mono output

I have seen cables that provide the conversion.  I bought one from Radio Shack quite a few years ago from Radio Shack which has three plugs on one end (Video, Right, Left) and two on the other (Video, Audio).  This converts my monaural video camera to my stereo TV.

Just get a cable like this from radio shack and connect it to your left and right audio out, and connect the other end to the tv, and it will join the signals.

8" Gold Plated Shielded Y-Cable - Two male phono plugs to one female phono plug
Cat.#: 42-2535
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=42%2D2535


6" Gold Plated Shielded Y-Cable - Two female phono plugs to one male phono plug
Cat.#: 42-2536
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=42%2D2536

How are you connecting the audio from your computer to your tv?  Through the speaker out?

If you're using the speaker out, you could just get a cable like this to connect that to your tv.

6' Shielded Audio Cable - 1/8" male headphone plug to male phono plug
Cat.#: 42-2444
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F002%5F001%5F002%5F000&product%5Fid=42%2D2444

Thanks for your comments, but a mechanical solution like this would require me to plug it out whenever I want to use the pc as a cd player (otherwise it'll remain mono).
This is why I'm looking for a software solution.

Software won't fix the problem, and you do not need to unplug when playing DVD's on your PC.  The problem is that the output is sending stereo signal to your TV, but your TV can only accept Mono, so it sends the signal to only one speaker.  A channel splitter (about $6.00 from Radio Shack) used in reverse will merge the split stereo into one channel, and then a resplitter will duplicate the merged signal into 2 channels for a mono TV with 2 speakers. Thinking this will interfere with the PC output is simply a mental hangup.  Place the splitters near the TV instead of the PC if it helps you think clearer.

Thanks for your comments, but a mechanical solution like this would require me to plug it out whenever I want to use the pc as a cd player (otherwise it'll remain mono).
This is why I'm looking for a software solution.

if you want both your computer speakers and your tv connected at the same time, just get something like this:

Premium Gold Plated Stereo Y-Adapter
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=42%2D2570

well, one thing you could do is when your tv is connected, just set the balance in the volume control all the way to the right or left (which ever one is plugged into your tv).

Why not just buy a new TV which will accept stereo in nad output stereo?  You can get a good one for under $300 at Sam's.

Mariusk,

I think you have your answer.  Open your mind and relize that what has been suggested will work, or admit failure and understand that there is no software simply because it isn't neccesary.  Either way close this question.  Just because you can't grasp it doesn't mean the answer isn't right in front of you and you should keep looking elsewhere.  

Just my opinion.
-willinois

Willinois,

All of the answers were about mechanical solutions.
They're good solutions, but not something I didn't know before.
My TV has only one speaker (not 2 as you mentioned in your answer), and if I'll use a splitter to combine the 2 stereo channels into one, I'll have to remove that splitter each time I want to hear a cd using the pc's speakers. Otherwise, I'll get mono from them too, since no matter where the splitter is, the combined right+left channels goes all the way to the output of my soundcard.

that headphone y-adapter won't split your signal, it will keep it in stereo.  Why don't you just use the y-adapter and use this cable to connect to your tv?

6' Shielded Audio Cable - 1/8" male headphone plug to male phono plug
Cat.#: 42-2444
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F002%5F001%5F002%5F000&product%5Fid=42%2D2444

Thanks Crash,

I agree, but I don't think mariusk understands.  As for the single speaker - great that takes one adapter out of my suggestion (makes it easier).  At the TV take the split stereo signal, add the Y adapter to merge and plug into "audio in".  Really, all of that for such a simple solution.  If your card has 2 audio outputs, your home free, but if it has only 1 then you can split the stereo signal there and sent 1 to the PC speaker and the other to the TV.  This is what I have done at my house. It lets the TV hear all the sound, and doesn't make the PC speaker play mono.  I do, however, need to turn the sound up at the source since the splitter reduces the power it pushes.


Good luck!

Well, in these cases, every situation is different, so a bit of imagination is needed.
Also depends on your style of living and the physical location of the hardware.

Couple of options: With the pc and tv in the same room, you could locate the pc speakers stratigically so that they can be used for tv and pc/dvd.

With tv in another room, you could use a couple of pc speakers and cable back to to the pc.
You can leave it plugged in or use the speaker plug in the dvd player as a temporary connection, if it has one.

Ultimately, its a hardware issue and not software IMHO.

