Hardware required for Xbox360 / MacBook / 5.1 Setup

[SparkyMarky84]

Hi guys,

I have the following hardware:

Macbook C2D 2.2
Xbox 360
Creative Labs 5.1 Speakers

Basically i am trying to do two things...

1)Connect the MacBook to the 5.1 Speakers
2)Connect the Xbox 360 to the 5.1 speakers

The speakers are NOT digital, ie they dont have a digitial input, just the 3 x 3.5mm computer inputs.

I believe i can solve problem 1 with something like the griffin firewave, however i want to connect the Xbox to the speakers for full 5.1 sound.

I cant seem to find out if the Firewave has optical input, and if it doesn't then could i connect the speakers to the Firewave, but use the Macbooks built in optical in port as a sort of "pass through" solution.

If this setup will not work, can anyone suggest any alternative hardware which will do the trick?

How about this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Creative-USB-...14&_trkparms=72:1301|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

Again, i'm not 100% certain on whether or not this will fulfill my requirements.

I don't really want to have to fork out for an expensive set of computer speakers with digital inputs, or buy a seperate receiver etc if possible, as i am really looking to keep the cost to a minimum (credit crunch and all that).

Any help would be much appreciated as i have been trying to come up with a solution to this for ages.

Thanks in advance guys (and girls).

Mark

 

[SparkyMarky84]

Anyone able to offer some advice on this?

Cheers.

Mark

 

[VoR]

I don't know how/if the macbook would handle the pass through and decoding, sorry.
I'd prefer to stick to a receiver for simplicity, quality and upgrade (speakers and devices) potential, but you said you didn't want that - I'm not sure how the cost compares to an external soundcard (no idea about those either) like you suggested.
I guess your speakers are amplified already, so if you're keeping them you 'might' be able to save some money on a standalone decoder - creative used to have the ddts-100, but I think it's discontinued and you might have to pay a premium for it now. Probably an alternative but again, I don't know

 

[SparkyMarky84]

Hey, thanks for your reply! Thanks for the info.

Im not sure if my speakers are amped already (sorry, im not to knowledgable on this stuff). Basically my previous setup with my desktop machine (now sold) was that i connected the 3 x 3.5mm jacks from the sound card to the back of the subwoofer on the 5.1 set, then each of the 5 satellite speakers connected in to the subwoofer.

I had a look around and the ddts-100 seems to be going for £100 minimum which is a bit more than i was hoping to spend, but if i have to go down that route then i suppose i will have to fork out for it unless anyone on here comes up with any other solutions.

Thanks again for the reply and any other info anyone has will be much appreciated!

Mark