Q.
Can I use my Montego II to play Dolby Digital Surround (AC-3)
movie soundtracks?
A.
Yes, but only if you have all of the following:
1) A DVD drive installed in your PC.
2) A S/PDIF equipped Montego II Quadzilla
3) A software DVD player that can output the DVD/Dolby Digital soundtrack
to the Montego II in "RAW Audio Data" format.
You should be able to send the soundtrack data out of the DVD player, through
the PCI bus to the Montego II, out the Montego II's S/PDIF output, and then to
the S/PDIF input of your Dolby Digital decoder/receiver/amplifier.
We have found that Zoran SoftDVD has a software "switch" that allows you to
send the undecoded DVD soundtrack directly out of the (S/PDIF equipped)
Montego II's S/PDIF output. The decoding to 5.1 Surround is then performed
by the Dolby Digital decoding circuit in your receiver/amplifier.
There are probably other software DVD players that can do this.
We will add them to this list as soon as we learn more about them.
If you have a DVD MPEG Decoder Card installed in your PC, it will most likely
have its own S/PDIF Output. Connect a suitable cable from the decoder card's
S/PDIF output to the S/PDIF input of a Dolby Digital receiver/amplifier.
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