I bet it is a X10-remote, which is already supported by MP (see setup -> remote).
Netherlands
"If you want to send the digital audio stream to an external AV amp or receiver for decoding, then you will need HDMI. Older digital audio interface like TOSLINK and SPDIF will transmit multichannel LPCM, but will downmix it to 2 channel audio. TOSLINK and SPDIF will not pass Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio streams. To pass these digital audio streams, you will need a player and decoder that supportts HDMI 1.3.
However, for players that can decode Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio internally, they can decode these streams to multichannel LPCM to be transmitted over older versions of HDMI, so you do not really need HDMI 1.3 to enjoy these audio formats."
Is he saying that coax digital connection will only provide 2 channels (left and right), instead of the 5.1 I'm asking about?