Alright, I've finally retired my old Shuttle nForce2 board that had built-in S/PDIF, which I'd never had a problem with.

A while back I had picked up the M-Audio Transit USB as the successor soundcard to the Soundstorm. Unfortunately at the time, probably due to driver issues, the Transit seemed to clip heavily on Dolby Digital and DTS passthrough. So I stuck with the nForce2.

Now, I've upgraded my system to a tight Pentium-M HTPC setup, tossed in the Transit, and it works great. The problem: The Transit drivers aren't smart enough to figure out what I'm trying play, and thus I'M responsible for choosing between PCM output <=48kHz, PCM output >88.2kHz, and DD/DTS passthrough. So when I switch from watching a DVD to listening to an MPC or vice-versa, I have to manually switch the setting on the drivers.

This is completely unacceptable to me, and thus I'd like to replace it with something that doesn't care about the output, but will pass it through to my receiver regardless of whether it's 44.1kHz PCM, 96kHz PCM or DTS 6.1, and do it all automatically over USB or Firewire. Frankly, I don't think this is a tall order at all, but right now nothing strikes me as immediately compelling, especially after this problem with the Transit.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me? Suggestions on improving live with the Transit are welcome as well.

I can't do any internal solutions easily as I'm out of slots (not just PCI slots, but rear slots as well). I AM a relatively skilled electrical engineer, so I could drill a hole in the case and wire it up to my motherboard's onboard soundcard w/ S/PDIF out, but if that's the best course of action to go, does anyone have a part number that I could use to wire up the S/PDIF connector?

Thanks,
sthayashi