Ativa 5.1 Speaker Deal at Office Depot (20$ in store only) & Setting Windows 7 to use 5.1 Sound.
Posted by | Posted in 7, Deals, Hardware, Home Theater PC, Hot Bargins, Peripheral, Windows | Posted on 18-12-2009
I went into Office Depot today and they had Ativa 5.1 speakers for 20$. The set was marked down from 119.99 and the deal was available in store only (online they are 40$). For the average user or somone who doesnt want to invest a lot of money into a set of speakers for a computer or home audio this isnt a bad deal at all. If you intend on using the set for a computer with 5.1 sound you will need a card capable of 5.1, also the card will need to have the 3 inputs required. The inputs for 5.1 are usually identified by color. Green is for your fronts, black is for your rears, orange is for your center and sub.
You will also need 3 RCA to 3.5mm stereo mini plug cables to connect from the ports on your sound card to the amp built into the sub. I had enough cables lying around to splice together to make 3 RCA to 3.5 minis, but they took some time to make. I would suggest getting them from Monoprice.com (.59 Cents) if you dont have the tools or the time to make the cables. After getting everything hooked up I did have some issues in windows 7 getting the sound to come out it 5.1. After about 20 mins of fooling around with drivers and the IDT Sound Control program, I found a post showing how to enable 5.1 through the windows control pannel. You have to go to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound -> Speakers (make sure these are your default audio device). Click on the speakers entry once so they are blue and then click configure on the lower left corner of the window. In the next window click 5.1 as your configuration and then click test. you should now hear all your speakers chime one at a time. Watch the indication on the screen to make sure you have your RCAs in correctly. I had to switch a couple of mine so the rights and the lefts matched up.