Recommend me a sound card

[machinist]

It can either be internal or external, must be reasonably priced ~£50 and be better than my onboard SoundMax AD1986A hi-def chip.

Note : it's for a HTPC so must be able to deal with Dolby digital decoding stuff.

[DanceswithUnix]

CAn you say exactly what problem you are having with your existing sound card?

This one appears to do dolby digital encoding so you can output everything to a surround amplifier if that is what you mean?

I thought outputting eg film audio into a set of surround speakers was a done deal even with onboard sound (though I use headphones myself).

[MSIC]

Option 1: M-Audio Revolution 5.1, £66.98. Details here.
Option 2: Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4, £34. Details here.

[harry1]

i would have thought it would have been said. creative x-fi everytime

[Hidden Hippo]

X-Fi cards are fairly expensive though. I think the cheapest is still £60 and that's an OEM version.

[harry1]

thats good for the quality

[Clunk]

no digital out on the x-fi oem, so no good unlees you want to run a shedload of cables, or did i imagine that?

[MadduckUK]

Note : it's for a HTPC so must be able to deal with Dolby digital decoding stuff.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106539/rb/21714563203

there you go. optical out. dolby digital encoding. fifteen quid

got one very happy with it. full info here :-

http://www.asound.com/ProductDetails...lass=32&ID=292

[machinist]

CAn you say exactly what problem you are having with your existing sound card?

I'm not having any problem really - just annoyed that there are no regular updates to drivers for my sound chip, and I keep hearing that HTPC's benfit from discrete sound cards rather than onboard. Any tips to the contrary are welcome

Thanks for the help so far all

[MadduckUK]

just annoyed that there are no regular updates to drivers for my sound chip

agh! ok, ignore my suggestion then. last one was sometime in 2005. not that it matters to me cause it works fine