Question about plugging an optical out into a dolby decoder.

[Psyber]

I wanted to plug my computer's optical out connection into a receiver with a dolby 5.1 decoder. Would this give me dolby 5.1 sound? My sound card is an ac97 integrated card on my motherboard. It is a crappy card without 5.1 decoder but does have a optical out. I'm not sure if I need a new sound card to get Dolby 5.1 or just plugging the digital connection into an optical out would give it to me. Please post information that you are sure of - I have gotten conflicting answers to this question from my friends. If you could point me to web sites that talk about this that'd be great
Thanks
-Psyber

 

[sohcrates]

what would you be using as a 5.1 source in your machine? do you have a dvd-rom?

 

[Psyber]

Yes, I have a DVD-ROM and would only expect to get 5.1 if the DVD has it encoded on it.