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HDTV Tuner Sound Card Recommendations 
Most people think of HDTV as just improved picture quality, but another great improvement is the digital sound. Many HDTV shows are broadcast in Digital 5.1 surround sound and all HDTV tuners support 5.1 sound. The good news here is PC digital sound cards are cheap and can be either internal PCI cards or external USB devices. Prices range from around $20 to over $100 depending on the bell and whistles you want. The low end cards work just fine for most applications. You can connect them to a 5.1 PC surround sound system using three 1/8” plugs or some have S/PDIF optical output for connection to your home surround sound system. PC surround sound systems start at around $60 and go up to over $350. The quality is surprisingly good and perfect for one person setup. The Chaintech AV-710 PCI card (picture above) is highly recommended as digital soundcard for a HDTV Media PC. It works perfectly in decoding Dolby Digital 5.1 content, using the S/PDIF digital optical out, or the three 1/8" analog outputs for 5.1, six-channel surround sound, and it costs less than $25. Get more information here.
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