PC soundcard that give full multichannel SPDIF O/P ?

[g8ina]

Afternoon all,

Ive been trying to get my soundcard to output it's full multi-channels via SPDIF, but Ive just found that the Xonar card only outputs stereo

Do *any* reasonably priced PC soundcards offer this ?

I have an optical cable to my Marantz AV amp, which can easily handle up to DTS 7.1, but it's being wasted at the moment.

[kalniel]

Nearly all Xonars do multi-channels over spdif, but like all spdif, there isn't the bandwidth for unencoded multi-channels > 2, so you have to use dolby etc. to compress and then uncompress at your receiver.

You need a Xonar model DS or better. Only the cheapest can't do DTS afaik.

edit: but what's your graphics card? That may have output for you as well.

[g8ina]

Yeah thanks matey, Ive been researching and it looks like "dolby live" is what Im after....

A few Creative's do it and the DS as you rightly say...

Onboard gfx still, till I have more dosh.

[kalniel]

Yeah thanks matey, Ive been researching and it looks like "dolby live" is what Im after....

A few Creative's do it and the DS as you rightly say...

Onboard gfx still, till I have more dosh.

You want DTS really, DDL is another standard, but inferior. Xonar DS(x) is about the cheapest way to get it.

[Lovol2]

Yeah thanks matey, Ive been researching and it looks like "dolby live" is what Im after....

A few Creative's do it and the DS as you rightly say...

Onboard gfx still, till I have more dosh.

Hi, I know this is an old thread, but I too need spdif for a new htpc build. Amp supports DTS and Dolby so just wondering, did that xonar sound card do the trick?