So, I was thinking about getting a proper receiver for my home theater but I’m not sure if it would be worth it or what else I’d need to be able to get HD audio from my PC. Currently, I have this Panasonic home theater, which only has one HDMI connector, which I use to hook it up to my projector.

For watching movies on the projector, I also have my computer hooked up to the Panasonic HT via toslink through this ASUS soundcard (I have a separate set of 5.1 PC speakers hooked directly to the soundcard for when I’m using the PC normally with its monitors on the other side of the room).

Now, I’m very happy with the audio quality when I play BDs directly on the Panasonic (my living room isn’t huge and I live in an apartment building, so it’s booming enough for my needs) but the toslink PC audio definitely leaves something to be desired, because I can only get 5.1 audio from it through lossy Dolby Digital Live.

Since I prefer to play movies (including BDs) though my PC’s MPC-HC, because the PQ is better that way and it gives me a lot of options that hardware playback doesn’t (like adding grain on the fly, changing subtitle font and size or adjusting colors and contrast without f*cking with my projector’s settings), I’d like to get the same lossless audio quality I get from playing BDs directly on the Panasonic Home Theater system.

What are my options?