Willinois,

Crash's suggestion (according to the link he posted)
won't work too, since the tv will get only one channel (the cable he proposed is mono) and not the combination of the two.
But I would really like to understand yours.
From your posts I can understand that you know what you're talking about. The problem could be with me, I agree. But I really don't understand how a splitter could combine the left and the right channels from the output of my soundcard to the tv, while at the side of the soundcard (where there's a stereo splitter already, for the pc speakers) the signal will remain stereo ?
Please look at http://www.mikud.org/~marius/schema.jpg
If I'll use a splitter at the tv (marked as X), I'll get mono on the pc speakers too.
Where is my mistake ?

Mariusk,

Here's something not offered before.  Many, if not most soundcards have additional connections that don't go out to back panel of the PC.  Many of these have a MONO OUTPUT tab on the card (it's just not used).  All you have to do get a blank panel, drill and mount a mono female jack, connect 2 wires from the soundcard to the new panel and you have a dedicated mono output for the tv.

I recently purchase a soundcard from eBay for 29.95 and it had a mono output as I have described.

It will cost a little it your soundcard does not have a mono output, but it's an option that might solve your problem.

luck to all
Gino123

Gino123,

Thanks, but I'm using the on-board soundcard since I have no spare pci sockets.

Marius.

mariusk,

The extra connections I mentioned could also be right on the motherboard - worth checking.

Also, does your CD or DVD drive have a headphone output on the front of the drive.  If so, you should be able to send one signal to the tv via the headphone output and the sound card output to the stereo speakers.

Gino123

Gino123,

I've checked the motherboard's manual, no extra connections.
But the headphone output of the cdrom sounds like a good idea. The question is, how do I get the sound from there ?
Afaik, it works only for audio cdroms.

Marius.

mariusk,

To play audio CD's thru the PC speaker system, use a cord (from Radio Shack, etc.) that has a stereo mini plug on one end (for the headphone jack) and whatever kind of is needed to connect to you PC speaker system on the other end.  This is usually another stereo mini plug or a pair of RCA plugs.  Use this setup for playing audio CD's.

To play your DVD thru the single tv speaker, use the soundcard output.  Use a stereo-in mono-out adapter cord to connect both channels of the soundcard output to the tv.

The fact that you are shorting out the stereo output of the soundcard to get mono should not affect the stereo headphone jack.

Remember that the CD headphone output is usually controled by a volume control on the face of the CD drive.  This will now act as a master volume control for the PC speakers.

I think that covers it all.  Let me know if I missed anything.

Gino123

Gino123,

The problem is that in addition to the tv I have
the pc speakers, which are stereo.
Shorting out the output will get me mono on those speakers too.

Marius.

mariusk,

Do you have two drives or one?  DVD and CD, or just DVD?

Gino123

Gino123,
Two. But when playing a dvd, you can't hear it's sound from the dvd player's headphone jack. It's digital encoding.

Marius.

OK, so do this:
Disconnect the audio jumper that goes from the CD drive to the  motherboard.  By doing this you completely seperate the CD audio from the soundcard.  This is  a three pin connector.

As I said before, get a cable to connect the headphone output to the PC speaker system input.  This becomes your CD playback connection WILL NOT SEE that the soundcard audio output is shorted for a mono connection to the tv.  Ignore the headphone output from the DVD drive.

This will work!  I think...

Gino123

mariusk,

Sorry for the delay, I have been out of town on business.  I saw the drawing, and you are extremely close to getting what you want.  Two questions before we have it.  1)What kind of soundcard is that?...it splits the signal on the back (the last one I saw that did that was an old ISA with RCA jacks).  2) What kind of jack is on the TV?

willinois

Willinois,

It's a pci on-board soundcard (I think it's soundmax). The board is a new Intel MV850 (pentium4). It has three sockets on the back panel: line in, mic, line out and two on the board (cdrom and aux - both are inputs).
About the tv jack, it's a single rca (mono).

Thanks,
Marius.

Gino123,

I don't understand.
First of all I'm not using the analog cable at all.
But the problem is that the headphones jack of the cdrom/dvd is for audio cd's only. If I'll put a dvd in it, it won't output any sound, since dvd's encoded audio tracks, and the dvd drive can't decode it.

Marius.

mariusk,

I will try to draw a schematic picture of what you need, scan and email it to you tonight.  What kind of jacks are on the soundcard?

willinois

Willinois,

The outputs of the souncard are all pl's.
Like most of the soundcards.

Thanks,
Marius.

But the left and right channels are split on the soundcard?  That's not like any of the ones I have installed.  I will look into it to give you an accurate drawing.

