I was under the impression that soundcards were being phased out; but a brand like Asus can make a difference. The company has released their latest line of sound cards dubbed the Xonar HDAV1.3 Series - the world’s first sound cards to be equipped with the next generation DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Plus bitstream on the PC platform.The unit combines C-Media’s custom-made AV200 audio processor and ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre software player, thus enabling users to enjoy Dolby TrueHD’s lossless compression rate of 24bit/192KHz over to their AV receivers. It also features Protected Audio Playback Systems (PAPS) and full Advanced Access Content System (AACS) certification - thus there is no need to downsample audio to DVD quality.

"Ever since Blu-ray technology was announced in the market, there has never been a solution capable of bringing lossless digital audio formats to users on the PC," said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group.

"Even some BD players and the PS3 could not output bitstreams of Dolby TrueHD and other High-Bit-Rate audio so far, and we are glad to be the first inventors to implement the ProtectedAudio Playback System (PAPS) on PC platforms and fulfill the Full-HD AV entertainment desires for vast PC users," said Jason Liang, C-Media senior manager of System Business Division. "We are pleased to work with Asus and ArcSoft to make this product happen."

There is no word on pricing yet.