Toshiba notebook and shared headphone jack/SPDIF output

[zagortenej]

I have a Toshiba notebook which, according to user's manual, has a shared headphone jack/SPDIF audio out. Since the manual does not provide any other information about this, I take it to mean that I can get digital S/PDIF output from my Toshiba notebook and route it to my home theater amp. Doing this would be great because instead of stereo I could, I'm assuming, get the full 5.1 surround sound when watching movies. Now my question is how do I properly connect my notebook to my A/V receiver via this shared headphone jack/digital S/PDIF audio output? Do I need any special cable to do this and, if so, what kind? I am using PowerDVD 6 Deluxe as my DVD player and there is a S/PDIF audio out option in audio preferences menu. Do I need to change any other audio settings anywhere else in my system?

Any advice is very much appreciated.

[glockjs]

cheapest way is to pick up the 3.5mm to 2 rca outs and plug one of the rca outs to the spdif connection on your amp. the only settings i think u need to mess with is make sure to click the box that says digital out only in your sound settings

[zagortenej]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did as instructed but, unfortunately, I am getting no sound on my amp. I made sure to check 'digital output on for all devices' in my notebook audio device console, and to set S/PDIF output on PowerDVD 6 Deluxe. Does it matter if the 3.5mm is stereo, or mono (I tried both with the same result). What else is there for me to try? Are there any other options to disable/enable for my notebook? The cable is fine because I'm using the same one to get digital audio output from my DVD player and it works without any problems (to connect my notebook, I have used the same cable with mono/stereo 3.5mm adapter on one end).

[glockjs]

i dont know. i never looked too far into it. maybe a google search