Originally posted by MorganX
Actually my motherboard, and the majority of new sound hards have optical 5.1 output as do media PCs. There's even 5.1 PC headphones now. (for sound cards, no optical)
PowerDVD and HDTV edit:WMV are also 5.1. For mainstream users without optical out or soundcards with optical or 5.1 outs they probably don't know it's available or think it's useful. I want everything in 5.1 whenver possible.
With media streaming devices and media PCs popping up, who needs a SACD burner or player?
You won't get 5.1 in your DigAudio device, but you will get 384k encoding.