/PCI-E cards which can encode 5.1 to the optical outputs, but I'm guessing even then there's a lag for games. Or maybe they do it without lag, explaining their comparatively high price tag. Either way no laptop solutions exist to my knowledge.