I have a gateway gm5664 pc that is supposed to be high end,it has the blu-ray/Hd-dvd/dvd/cd combo drive and Power dvd 7.3...etc,but no digital out hookups.I am going analog out right now to the multi-channel dvd input on my Onkyo HT-780(ht-r530).I can go HDMI out to 47' fl screen and then digital out to Onkyo but it is only 2-ch DD then pl2x kicks in but I want DD EX,I know my receiver can't handle the new HD sound formats,Who has a sound card running sp/dif out in Windows Vista Home Premium,not onboard either,I have the Realtek HD Audio,no dig out.Thanks

That is a nice lot of info about your system but could you be a bit more clear with the question?

Have you looked into create X-Fi sound card?? It's one of the better sound card on the consumer market in the states here. But are you going to play dvd movies or streaming movies or just games for better sound would help users here know what your future plans are for your system.

This might be one a bit pricy .
http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...bPrelude%2b7.1
Or this one probably not all the bells & whistles the other one has but it has the out puts.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829118105

OK,my main reason for wanting a good sound card is I can not go digital out I have no optical out or (rca) digital out.I want this for movies(DVD's)As I stated in my first post I just want to go sp/dif out to my Onkyo av receiver and let it decode the D Digital.Right now I have to go HDMI out to my 47'LG LCD flat screen and then use the digital out on back of tv to the receiver.I used to have my DVD player hooked up this way and I would get Dolby Digital EX. Power Dvd Ultra 7.3 only passes Dolby Digital 2-ch through the HDMI out put.They emailed me and said that the new PDVD Ultra 8.0 will support sending 5.1,6.1 digital through Hdmi and all so DTS-Hd core and one of the others but I can not decode it now anyways.Any HD sound gets changed into 2-ch pcm uncompressed.I hope I made my self a bit clearer.I read where lots of people are having trouble with sound cards in Vista.This is why I ask for anyone that has a working card in Vista that can get sp/dif out.Thanks

OK not a Newbie question now so am transferring to the CD Freaks' Audio forum.

the last link you sent here,the cheaper one,it will not send 5.1 or 6.1 out either.The first one is way to pricey.It is hard finding one for vista for some reason it just does not want to send out sp/dif.Probably some macrovision,protection thing screwing with the drivers.I don't know but sure seems odd

I did not know where to post this,I didn't see a spot for this question in Audio,I was going to go with software or hardware.Sorry!

I'm not quite following you here. Are you using an amp from a stereo system? Are you using pc speakers? Is this a home theater setup?

I am going from pc to AV receiver(Onkyo HT-530)It's a couple yrs old,will not decode TrueHDSurround or DTS-HD,but will decode DD EX and all the formats below the EX,DD5.1...etc.My Gateway GM5664 HTPC does not have a digital out ,be it optical or RCA,it will pass encoded DD 2-ch thru HDMI.I need to go straight to the AV receiver with digital out to be decoded by the receiver.

stinman47 ;The cheaper card does say it is 5.1 but in reading the customer reveiws there were some problems with Vista.I did find the next better one as below but it had one con about Vista drivers.I put it here anyway.
Montego DDL 7.1 Sound Card
Heres one of the specs for the card above:
Optical S/PDIF In/Out for playback/recording of pure digital audio at resolutions of up to 24 Bits at 96kHz (in/out) sample rate playback in XP/2000; up to 16 Bits at 48 kHz playback/recording in Vista.
Maybe someone can explain why they are turned down so much for Vista.
The problem is Vista it will go down as one of MS's bad systems like Windows ME.I have Vista also so you have my sympathy.

Do you mean this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829118105

If so it will. When used in a surround sound system, the S/PDIF (digital) Out allows the digital audio data from a DVD movie disk or other surround-encoded digital audio source to pass through to an external playback device with a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. It's the receiver's Dolby/DTS decoder that splits the 2-channel audio data into 6 channels of surround sound audio (5.1) -- NOT THE SOUNDCARD.

Thanks,I had seen this one but did not like it.I been doing some checking on my AV receiver (Onkyo HT-S780-AV receiver HT-R530 110 watts per ch WRAT wide range amplifier technology
Processing= Dolby digital EX and Pro Logic IIx / DTS,DTS-ES Matrix/Discrete,DTS Neo:6,and DTS 96/24
Linear PCM 192khz/24-bit D/A converters on all channels
Powerful and highly accurate 32 bit DSP Processing
Adjustable crossover 60,80,100,120,150 Hz
these are the specs,I can not decode True HDsurround but I can do DTS plus,I think?or DTS core something like that.
For now I am going analog from the pc to the multichannel hookups,which are only 5.1 channel FR,LRBack/C/Sub but there is a humming when turned up loud comming out of the sub,not real bad but when things are quite in the movie it can be heard.Ant suggestions on what to do?Could it be the video and speaker wires to close together?I also need a pci-express 1x sound card so that limits my selection unless I take out the phone/dsl pci card that came with the pc.I do not need it anyway,I have cable internet and will probably always will unless at&t comes up with a faster internet than cable and cheaper,doubt that,huh!Thanks everybody!

Try reorienting things. Also try plugging your equipment (power) into another socket. If you ascertain which one your computer is on try everything on the same circuit.