luckybob wrote on 2023-10-27, 02:08:you mention HDMI or OPTICAL. […]
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you mention HDMI or OPTICAL.
the latter is very cheap and easy to convert.
just type "rca to optical audio converter" into amazon. The ones I see are <$20.
and if it HAS to be HDMI, there is the Monoprice Blackbird https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13347
There is a caveat here.
HDMI can carry multi-channel (including 5.1 ) uncompressed digital audio.
OPTICAL (aka S/PDIF aka IEC958) can only carry uncompressed stereo (2 -channel) uncompressed digital audio. For an such an OPTICAL connection to carry more than 2 channels (including 5.1), the data must be compressed, otherwise there would simply not be enough bandwidth. Typically, the most commonly used codecs for this are Dolby Digital (AC-3) and DTS .
None of the cheap "(analogue) rca to optical audio converter" that I have seen offer more than 2 channel input. Maybe there exist multi-channel input capable ones that compress to Dolby Digital or DTS and output through OPTICAL, but I do not recall ever seeing one like that personally. The equivalent to this could probably be functionally DIY-ed on a Raspberry Pi or Linux PC, but the real-time compression requirements might pose a challenge (expecially in terms off added latency).
The Monoprice https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13347 has no analogue inputs, so it would not help for the OP's use case .
@andrean What 5.1 sound cards with analogue outputs did you have in mind ?
Some of the Creative Labs ones also had an optical output and could be made to work with an optionally purchasable Dolby Digital Live encoder which would would allow realtime compression of 5.1 audio into Dolby Digital and output through the optical out (DTS Connect was a similar option for DTS output). AFAICR, there was also a way to do this with free third party software which may or not have required the use of third party KX Project drivers (sorry, I last tried this about 20 years ago)