[nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer

Peter Donahue pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com
Wed Oct 31 01:46:18 UTC 2012


Hello John and others,

    We're wanting to do the exact opposite. We want audio from our PC to be 
played over the Ht so we can enjoy programs like past years of Nine Lessons 
and Carols from King's College, A Baroque Christmas, documentaries in our 
collection dealing with holiday music of the early 20th Century and further 
back and share it with friends and house guests when they come to visit. 
It'll be nice enjoying a nice December evening together with all of the 
Christmas decorations lit up hearing past holiday episodes of Pipedreams, 
Musica Antiqua,   Ancient Voices, performances of Messiah, Bach's Christmas 
Oratorio instead of hearing umpteen renditions of Spike Jone's "I'm the 
Angel in the Christmas Play." If you've heard the words of that song a 
better title would be "I'm the Devil in the Christmas Play."

Looks like I'll need to consult some other sources for help with this and 
share the solution with y'all. It would only need there to he a switch to 
allow us to connect the PC line-out from the PC, the PC desktop speakers and 
the home theater together so we can push the PC audio to the HT when we wish 
to hear our personal collection that way without having to switch the 
line-out cord to the different audio sources. We have a month to figure it 
out.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
To: "'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer


Okay, the source of the confusion is a comment you made in your original
message. Your original message said, "Naturally we don't want jaws going out
through the home theater." You can deal with that with the elaborate
solution I talked about earlier (getting a second sound device) or by simply
silencing it as you say below. Since you asked about it, I assumed you
weren't happy to simply silence jaws. That's why I explained the more
elaborate solution.

Well, sorry, after all this, I don't have a solution for you. As I said, I
just swap the cables when I want to switch from PC speakers to the stereo.
But you should check if your PC speakers have a headphone jack. You might be
able to plug the cable that goes from the HT into that.

I said I do that swapping all the time but the truth is that I don't do that
any more. I went the opposite direction from what you're trying to do. I
pretty much listen to everything on my PC now. I have the line-out from the
stereo connected to the line-in on my PC. So I can listen to radio & TV on
my PC. In fact, what I usually do is connect to the streaming media server
on my PC via my home network. So I pretty regularly listen to TV shows on my
IPod while walking around the house or out on the deck.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 12:19 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer

Hello John and everyone,

    Actually you're on to what we're trying to do listen to audio stored
locally or streams from the Internet over our stereo without having to
disconnect and reconnect the PC speakers and be able to run RCA cables from
the stereo to an audio connector in order to have both devices connected to
line-out from the PC so we can send the computer audio through the HT when
we wish to use it for listening and still leave the PC speakers connected
for when we just want to hear audio from the PC only. Obviously the HT would
be tuned to another audio or video source such as a local radio station or
the T.V. I hope this makes sense.

    As for JAWS going over the HT when we're listening to audio from the PC
good old JAWS Key+spacebar followed by letter "S" will stop that in a hurry
and restart JAWS when we're ready to use the PC again! I use it all the
time. I hope this clears up the confusion.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message -----
From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
To: "'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer


Well, I am more confused than ever.

You're doing something like streaming on your PC and you want to listen to
it on the speakers of your HT, right?  Maybe you have Pandora on your PC and
you want to play it on the speakers of your home theater, right? Something
like that?

I do that all the time. I have a cable with lef/right RCA jacks on one end.
That end plugs into the auxiliary jacks on the stereo. The other end has an
8mm stereo jack that plugs into the line-out on the PC sound card. The
problem is that the PC speakers are usually plugged in there. I have to
unplug the PC speakers to plug in the stereo.

The other problem is that when I'm listening to Pandora or some other stream
on my stereo, the screen reader audio can be heard on the stereo.  I
actually use a Mac for all this but it's the same concept.  Pretty often, my
friends come over and want me to find some video on UTube. But sometimes we
miss part of it because voiceover is talking.  It is annoying to have the
screen reader blabbering while you're trying to listen to something on
UTube.

But these are not the problems you are trying to address?

PS: Pandora is an amazing service. I just found about about it last summer.
If you haven't checked it out, you should. Really good content, hardly any
ads.


----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 10:13 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer

Hello John and everyone,

    Since the stereo has the "Auxiliary" mode we could stop JAWS from coming
over the HT when we're not playing music from the PC. Just being able to
install an adapter in to which the line-out from the PC can be plugged in to
and lines from the PC speakers and going to the HT would also need to be
plugged in to the same switch. When listening to the T.V. or the radio we
would need to leave auxiliary so wouldn't get JAWS through the HT but it
would still come through the PC speakers so we can use the computer while
listening to other programming through the HT.

    The only other way I know to do this is with a mixer but we're trying to
be budget-conscious so the switch idea would be what we'd need to make this
happen in time for the holidays. We've recorded lots of holiday programs in
years past and want to hear them over the HT when we're tired of hearing
"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"you get the idea. I hope this makes more
sense.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message -----
From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
To: "'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer


Maybe I'm not understanding the question but it seems to me that a simple
audio switch isn't going to let you have jaws speak through the PC spekaers
and the game or movie audio go to the entertainment center.  I don't think
there is any logical way around the fact that you need two sound devices in
your PC to do that.
You could get an audio switch and have the output for both the movie and
jaws go to the entertainment center or to the PC speakers. But not both.

I think you need a second sound ard for your PC and then you have to
configure your software to direct its audio output to the appropriate
device. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to swap out the current PC
speakers for a pair oof USB speakers. Windows would make them the default
sound device therefore jaws and all other Windows audio would go through
them by default. Then you'd have to configure your game or movie software to
send its audio through the sound card.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 3:24 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: PC audio discussion list. ; NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List
Subject: [nfbcs] Connecting stereo to Computer

Good afternoon everyone,

    I may have asked this before but can't remember what I was told since
it's been so long ago. We're wanting to connect our home theatre to my
wife's computer since it's in our living room with the home theatre. The
home theatre has an "Auxiliary In" setting that would allow us to do this.
We have two speakers that are connected directly to the computer. These are
for pc-only audio such as for hearing JAWS when we're on the computer.
Naturally we don't want JAWS going over the home theatre. When the
"Auxiliary"setting is activated we would hear the audio from the computer
over the home theatre which is what we want. One way to do this is with a
mixer but that's over-kill for now. I thought I heard there are switches
that one can install to make this possible. I believe the line-out from the
computer plugs in to the switch. It would then be a matter of connecting the
computer speakers to the switch and the lines from the home theatre to it as
well allowing us to hear PC audio through the home theater speakers when we
wish or simply to use the PC speakers for computer audio only. I'd like some
recommendations on such devices and feedback on how usable they are. Thanks
for the assistance.

  Peter and Mary Donahue who are looking forward to hearing holiday concert
broadcasts in our collection on our schedule not that of the radio station.

Peter Donahue

Peter Donahue

 "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."
Isaiah 54:17

 "While for our princes they prepare
In caverns deep a burning snare,
He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
And the dark treachery brought to day."
Anonymous


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