Hi. I am a n00b when it comes to 5.1 audio connections, so I wanted to ask this in advance before I make a big mistake.

I ordered a set of Creative Inspire T5900 speakers (5.1) a couple days ago at a local computer shop (which they haven't received yet) to hook them up to my standalone DVD player, but I'm unsure now if I'll be able to connect them right or I'll have trouble to use them. This standalone DVD has a coax digital out, but since the speakers don't have a decoder I thought I could make use of the 5.1 analog out on the player, which consists of six color coded RCA plugs on the back panel. I understand the speaker system has three 3.5mm stereo minijack plugs on the back of the subwoofer, and the kit includes 3 stereo cables with minijacks on both ends. My initial thought was that I could get 3 RCA-minijack adapters or 3 new RCA-Minijack cables and connect them without further ado, but now I'm a little uneasy about this whole thing.

My question is clear, will I be able to use these speakers as I intended or these speakers can only be connected to a compatible Creative card and cannot be connected to any other 5.1 analog out?? They will probably get the speakers in 1 or 2 days, so I'd appreciate if anyone can give me a clear answer before going thru the mess of installing the whole thing and having to get it back to the store if it doesn't work. Thank you.

You can't plug a set of speakers directly into a standalone player. The signal level on the 6 RCA plugs that comprises the 5.1 output is very low. Not only is the connector interface wrong, but even with the right adaptors, you're looking in the wrong direction.

With a standalone DVD player, the only way to get the multi-channel sounds is to connect a 5.1 compliant reciever. I recommend using the digital coax out of the DVD player into the coax input to the reciever, but you can also the discrete analog connections as well assuming you get some reasonable quality RCA connectors.

The solution you've outline above is simply not going to work....

On the contrary there's no reason why it shouldn't work. The outputs on the DVD player should be line level outputs for each discreet channel, which will be fine for feeding an amplified set of speakers. You'll need three adapter cables to take the RCA outputs to minijack sockets in order to plug the speakers in. One will be front left and right, one rear left and right and the third will be center and sub.

Raindawg: Hmm.. no, I believe you got me wrong. I never intended to hook the speakers (satellites) themselves directly to the analog out of the DVD player, that would be something whacky . As I was explaining above, the speakers have their input connectors on the back of the subwoofer, which includes an amplifier in the box, so no need to get a receiver on top of that. What I want is to connect the 5.1 analog out of the player to those inputs, just like you would connect the 3 stereo minijacks of a 5.1 sound blaster card, which are unamplified as well. The satellites connect to the output connectors on the subwoofer, as they should.

My qalm was that even if it should work theoretically, (5.1 analog line-out to 5.1 analog in) I'm not sure if the 5.1 analog inputs of Creative speaker sets that don't include Dolby Digital decoders can be connected to just any 5.1 analog out, and even with the correct cables/adapters still it will still not respond right and perhaps only work with the front speakers.


Danbee: I thought that as well, that is why I ordered these speakers. Still, I would like to hear very much if anyone is using his or her standalone player 5.1 analog out connected directly to the 5.1 analog inputs of any non-digital creative speaker set, so that I would get some peace of mind .

On a side note, part of my uneasiness comes from the fact that I tried to test the 5.1 analog outs, and as I have no A/V receiver, I connected an amplified 4.1 speaker set to the front/rear RCAs and another amplified stereo speakers to the center/sub RCAs. I know it was crazy, but I couldn't get anything but the front speakers to work, the other inputs were silent. Could it be that the player detected that I didn't have a real subwoofer connected but a regular speaker and didn't activate the full 5.1 output?

You probably need to check your player to see if the analogue 5.1 channel output needs to be switched on as it might default to only outputting surround via the digital outs. You should also check the DVD you are using to test as they usually have an audio setup menu to switch between the various soundtracks on the film. Make sure you choose Dolby Digital or DTS if your player can decode it.

Yes, I took care of that. There was an option in the menu called "stereo on/off" that was supposed to switch between stereo or 5.1 in the analog outputs (tried both), another two to activate digital out with DD or DTS (tried on/off on both as well), and there was also a few more audio related options (speaker setup, etc..). I used a DVD with a THX optimizer feature to test the different audio channels, so I ruled that out as well. I didn't leave any stone unturned on the configuration front, so I guess it had to be the lack of a real subwoofer that made my little experiment fail.

Well... Did it work? I've just got the Creative Labs DeskTop Theatre 5.1 DTT2200 speaker set. I'd like to do the same thing in the near future for an art installation I'm doing. I want to avoid using any expensive / uneccessary equipment for this particular project, hence my interest in this.