Sound Card HT Help

I am trying to put together a kind of home theater in my room. I have ATT Uverse STB and want to get the sound from the STB to my computers sound card (which i need to find one that will do what i need) via SPDIF then get decoded and passed out to my 5.1 Altec Lansing Analog Speakers via 3.5mm (1/8" ) jacks. I need to find a sound card that will receive SPDIF, decode it and pass it out through analog with minimal latency and preferably all done with hardware. It needs to cost less than $150. Any need for clarification just ask...sorry if something doesn't make sense but i will be happy to explain what i mean.

Thanks for the list of Sound Cards. The only problem is that i cannot find anything that says the HT| Omega striker can receive audio from my Set-Top-Box (STB) via Optical or Coaxial SPDIF, decode the audio then put it out through the analog 3.5mm (1/8" ) jacks to a set of analog 5.1 surround computer speakers. This is very important and is the deciding factor. It MUST be able to perform that action or it will not do what i need. If someone that has any experience with what i am looking for please help. But thanks ahead of time for any info anyone has. Also thanks "505090" for the list, it was very helpful and if that HT|Omega does what i need it will be the card i get.

I already took care of firing an email to HT|Omega but i will have to wait till tomorrow to get an answer.

Thanks

It turns out no sound card can do what i need exactly. Here is the email i got from HT|Omega explaining why they don't exist not only from them but from any manufacturer.

"Hello Mr.Monahan.



Thanks for interest in Striker.



Striker doesn’t provide AC3(5.1ch) signal such as Dolby Digital or dts decoding.

For licensing and copyright protection purposes, soundcard manufacturers are effectively prevented from adding DD/DTS decoders to their products.

The reasoning is that the only legal use of DD/DTS decoders is for playback of licensed soundtracks from DVD movies.

In your PC, a DVD player software must decode your DD/DTS soundtrack, NOT the soundcard. And as far as I know, there is no PCI type sound card which can AC3 signal from S/PDIF input. Because of the above-mentioned licensing and copyright protections, this is not possible.



Striker7.1 can decode 2ch PCM digital signal only.

Therefore, you can monitor front (2ch) output when you set to PCM on digital output option of set top box.



If you need more information, then please let me know.



Thanks.

Sincerely,

HT OMEGA – Tech Support"

^^ Agreed. Its pretty much up to the player you use to decode/pass the signal over the analog jacks. Encoding is no problem, decoding is the main issue.

Its for that reason why I use 5.1 headphones with a DD/DTS decoder built in.