Maximum PC

Does a pc addon soundcard that does this exist? My X-Fi only does 5.1 max over optical using dts connect or dolby live. This seems to be standard from what i can find.
I don't have 7.1 analogs on my receiver just hdmi and optical. Is there a card for me?

Sure, there's many out there. Creative even has a few on their newer cards, and most recent motherboards too. Asus has a fine one in the DX which I think is a step up from X-Fi all around. If you care about sound quality, the Asus can be a lower cost entry or you go with something like the HT Omega eClaro. At the same time though; if you're searching for digital i/o, optical is just a connection concern. You could go HDMI and get the same result for example. A good analog connection to a great sound card is still the best of the best, but the wiring can get fussy.

I guess it all comes down to what you want out of this. If you just want an optical out, the choices are plenty. If you want good sound out of it, we need more info. I wouldn't hook any optical out to a good receiver unless it was critical to do so. Scott Wilkinson helped me a lot on this, and he's no newb.

Hello sigmajt, the band width on optical is not enough for 7.1, the max it can handle is 5.1. If you hook up to a receiver with optical it will use Prologic to creat/simulate 7.1.To do 7.1 (HD DTS)you need to use HDMI.