okay i still didnt get why we need drivers for dolby and other effects? This is just another software DSP processor - why everything so hard?
I do not get it either. I have mentioned several times that though bulky(ish depending on the receiver) to use a older receiver with analog in be it 5.1 or 7.1. Some Sony receivers I have owned had 2 analog inputs in the rear. Then the world is open to you as far as sub, no sub, kinds of towers, or book shelf set. Cheap but great sounding for the money in mono price, dayton, bic, dcm, mtx ect, or go nuts and go high end. It will sound better then any bar you could ever buy. Used for a pc, and all the analog out in the back will even sound better, and better separations of the channels in everything, and have said to prove me wrong. I have it in a way I can do digital spdif, hdmi, and analog, for to the best of my knowledge at this point Marantz is the only brand out there that has analog in still in the rear, all the rest have just out, and have said time and time again, ditch that crap, go just analog, and then use the receiver to do the mixing, and if you buy a good mixer, its got hardware to do that crap with which is 100 billion times better then the software your trying to mod. But no one has, and its a shame, for if you go pure analog, its uncompressed, and the sound card in the pc will send everything to the correct speaker, without needing any mods of the kind.
Then as a party piece, ALL tvs now a days have spdif out, and can double duty the receiver to do dd, dts-Atmos (depending on receiver, my Marantz does do it) and do your set up right and mix all of the good good sweet eye and ear candy then in one place. Some receivers have arc and almost all tvs have arc, so it may just be a lousy hdmi cable from your tv (they make them in several hundred feet, so placement is endless, and some receivers have 2 hdmi outs, that you can send that hdmi out to another room, bedroom perhaps, and get a repeater, and control all that crap in the other room. Buy a shield, play legit pc games as if you built a bad butt pc in 4K 60HZ for $5 a month, and have it all in 7.1 uncompressed, or can then hook ur xbox, and everything to it, and depending on receiver can upscale laser disc or vhs to 1080P or 4K, or open pockets 8K now.
A perfect non oem I could HIGHLY recommend is the Creative X3. Its pretty much the only "newer" card out there with true, not simulated all analog 7.1. All the rest are 5.1 with 7.1 simulated in headphone mode. Plus its a usb so can be used on ANYTHING, turning it into a music/game/home theater studio you plug it into. And its kinda cheap for what it is, and does all and more you are trying to mod your board to do, and I got mine for just $119. Then I stole my Marantz from the goodwill online auction site for MEGA cheap, and when I am not using that I have headphones out of the sound card going to my old sony str-d590 and its pounding hard for they are so efficiant needing to turn the bass all the way down for I had my neighbor yelling at me I was beating there house so bad, without a sub, but a vintage set of DCM KX12 V2, and a set of
BIC America Venturi DV64
This Sony has Quad out with rear to do simulated stuff, but it all sounds like crap, but in stereo and those speakers, OMG :O
I have almost the full vintage DCM KX Bookshelf units, rears are polks, and a BIC America PL-200, NOT the 200II so tells you how long I been rocking it everyday since new and still going strong Hooked to my Marants SR-5010.
But yeah people, ditch this software crap, I did decades ago pretty much, only coming back every now and then to see whats new, try it, still sucks, go back to what it was again. Its not alll that much, some amps at the good will thing I have bought for people under $50 shipped sometimes. I have Mancave 3.0 coming soon to show pictures of. But ditch this stuff, analong is still where its at with its much higher bits and hurtzes and receivers and good speakers love that crap