# 5.1 Hardware Decoder?



## NickVon (May 23, 2011)

Do they exist anymore?

the challenge: I have a Lenovo Thinkpad in a dock w/ a (coax) digital spidif out on it. I'd love to tap into that put i through a box that can then break out into 6/8 analog channels to feed into my LS9-32. 

There are several uses i'm looking to get out of the device.
A) Actually DVD playback that, (while we arn't talking THX certified) will give us positional sound for DVD/DVIX playback from additional outputs.
B) Opening up the ability to use more then the Stereo Out for programs like Multiplay/Qlab on laptops.

Of the various once i found mention of online Creative Labs DDTS-10 or the Klipsh Promedia DD-5.1 neither are made or have anything in production for these purposes.

After digging around and not finding any hardware along this lines (and budget is a concern), I had the additional thought of adding a PCI-E 1x Sound Card to the laptop Dock. My concerns regarding this is that then the outputs from the sound card are stereo 1/8" which would need to be converted to 2x mono XLR and what this would do to the audio.

In addition the potential noise that might get introduced to a installed audio card in a laptop dock? Would a standalone tower PC minimize this circumstance compared to a Laptop Dock?

C) Buy a a home theatre AV receiver with Preamp outputs for the channels, run the laptop Spidif in to it then the preamp signal to channels on the Console? (trying to avoid alot of big hardware as rack space is a premium.)

Looking to spend as far below 500$ as possible.

I'm also open to other possible solutions suggestions.

Thank you in advance


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## epimetheus (May 23, 2011)

I've got a Sony hardware decoder at the house that would give you individual channel outputs on RCA's. I'll provide more detail on the actual part number later.

Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk.


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## NickVon (May 23, 2011)

epimetheus said:


> I've got a Sony hardware decoder at the house that would give you individual channel outputs on RCA's. I'll provide more detail on the actual part number later.
> 
> Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk.


 
Have still be doing more reading and i'm curious as to if something like Echo Audiofire would be a solution. It seems anything with XLR outputs instantly puts me over budget. And part of me seems to think it's bad to just use 1/4 unbalanced to balanced xlr adapters?

I also don't think i get the DVD decoding in this solution.


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## museav (May 23, 2011)

This seems to be a common current solution in the Pro AV world, Extron DSP - SSP 7.1. And Gefen recently introduced http://www.gefen.com/pdf/GTV-AUDDEC.pdf, which will take an SPDIF or HDMI input and provide 5.1 analog audio outputs on RCA connectors. Unfortunately, both are over your <$500 budget goal, but you may not find much that is intended for or warrantied in commercial applications for that price.


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## richbate (May 31, 2011)

Hi, 

I"m working on a similar(ish) set up. 
the decoder/sound card I'm using is a motu traveler MOTU.com - Traveler-mk3 Overview

it doesn't do much in terms of mixing or processing, but I think that's a good thing. 
it takes coax/spdif in and gives 8 1/4" outputs, I take the outputs directly to the speakers. 

seems quite convoluted, but I had access to a traveler and didn't want to spend any money on a decoder.


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## NickVon (Jun 1, 2011)

richbate said:


> Hi,
> 
> I"m working on a similar(ish) set up.
> the decoder/sound card I'm using is a motu traveler MOTU.com - Traveler-mk3 Overview
> ...


 
I think I have a New/Used M-Audio Fireware 410 that will be getting donated. Looks like this might get us going to start for our purposes. Thank you for the responses, and we'll be looking to go more mainstream pro route hardware in the future


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## bwiebe (Jun 8, 2011)

I have older model DVD player that has analog 5.1 output on RCA connectors that I use when running surround sound. I believe its made by Toshiba. I will try and get the model number for you but you should be able to pick one up used for less then $100.


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## SHARYNF (Jun 8, 2011)

If you search on blu ray players analog audio out you will see that there are still a number of them here is amazon's list
Amazon.com: Blu-Ray Players with analog audio output

if you need to just get a decoder and not a player with decoder then here is a link to a discussion on this from a few years back

http://www.avforums.com/forums/speakers/794520-dolby-digital-5-1-processor-decoder.html 

As far as I know, the Motu traveler does not to any of the essential dolby processing http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/traveler-mk3/summary.html

You could then get one of the radial stereo di's if you needed to run over long distances, if it is short distance then you could just convert the rca to xlr

Sharyn


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## fx120 (Jun 12, 2011)

I've used a Sony SDP-EP9ES multiple times for that application. It's a stand alone Dolby decoder with multiple SPDIF inputs and RCA outputs. It's a very beefy piece as part of the ES line, and doesn't have any unnecessary crap on top like you might find in a home theater receiver. They go used on ebay for >$100. 

The two downsides: No XLR out and no DTS decoding.


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