5.1 surround sound on laptop

[spitso]

G'day all

Just purchased a 5.1 surround soud system and want to connect it to laptop, but after reasearch i found laptops do not have a 5.1 supported sound card.

I was looking on ebay and came across this (**broken link removed**)
Its a 5.1 external usb sound card. The problem is that from my surround sound system i have 3, stereo jacks 3.5mm, which needs to plugged into an input to control left front and back,right front and back, sub and center. That usb only has 2 stereo jacks?????

Any ideas on what to do?

thanks

 

[Mikebits]

Soundblaster makes what you want.
**broken link removed**

 

[mneary]

They almost caught me, too. It says virtual 5.1. That means 2 channel "enhanced" (in software, I presume).

Good news is that it's worth the dollar you paid for it (but not more).

 

[arunb]

the hardware you posted is crap, I have the same thing with me here, just ordered it a few weeks ago, the hardware I got (manufacturer Commdow) did not contain the driver CD, I downloaded and installed it, the hardware worked for some time (the sound was lousy) and them completely stopped working. Now whenever I plug in the device I get a message 'usb device caused malfunction..etc..)

If you have to buy something get it from a reputable manufacturer like Soundblaster, there is another company that makes this here is the link **broken link removed**

I should have bought from them...

 

[spitso]

cheers all. Helpfull

 

[spitso]

Something i was thinking is making 3 stereo jacks in parrallel, which plug into the headphone jack of my laptop. I understand its not going to give true 5.1 surround sound, but instead stereo being played by 6 speakers. Is this ok?

 

[cowana]

Should be.

You could add a load of potentiomets to the board - that way you could have individual speaker control.

Andrew