Nintendo GameCube: No hardware support for 5.1 audio. Possible to get around this?

[BigToque]

I posted this in Off Topic as well, but maybe more people in here know more about sound hardware.

Since the NGC cannot produce 5.1 audio (Dolby Digital), is it possible for the game companies to produce their audio tracks in 5.1 format and use a software hack to pass the 5.1 signal to your Dolby Digital reciever, without having the NGC audio chip downmix the track to 2 channel?

In a 3D world, positional audio is a definite must. This effect cannot be achieved with only 2 channels of audio.

Any thoughts?

 

[Pariah]

If there is no digital out, it would not be possible.

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

Here it comes.

Xbox has 5.1.

 

[Shazam]

Having DD5.1 is not the same as 3-d audio.

DD5.1 is a lossy, compressed audio bitstream. It is not useful for things like real-time 3d audio.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

xbox is irrelevant(spelling?) to gamecubes audio capabilities.

 

[zippy]

I would imagine that you could still get surround sound (while not Dolby Digital) if you hook it up to your receiver.