Connect PC to amp and external speakers

[elhuerto]

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I have set up the PC so it uses the speakers from a Yamaha amplifier I was using for the DVD player. All good there and the sound is much improved from the tinny pc external speakers. The problem is it's only using 2 of the 5 speakers and I was hoping to get a bit of a richer surround type sound. The amplifier is a decent one but probably 8 or 9 years old and has no hmdi support. I'm currently connecting the PC and amp with a 3.5mm Jack Plug in the headphone input of the PC and then two RCA Plugs in the back of the amp. I assume it's lacking something "digital" but have searched around and not really sure what I need possibly an external soundcard? I dunno but any suggestions welcome.

Cheers.

[elhuerto]

[BarriedaleNick]

With your mini jack to RCA (component) setup you will only ever get stereo sound.  Some amps will fake that to 5.1 or 7.1 or whatever - mine has a 7 speaker stereo setting for example so check your amp settings first  Generally these days if you want surround sound from your PC then HDMI or DisplayPort is the way to go but no good to you.  There used to be digital outputs/inputs sometimes called SPDIF (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF )and I am sure you can still get sound cards with that enabled but it isn't much use unless you have the input on your amp.  So check what you inputs your amp has before setting out to buy another sound card.

[elhuerto]

Thanks, that's very helpful.