Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

2009-01-26 20:43:38

I have a sony vaio laptop, and a sony reciever (digital audio/video control center.) My laptop has an optical out which is the "mini" and my reciever has the normal optical in. I bought a TOSLink cable which has the male "mini" jack on one side and the regular male jack on the other side. So far so good. I connected the two and sort of expected "out of the box" functionality because I want to play my music from my computer (using foobar) through the reciever via the optical cable with presumeably better sound quality.

Thing is, I can't figure out how to get foobar to send information through the optical cord. Currently I use 1/8">RCA connections to send sound to the same reciever. When I unplug the 1/8" and plug in the optical cord, the sound automatically routes to my laptop speakers, and I get nothing through the reciever.

I went into control panel and under sounds it shows that my "Realtek Digital Output (Optical)" is working. I enter the properties for this, and under Supported Formats tabs, I can run a few tests to see which formats my reciever is able to decode. I run the test on Dolby Digital and it passes: I can hear the test noises being run through my speakers fine via the optical cord.

I'd love to be able to listen to my music library with this higher quality connection, all my cd's are encoded in FLAC. Do I need to download a component for foobar to use the optical? Do I need to configure something further on my computers sound card? I am running Vista Home Premium.

Thanks all for any help!

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #1 – 2009-01-26 22:24:35

Foobar has it's own output device selector.  Look at File->Preferences->Playback->Output. 

You might have tried that already.  If so, try another media player like WMP and see if it works using that.

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #2 – 2009-01-28 22:47:28

I have a Sony VAIO laptop with digital output too. When you look under Output Device (as mentioned above), do you see a selection for "Digital Output(Optical) (Realtek High Definition Audio)"?

I haven't tried this myself yet. I have a Sony A/V receiver with TOSLink too and I would like to try this soon once I buy the required optical cable.

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #3 – 2009-01-28 23:02:46

Another thing to think about is the audio properties of your sound card.  I had a Dell XPS notebook that has digital coaxial output.  The sound card supported output of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1.  However, whenever I disconnected the standard 3.5mm plug and plugged in the coaxial cable, my notebook would automatically output to the speakers.  I had to change the audio options to enable coaxial output (it was turned off by default) and then put the notebook speakers on mute.  That way I could adjust the system volume without worrying about the notebook speakers coming on.  It took me forever to figure this out and I had to figure it out all again when I installed Vista.  I would be more specific with my instructions but that notebook has broken down and I no longer have access to Vista.

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #4 – 2009-08-07 15:43:20

Hi all -


I am looking to buy a new laptop and am interested in the same set up as you guys in this thread have.  I have a Cambridge Audio CD player that has two onboard DACs, (and that unit will accept only toslink or digicoax), and then out from the cd player to my old carver tuner/amp, and out to my speakers.  So - I've been looking at laptops that might have these digital outs, but the only ones I can find are the Macbooks!  Not interested in spending that much if I can help it.

kornchild2002 mentions he's got a dell xps with digi coax - can you tell me more about that?  I've gone to the dell site and they seem to have nothing but hdmi.

DemonCleaner and NightOwl, you guys mention that you've got a sony vaio that has the optical digi out - toslink.  Seems like the same story, I can't find the same vaio that has that digital out!  Can you tell me more about your laptop?

Would you want the same set up if you had the choice to do it again?

I've read a bit about the following options also:

usb out to a hub of some sort, then off to the dac
usb out to external DAC, then into tuner
hdmi out (my tuner does not have hdmi)

Not sure about other options.

Your laptop choice seem to be exactly what I'm looking for but can't seem to find.

thanks a lot

j

ps - i've just noticed that on the dell site under tech specs for the xps 16, it mentions hdmi, but it also mentions:
Audio jacks (2 line-out, 1 Mic-in)

Funny that it doesn't say what kind of audio jacks.  is this the standard analog out for headphones maybe?  Optical out?  I'll find out!

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #5 – 2009-08-07 19:20:28

So, I just talked to a guy @ Dell and all that he was able to say about the 2 audio outputs listed in the Specs on that laptop on their website are "digital", according to his manager.  I tried to get more specific info from him, but he was unable to answer or to get any more info on that.

He mentioned that the 2 audio outputs are the "headphone type" jacks, so I'm guessing that they could be the optical outs.  Is there something else that I'm missing here?  If they are in fact digital, could they be something besides optical outs?

thanks

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #6 – 2009-08-07 20:28:13

The notebook I had was a second generation Dell Inspiron XPS.  This notebook was purchased back in 2005 and Dell has since divided their Inpsiron and XPS lines.  You may have better luck asking your question in Dell related forums so that you can get full details on the audio output capabilities of the notebook you are looking at.  My guess is that one output is a standard 3.5mm analog connection (ie a headphone out port) while another could possibly be a mini digital optical audio.  Then again, that is just my guess.

Sorry I can't help you but the notebook I am talking about is going to be 4 years old soon.  That was back when digital video went through DVI while digital audio had its own connection (either coaxil or optical).  How it seems that most notebooks offer HDMI output along with VGA and 3.5mm analog.  One less port is one less port, HDMI is also substantially smaller than DVI.

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #7 – 2009-08-14 19:29:00

Hi sartor,

The Sony VAIO that I have is the AW series. My headphone out doubles as an optical digital out. I'm in Canada so here are the specs for a Canadian model: Sony VAIO AW Series Canada. In the specifications tab you can see (under "Inputs and Outputs"):

Optical Audio Digital Output(s): 1
S/PDIF Output(s): 1

I looked at the American site, but their specifications are not too informative: Sony VAIO AW Series U.S.A.

Connecting Vaio Laptop to Recieve Using TOSLink

Reply #8 – 2009-08-16 08:31:44

There's some USB to Toslink boxes on eBay for around $30 (don't know much about them) that use C-Media chips.  And there's the ADSTech "Instant Music" that Staples carries (at least here in Canada).  It uses a Burr-Brown USB audio chip, has Toslink S/PDIF input and output, and RCA audio in and out.  It's bulky and maybe overpriced for what's inside it, but build quality is good (Taiwan, not China) and there's name-brand chips inside and a nice quality PC board.