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[jroyale]

I searched but really couldn't find a how to and particularly one really directed for my needs.

I'm looking right now to set up an additional zone for outside.  Potentially down the road another for upstairs in my house so input on that would be appreciated as well.

I have an HTPC with a 5.1 Live 24bit USB external soundcard which has optical, coaxial, front, centre and rear.  My amp has a multi-zone function (2 zones only) and is using the coax from the PVR.

If possible I'm looking for input on HTPC and amp ie. can I use the front outs on the card to go to another input on my amp, set that as the other zone on my amp and if so I assume then I would be using the B speakers as the A are in use.  How would MC know the front output is for another zone.  Do I need to set up multiple zones on the amp as well or just MC?  Ideally I don't want to have to switch between A and B speakers on the amp manually because I'll be outside using rivermote so should I then get another amp and how does the multi-zone work with that?

Understanding this is a broad based question if you could touch on my questions that would be greatly appreciated or get back to me and point out areas that you need greater clarity on.

Thanks in advance.

John.

[JimH]

I've never done it, but my understanding is that a 5.1 card could be split into three zones.  I believe that the channels are numbered starting at 0.  Our wiki has a link for zones.

The optical out and coax would normally be used for sending unmodified digital output directly to the receiver.  There, the receiver can theoretically split it, if the receiver can decode the multichannel digital stream into Surround Sound.