Let me start by saying I'm fairly new to the whole home theater/audio world and I'm simply trying to make this work. I'd like a quality solution, but am certainly not looking for professional grade anything.
I recently upgraded my receiver (and by upgrade I mean bought a used 5.1 system on Craigslist) and am now having trouble connecting my audio sources. I have a media center PC with analog sound output (a standard 3.5mm green jack only using onboard audio) that I'm trying to connect to the 5.1 receiver. The receiver has a digital coaxial and SPDIF input and I think I need to use that in order for my DVDs and other high quality audio (in 5.1) to come through on all of the speakers. I think I need to convert my analog audio coming out of the computer to the digital coaxial or SPDIF. Can this be done?
I know that I should probably just buy a sound card that has digital out and I'd be done, but I'd need to find a low-profile card and those that have digital are out kind of pricey. If there was a cheap (less than $50) way to do that, I'm all for it - otherwise I'm open to other suggestions.