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Is there a way to monitor sound on my PC directly on my Home Theater Receiver ? Currently this is for me the easiest way to get full 5.1 sound on my computer since i have available my old home theater system which come with all the speakers. I have tested playing a DVD on my computer and can get 5.1 sound with the receiver by using the optical out on my sound card but i can't figure out on how to do the same wiht Bidule ?

Any help on this this would be really appreciated !

There should be an audio devices --> output that corresponds to your sound card in Plogue. First remove whatever output device you are using now (connected at the output of Zmon) and replace with the one for your sound card.

Or, if you are using the Microsoft Sound Output, the Default output, or the Primary sound output, in Plogue, you'll need to make your sound card the default output (configured for 5.1) in windows before you start Plogue.

Thanks for the help but the problem i have is that my Digital Output device have only two pins in the upper part and the Zmon have 8 pins to connect so i don't know how to hook it up to have all speaker throught my optical output.

OK, my fault. I forgot that you would need to encode with DTS or Dolby first.

Does your Home theater unit have HDMI? HDMI can support multi channel (unencoded) sound. If so, you can get a graphics card with HDMI and connect it to your home theater.

Or, look on ebay for a creative dts-610. That can convert 6 channels of audio (5.1) into DTS on the fly. That assumes that you have a sound card that can output 6 channels of audio.

Or look for a soundcard with DTS-connect or DTS-interactive. Dolby Digital Live would also work (but DTS sounds better).

If your receiver only has optical, you'll need a sound card that can do "dts interactive", "DTS-connect", or "Dolby digital live".

OR, a sound card with at least 6 outputs and a creatve DTS-610, which converts 6 ch audio into dts encoded optical.

All of that stuff is probably not made anymore, because of HDMI, so look on Ebay etc.

I'm pretty sure that my card do DTS or Dolby encoding on the fly because if i open a DVD with a DTS soundtrack and make my optical the output in Media Player Classic my receiver can play it without a hitch. For the speaker connection my current soundcard have connector for up to 7.1 speaker configuration the only problem i have is that my speaker won't fit into those connector and if i want to fit them since there is mo amplifier the sound is very low.

I can also do my test with a smaller Sony home theater i got in my other living room which have HDMI input if youm think that it would be easier ton configure.

For the bidule part is there something special i need to insert between the audio device and the ouput of Zmon ?

Playing a DTS sound track does not equal encoding on the fly. It equals "bit perfect" playback of the encoded signal through to your receiver for DTS decoding there.

If your sound card can do enocding on the fly it will be called DTS connect, DTS interactive, or dolby digital live, so you could look in the manual for that.

To answer the sound card output levels, the sound card outputs are "line" or "pre-amp" level, not speaker level. You need an amplifier between the sound card and the speakers. A 5.1 or 7.1 amp with pre-amp or line in would be needed.

Yes, these day's HDMI is easier. You'll need a graphics card with an HDMI output and capable of doing HDMI digital sound. This doesn't have to be fancy becase you don't need it for video, gaming, etc. just for sound. Unfortunately they often don't mention that on the box, but may have it. You don't have to use it for video but you do need to connect it to your HDMI home theater.

For Nvidia cards, go to the Nvidia control panel then under "display" click on "Set up digital audio". That will give you an hdmi output device that will show up in the windows sound control panel, which you can configure for 5.1 or 7.1 output.

Then in Plogue, remove whatever output device you are using now, at the output of Zmon, and instead use the new one for HDMI.

In Plogue right click --> audio devices --> output then look through the choices and you should see something that you can recognize as the HDMI output.