How to hook up computer to Home Theater system?

How do I hook up my home theater system to my computer?

• Let's get things strait. I'm using: RCA RTD317 Theater System HP Pavilion a6403w desktop computer So, I've hooked up my computer to my television through VGA(and for some reason the sound does not come out through the tv with just the VGA). And I want to play the audio that is coming from my desktop, out of my home theater system. But coming out of my Home Theater is a White/Red/Yellow cable, and I always just used the white and red. But on my computer, there is no where to put the red and white cables except a black, and an orange slot. (View of the back of my computer http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4011755&CatId= ) And they say Digital audio in and out. But when I plug my cords into them, it plays nothing. I know that my cords work because I get the humming sound when I plug them in just for a slit second. My questions are: What are the black and orange slots? Can I use my component cord with them? If not, what do I need to go from the red and white to the orange and black? And if none of it is possible, what can go from my computer(Orange and black slots) to my tv(a little black slot that says PC audio on in, that my component cable won't fit in? Thanks!:)

• Answer:

  VGA only carries video - no audio. So you need to run a separate audio cable from your laptop to...either your TV or your theater system. You want to run it to your theater system. Ok. First of all, what inputs are available on the theater system? The specs seem to indicate this can support an optical audio cable, a standard set of AV stereo cables, or even a headphone mini-jack. So you have a few choices: You can either buy a mini-jack to mini-jack cable from the store and plug your computer's headphone port into the stereo system. OR you can buy a mini-jack-to-RCA-Audio cable and do the same thing. Either of these will work and give you stereo audio through the theater system. It doesn't sound as though your PC supports optical audio output, so you won't be able to send a surround sound signal to the theater system. Then again, only DVD movies use surround sound and you've probably already got a DVD or blu-ray player anyways so no big deal. The orange and black ports on the back of your PC are for digital co-ax. This is another digital audio connection - looks like a single RCA cable. It is functionally identical to optical audio, but the two cables aren't compatible (mainly because one uses light, and the other uses electrical impulses.) There are converters...but they're fairly expensive and really not worth it. Basically, you'll just ignore these entirely.