Digital audio out from the new Studio 15 and 17

In the old Dell notebooks, in order to get digital audio out to hook up to receiver, I need to get a dongle to connect to the S-Video port on the notebook and then hook up the coaxial digital audio cable between the dongle and the receiver. Since the new Studio line doesn't have S-Video port, I am wondering how to get digital audio from the notebook. HP notebook has optical digital out from one of the earphone plug. Is the new Dell Studio using the approach too? thanks

 

I would guess that you can get digital audio from the HDMI port, as that's how it is with the XPS.

 

While HDMI is an obvious option for digital audio out, but for some older receivers, they don't have HDMI ports. SPDIF is still the only option.

 

If your PC's analog outs can be used to provide signal to a surround system (just take a look at your audio properties, my Sigmatel tells me what each 1/8" can be configured for) then you could run a bunch of analog lines into a receiver. Not too elegant really, but it would work providing you invested in 1/8 stereo plug-to-composite (RCA) style plugs. Some older receivers will still have separate analog inputs for dolby 5.1-6.1 setups. Your ears will not tell the difference. Otherwise, your best bet is just to patch a stereo connection in there and let the receiver provide the mixing . . . not as nice as discrete, but better than nothing.

 

Is there any adapter in existance which splits your HDMI output into HDMI or component for video and SPDIF (toslink?) for audio?