Is this your card?
http://www.hardware-unlimited.com/reviews/soundmax/index3.shtml

Marius,

From the research I have done on these soundcards the jack is a female mini and stereo (just like all other current soundcards I have seen).  Not two mono's (different from your drawing)  - please confirm.

-willinois

mariusk,

I thought you said you had 2 drives.  One DVD and the other CD.  Yes?

Gino123

Mariusk,

I hope the attached diagram link works, but this is how I see you getting what you want.  I have used a similar wiring to split to my stereo as well as my PC speakers.  Good luck:

http://willinois.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/diagram.jpg

Print it out and take it to Radio Shack, they will see what your doing and set you up with the splitters and cables you don't already have.

-willinois

If the link does not work, try copying it and pasting onto your address bar on your browser.

-willinois

mariusk,

Hi,  I worked hard on that drawing.  Are YOU now out of town on business?  I am curious if you were able to get it working to your satsfaction.  Please respond.

-willinois

mariusk,

Again, do you have two (2) drives?  One DVD and one CD?
Yes?  No?

Gino123

ps.  willinois,  I thought your diagram was well done.  I'm sorry, but I don't see how it will work that way.  A stereo-to-mono adapter at any point will make everything connected mono.  The only way around this is to disconnect the audio output cable from the back of the CD drive.  The CD does not send CD stereo audio thru the ribbon cable.  Only thru the audio jumper that runs from the back of the CD drive to the sound card.  If you disconnect that audio jumper, you can take a stereo output from the front panel headphone jack and send it to your pc stereo speakers.  Then take the sound card audio output and use a stereo-to-mono adapter to connect to the mono tv.  I have done this and I get mono and stereo outputs (I think...).

Gino,

I don't know what your smoking, but your wrong. "A stereo-to-mono adapter at any point will make everything connected mono".  Try it.

willinois,

Remove the audio jumper that runs from the back of the CD drive to the sound card CD input.  It will have either 3 or 4 wires.  This cable sends CD audio to the soundcard.  Once it's removed, there is no audio connection between the PC soundcard and the CD drive.  The ribbon cable is used for CD's that contain data files.  This WILL allow you to take a stereo audio output from the CD headphone jack to the PC speaker system.  What you do with connections to the soundcard does not matter to the headphone output of the CD drive.

I'm not making this up.

Gino,

You don't need to go there.  My illustration shows a perfect way to set it up.  By the way...that audio cable ("that runs from the back of the CD drive to the sound card") is not a "jumper".  I think you have misread the entire situation here.  If you read about my background, I am A+ certified, so telling me what the ribbon cables do is unnecessary, and irrelevant to this question.  However thank you for your good intentions.  Also, if you leave all cable hooked up, you can still use the headphone jack on the font of you CD ROM device.  Where did you get the headphone jack into this equation anyhow?

I know you not making anything up...but your suggested solution doesn't solve the users needs.  May I ask what company is paying you to be a PC Tech Analyst?

-willinois

Willinois,

Sorry for not answering in time. I was out of town for the last week (trip).
Thanks for the drawing, but Gino123 is right. This is exactly what I was trying to say from the beginning.
The problem is at the stereo to mono splitter, the one that goes to the VCR.
Since the splitter works by shorting out the l+r wires, it will short it out all the way to the soundcard, and to the stereo speakers attached to them, and not only to the vcr.
This way, the stereo speakers will get the mono too. Both of them will work, but there will be no stereo separation.

Gino123,

I have one cdrom and one dvd drive.

Marius.

Willinois,

In my last message, when I wrote "VCR" I was meaning "TV".

Marius.

Mariusk and Gino,

I disagree with your assumption (simply because I have it currently working) but it's your question, and you the one who has to be satisfied with the answer.  Can't blame one for trying to help.

good day,
-willinois

Willinois,

I didn't wrote it won't work, but the stereo separation will be lost.
Try to record something in the left channel and something else in the right channel. With the same setup try to hear it. You won't hear one side.
Just try and see.

Marius.

I will.

Willinois,

I didn't wrote it won't work, but the stereo separation will be lost.
Try to record something in the left channel and something else in the right channel. With the same setup try to hear it. You won't hear one side.
Just try and see.

Marius.

Gino,

Bad day?  Easy to get under your skin! Easy as 123.

Gino123,

Got it.
Your suggestion really solves the issue. The problem
will be with MP3's or other sound files, which won't be played from the cdrom's headphones jack, but from the line-out of the soundcard.
But since I didn't mention this on my question, you deserve the points and a "thanks" :-)

Thanks!

Marius.