Inexpensive Dolby AC3 decoder

[ayelvington]

I was frustrated by the thought of having to buy a home theater receiver just so I could decode the AC3 output of my satellite receiver. I found the following item on Ebay and it does the trick nicely for under $20.

Cyberhome CH-SRD600R 5.1 surround sound headphones come with a converter that takes either the coaxial or optical input and gives you analog audio out. Don't let the funky headphone connector scare you; the mini-plug part is the same as any MP3 player and accepts a mini-to-RCA adapter nicely.

I paid $10 + s&h for mine and it works great for PBS, Create, and other AC3 channels.

That's my contribution to the effort!

[wejones]

Do a search here for "Sonic Voom", as this has been discussed a bit.
I have 2 of them, and think they are the perfect solution.
However some have reported some problems of missing the dialog part of the audio. This hasn't been a problem for me.

The soundblaster Extigy is also a good solution (although more expensive) for some receivers, but for some reason it doesn't seem to work with a Fortec Mercury.