Thanks Adam for your reply. That link you provided above is to exactly the usb device I was talking about. Great to hear that will do the trick.
As for the HT system, it's a low end...not quite the lowest at the time...Sony system that I believe simply has 1 optical (DVR attached), 1 regular coax (DVD attached) as you can see both unfortunately in use and a bunch of the run of the mill left/right two connection ports that I assume are for standard sterio (analog?...shows my overall ignorance for some of this stuff). I don't know exactly the model # but it predates HDMI or at least the proliferation of that connection in HT systems. I wish it had the 3 HDMI in and 1 out that I see with some of the middle of the road receivers. I'd love to upgrade it, but my wife would have a bird if I bought another piece of electronics. I'm just adding our second laptop for the family and decided to get as good a one for 1K or less. The HP one comes in right at that spot and has some nice features, but apparently not an optical out, which would have been nice.
At some point I'll upgrade the surround sound system and move the old one downstairs for the older HDTV we have set up for the kids.
To make a long story short, my HP laptop will arrive in less than a week. I had to send the first one back because it didn't come with the blu-ray drive as advertized. HP made a mistake on their webpage ad and changed it the day after I ordered it. After hagling for over a week, they finally agreed to repace it for the same price w/ one that has a blu-ray drive plus an upgraded processor since the custom version doesn't offer the same processor as the pre-configured one. Trust me, that's the short story. ;-)
I did test out the HDMI to the TV before I sent it back and ran into some glitches. I was able to get video an audio to the TV, but when I tried to get sound out of the earphone jack...I realize it would not port a digital 5.1 signal...to one of the R/L sets in the HT receiver but still couldn't get sound to the HT system. It seems that the HP video software or maybe vista itself was only porting sound through the HDMI to the TV and blocking the earphone port. Maybe that wasn't the case though I've used that solution on other low end laptops successfully though in those cases I ported the video via VGA and...hum...forgot the name of the other round video port w/ mutliple pin connections is called. I didn't try to test it out with earphones. I guess I should have. I suppose it wouldn't be all that strange for the system to behave that way, assuming users wouldn't stream the video to a TV but then use earphones.
Anyhow, I'm wondering if I'll run into a similar thing when I attach the laptop to the HDTV with the HDMI and to the HT receiver's optical port using this USB device. Although I believe I have an extra optical cable, I'll probable simply share the one that goes from the DVR with the laptop since I'm not going to do this all that often. Do they make an optical spitter? I thought about that idea, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to have an optical cable left exposed, though some have a cap you can put over them. I'm sure plugging and unplugging an optical cable often isn't the best idea either.
Sorry to go on some here, but one of the things you wrote caught my attention. It has been a question I've had for some time which is, does one really have to pay big bucks for cables such as the ones Monster offers to get the same quality sound? You're saying "no" when it comes to optical cables. Interestingly enough, I didn't go with the flimsy one that came with my HT systems but still went with a moderately priced RCA cable I believe. What about HDMI, regular coax, component video, etc, cables? Does the same apply to all? I can understand optical since it's not an electrical current your passing that won't be impacted by radient electicity from outside the cable, but with cables that do pass over metal I imagine that better shielding and/or materials in general could make a difference. My gut has always told me that going with big dollar cables was a crock and I'd do okay with something cheaper, though not necessarily the cheapest.
I find the internet amazing in that there are forums for everthing. I happen to be a dabbler in a few area but hardcore in just one. I'm a moderator on a college hoops board but dabble in timepieces and this time electronics. I am thankful that you and others w/ knowledge in this community are willing to help out us dabblers. It is much appreciated.
