Sorry for not searching, but I am kinda pressed for time.

I need to buy a sound card with an optical out connection that will successfully pass 5.1 sound from "Windows Media Center" to my amp.

I currently have the Turtle Beach Riviera which does not pass 5.1.
(Although it will with other DVD applications)

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Does it have to be optical? Many cards support co-axial digital out using a 1/8th inch phono to RCA adapter. A Creative X-Fi would be a good card.

Also, if your mobo has SPDIF (Optical or co-axial), that should do fine.

It's not worth spending a lot on a sound card if all you want to use is the digital audio. Most new motherboards have on board audio that does that well.

A Soundblaster Audigy has coax digital out and the OEM version is going for about $30 right now. That's what I used on one HTPC.

I also have a Chaintech AV-710 that has optical out. It sells for about $30 as well. I haven't tried using the optical out for HTPC but have seen reports that it works well.

Yep. Must be optical.

Where can I buy the Chaintech AV-710

Where can I buy the Chaintech AV-710


http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=552481#post552481

Where can I buy the Chaintech AV-710
It's $30 at ncix.com or $25 at directcanada.com.

I have used many soundcards over the years and absolutely the best I have ever heard (and had) is the Auzentech X-Meridian. It has both optical and coax digital out.

Does the 5.1 sound work with Windows Media Center?

Does the 5.1 sound work with Windows Media Center?

Yup.

I do it on my main MCE setup. It is a bit finicky to set up but once you are done, well, you're done :p .

Sorry, I meant to ask if it worked in MCE with the sound card "Auzentech X-Meridian" as oncable recommended.

What sound card do you use?

Ah...

I use the Soundstorm audio on the NForce2 Ultra board that I have in that HTPC. I have, however, used a SB Live 24-bit and made it work as well.

My friend that I helped set up on MCE and firewire with Rogers, is using the onboard SPDIF from his VIA based A64 mobo and it works fine as well.

I just can't see it not working. The real issue is getting the SPDIF functionality turned on in the soundcard software/driver.

I agree with you, but I currently have the Turtle Beach Riveria, and the SPDIF (5.1) works fine with other DVD programs like WinDVD, but it just doesn't work in MCE (Only 2 channel).

What exactly are you playing in MCE that you expect to come out as 5.1? Playing a stereo CD or MP3 will play correctly as 2-channel stereo in MCE.

If you want to play stereo content as 5.1 that's an entirely different issue.

Like I said "works fine with other DVD programs like WinDVD"

That is really odd.

I know that the SB Live 24 bit was a bit of a bugger, but I did get it to work after about an hour of fussing.

Like I said "works fine with other DVD programs like WinDVD"

But what I don't understand is why you are saying it won't play in MCE. MCE is the operating system - it isn't a DVD software player like WinDVD.

Is this XP MCE or Vista MCE?

MCE is the operating system

That is actually a common misconception.

Windows XP MCE is a super set of the XP family. In fact, it is actually XP Pro with a big hunk of software called MCE added on to it. MCE is indeed portable off of the XP MCE setup and into any version of XP.

In Vista, the MCE software is a standard feature.

Kind of. I use XP MCE on my HTPC and XP Pro on my desktop.

What I'm saying is that in XP MCE there is no DVD player so how can he not be getting 5.1 audio? Is he actually referring to Media Player?

MCE itself is the player. I am not sure exactly how much of WMP gets used. I do know that out of the box, MCE cannot play DVDs because MCE does not ship with an MPEG2 decoder.

Now that I jabber a bit more, I am remembering that some of the settings for SPDIF are in the MPEG2 driver. NVidia PV or whatever DVD package you install will have to be searched for the SPDIF setting. You will also want to look under "More Programs" in MCE to see if the settings are hiding in there. I am at work and I really can't remember where it has been a while since I set up.

WMP requires and uses the codec supplied by a third party DVD player (or codec.) If the third party codec supports DD 5.1 decoding, then WMP should play back using DD 5.1 when the material contains it (and all other settings are correct.) Note that the codecs in many free DVD players (supplied with video cards, DVD-Rs, etc.) do not support DD 5.1 and must be "upgraded" to do so.