WMA 5.1 -- What hardware/software is best?

[Eggplant]

I've decided to stop fighting the fact that so many samples of 5.1 posted online are in this format, which none of my three home systems can decode. People like that the encoding tools are free, so it's going to continue.

What soundcard and/or software should I get for my laptop? I want a PCMCIA card, and if an outboard unit is required, I'd prefer it to be small and portable.

I looked at the SoundBlaster options last year but got busy and forgot about it, so I'm not so familiar with current options.

 

[JonUrban]

Can anyone out there assist Alan? I am pretty clueless on this "new" format, and try and avoid it myself.

However, there are many folks who are interested in it. Can't someone out there respond with some info? Seems like there are tons of forum readers and very few forum posters lately? What's up with that???

 

[BananaSlug]

My guess is that you are going to need a card with 5.1 analog output as most receivers and computer speaker processors don't deal with wma directly (via digital input). Sorry, but that's about as much as I know.

Edit: I was just looking at cheap Pioneer DVD player (DV- 400V) and WMA is supported. I can't find anything that says WMA 5.1 is supported, but if it is it would be cheaper than a sound card.

 

[alexander J]

Can anyone out there assist Alan? I am pretty clueless on this "new" format, and try and avoid it myself.

However, there are many folks who are interested in it. Can't someone out there respond with some info? Seems like there are tons of forum readers and very few forum posters lately? What's up with that???

I will be glad to share some information about that in terms of we did some research on this subject.

I think that this is the product you can use for 5.1 surround sound with your laptop. And this is relatively inexpensive:
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=112&code=023

From my lust conversation with the person in charge of music content acquisition at Microsoft I find out that they had plans for development of surround music content for Windows Media Player. He just recently contacted me for the samples of my work. However I would like to see them to do more in this aria.

 

[jdmack]

The program DVD-Audio Solo ( www.cirlinca.com ) will burn Windows Media 5.1 files to DVD-Audio discs - if you are running Windows XP.

J. D.