Question about sending 5.1 sound stream to receiver (1 Viewer)

[cesser]

This may be a stupid question, but please forgive my ignorance.

I'm about to take the plunge and build my first HTPC. I want to archive and play DVD's to and from the hard drive with the 5.1 sound stream attached.

My audio receiver has optical inputs, so I want to be able to output the 5.1 sound to it via optical as well. Will I be able to get 5.1 sound via optical since the files are stored on the hard drive? I keep reading about S/PDIF, but that doesn't apply in this case, right? Since I won't be playing DVD's via the DVD drive?

This is probably a very simple question, but I've been trying to find a situation like this on the internet, but haven't really come across anything definitive - how can I send an encoded 5.1 sound stream on the hard drive via optical to my 5.1 Panasonic decoder? I've been looking at this Turtle Beach card - would this work for hard drive audio streams? Or am I missing the boat here entirely?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Yura80]

You CAN use s/pdif to output 5.1 sound to your receiver. No matter whether you are playing DVDs or video files from hard drive.

The Turtle Beach card you've been looking at should work fine! I'm using a very similar card without problems
I recommend installing these drivers instead of originally supplied: cmediadrivers - Google Code

To enable S/PDIF in MP go to Directshow Filter Control -> MPA Decoder settings and select S/PDIF for AC3 and DTS (if you use default MPA Decoder filter for movies).

 

[cesser]

Thanks very much for the info Yura.

I have one more question - assuming I get that Turtle Beach card, do I need to plug anything into the Optical S/PDIF I/O port (pictured here) on the card itself to get a 5.1 stream from the hard drive to output via the optical out? Or is that port only connected to and utilized when playing DVD's via a DVD drive?

 

[Yura80]

Thanks very much for the info Yura.
I have one more question - assuming I get that Turtle Beach card, do I need to plug anything into the Optical S/PDIF I/O port (pictured here) on the card itself to get a 5.1 stream from the hard drive to output via the optical out?

Not, just insert card into PCI slot and connect it to your receiver.

Or is that port only connected to and utilized when playing DVD's via a DVD drive?

For DVD playback it's also not needed.

That S/PDIF i/o port is probably intended to record audio from external digital source (i.e. MD player or SAT TV tuner...).

 

[cesser]

Thanks again. I knew it was simple, but now I know what I'm doing!