surround sound from my 4.1 speakers

[Ichi]

Hi.

I have a 4.1 speaker system. I would have gotten a better system, but that was all I could afford at the time. It is a Creative 4400 I think.

Now, I know this set of speakers are designed for a pc. But I want to use them with my Xbox.

Now, I can do this by plugging my speakers (one jack of the two, the one which carried the front sound) into my TV (mono sound), and my Xbox into my TV as well. Which works fine, except there's no surround sound. I mean, sound comes out of all the speakers, but if I crash into something at the front of my car in DRIV3R, it plays on the back speaekrs too. I'm fairly sure this is because I'm only plugging one of the jacks into my tv and my tv has only mono speakers (so I'm only plugging one of the xbox leads into my tv, the white one, the red one just sits there not plugged into anything).

Is there any way I can get surround sound using these speakers and this tv? Is there any way I could plug the Xbox directly into the speakers?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Kurtis]

i know you could do it if you plugged the xbox into your computer, and played on your monitor...

however i think you might need surround speakers that are specifically made to be able to work with consoles... :\

[Ichi]

Nope. A) I don't have one of those things to play Xbox on monitor. And B) My computer doesn't have a 4.1 sound card. Feel free to call me stupid.

[Kurtis]

What speaker system are you using? Find out for sure... you said you -think- creative 4400s, but just check to make sure. it would be easier to help if we knew exactly what you've got :P

[Ichi]

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=26&product=446

Yup, Creative 4400s.

[Ichi]

*BUMP*

[handrail]

well, to carry surround sound, you need independent channels for each speaker. i'm not familiar with xbox's, do they have surround outputs on the back for normal RCA jacks or 3.5mm audio inputs? you'd also need a center channel speaker as well i think. without a 4.1 channel sound card, even now you wouldn't be able to get surround sound from your current set-up

from what i can tell by doing a quick google, xbox is only in dolby digital 5.1 surround, meaning you need digital cables and speakers capable of handling digital sound or a receiver with a digital audio input. typically the digital out runs into the subwoofer or a receiver, then the sound is distributed correctly to each speaker via the receiver or subwoofer which contains a basic receiver..

without a receiver or a set of 5.1 surround speakers with digital connections, you may be out of luck.

you could try to find a sound card with digital inputs that will output in 4.1 or 5.1. but it will probably be expensive and you'll still have to run your sound into your computer which may not be so handy.

[Ichi]

Umm...Xbox's havea right RCA jack and a left RCA jack I think.

So...in English...I can't get surround sound from my Xbox unless I buy a 5.1 surround sound system? There's nothing I can do to get surround sound from my 4.1 speaker setup? :cry:

Oh well...thanks anyway...

[T-shirt]

the speakers have
- Analog Front In
- Analog Rear In
And the xbox has Left and right
so that won't work

But you can buy one of these break-out boxes
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/highdefinitionavpack.htm which sounds like the right thing ( maybe)

[Ichi]

No, I'm still screwed. First, they don't sell those here in the UK. Second, it requires a Dolby Digital sound decoder to work. I don't think these have that.