Largely forgotten is that in 2002 Windows XP came in a special version known as the "Media Center Edition". Its intent was to make your PC an entertainment hub by playing content stored on its hard drive. Ripped CDs, DVD's, and TV programs could be played back on your TV which spawned the concept of a Home Theater PC (HTPC). Microsoft expanded the Media Center concept by including the program in Windows 7. This meant that from the early to mid 2000s a home theater PC with hard drives filled with A/V content was all the rage. Running an optical cable to a surround-sound receiver for Dolby Digital/DTS was the preferred standard for over a decade.
Yet when Windows 10 arrived in 2015 it dropped the Media Center program much to the frustration of the home theater community. This gave the impression that Microsoft had been pressured by the movie studios to stop encouraging home theater libraries. Coincidentally, with smart phones, Ipads, and laptops using subscription-based streaming the film industry likely breathed a sigh of relief. Instead of obsessing about piracy and file-sharing they had now had a secure model. Instead of optical audio, HDMI was the new favored connection because it supported DRM and inhibited piracy. So its no accident that by the mid-2010s a Smart TV became the new hub for home theater instead of a PC.
There have been several Dolby Digital versions including: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby AC-4, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos. The most interesting is Dolby Digital Live (DDL) and its competitor DTS Connect. The intent of both was to convert a PC or game console audio into a 5.1 channel 16-bit/48 kHz format at 640 kbit/s over optical. Its resampling engine was said to produce near-lossless quality exceeding any audio card DSP available at the time. This circuit was perfect for digital multichannel sound on sound cards and motherboards. However, in the mid-2000s early DDL and Creative had a contentious history involving lawsuits, royalties, and licensing difficulties. Once the dust settled in 2008 Creative began releasing PC sound cards supporting Dolby Digital Live and all seemed well.
But fast-forward to 2024 and finding an audio card that provides a DD/DTS 5.1 optical bitstream is surprisingly difficult. What's the solution?
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In 2010 I bought this Creative X-Fi SB1090 outboard sound card because of its 24bit/48k-96k DAC. It was marketed for gaming laptops to provide surround effects from its Line Outs for Front, Rear, and Sub. It came with software to add interesting effects which today is incompatible with Windows.
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A Cirrus CSD4361 D/A converter was used advertised as a 24-bit, 192khz, 6-channel D/A converter. Creative must have detuned it as the SB-1090 only supports 48khz and 96khz, 44KHZ is not functional. A large proprietary Creative chip dated 2007 dominates the board. I replaced the electrolytic caps with Silmic and Nichicon FG: two 220uf/6.3v, one100uf/6.3v, and one 470uf/6.3v. While these won't have an effect in the digital circuit I like using audio-grade caps.
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Significant to mention is the optical out.
If I plug the X-Fi USB jack into my Windows 11 PC it shows up in Device Manager as a Toslink optical device called "SB X-Fi Surround 5.1". The Microsoft driver it uses is dated 9/27/2022 which is surprising given the age of the hardware. Connecting the optical out to my Denon receiver and playing a movie in VLC or similar on my PC results in 'Dolby Digital' or 'DTS' appearing on the display of the receiver. Switching between effects at the movie level causes it to change on my receiver. This means that with no software other than a Microsoft driver this little device actually passes a true Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 bitstream. Nice.
Up until 2023 Creative made an internal "Z SE" sound card that was advertised to output Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect. Its unusual in that DD/DTS effects are enabled within Windows using Creative Command software. This software-level solution 'encodes' every audio signal into DD or DTS including mono signals which is unusual. Yet despite DD and DTS appearing on the display of my Denon receiver when playing a movie I am unable to get audio from my rear channels or subwoofer. My belief is that the Z SE card provides 5.1 and 7.1 DD/DTS over headphones and speaker jacks for gamers but only 2.0 over optical. More licensing issues perhaps.
CONCLUSION: Surround-sound audio cards have always been marketed for gamers. Even during the heyday of HTPCs I dont remember a company specifically marketing a 5.1 optical surround card for "Home Theater Use". This was puzzling as it treated the immense home theater world like a niche market making it easier for companies ignore HTPCs as time went on. Yes modern HDMI with eARC for Atmos/DTS:X provides superior bandwith and 2 extra channels. But people with modern film libraries of local content who want to stick with 5.1/7.1 surround should have a solution.
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