Mac mini and 5.1 surround

Hi
i'm changing my complete computer-parc from PC to mac. I will start with an imac 27" for my work and a mac-mini that will be attached to my HDTV and 5.1 sound-system.
I have enough of windows and PC-stuff and want to switch as soon as possible. I'm looking to find a solution to all my problems that will suite me.
Why not buying an apple TV, I have 2 reasons for that.
- I want to be able to surf the internet, check mail, use other programs, ...
- I have encoded many films in AVI-format, and would like to use XBMC as mediacenter.
I have 1 problem for the moment. I saw that the mac-mini only has a stereo output.
Is there some solution to with an external sound-card that could be connected with optical cable to a 5.1-system.
For the moment there is a netbook connected to my HDTV with an external soundblaster X-fi 5.1 usb. It works fine for my audio. But i don't thinks there are Mac-drivers for that one.
Any solution or help would be greatfull.
Thanks in advance.

fluxxy1245 wrote:
I saw some articles on the web that talked about an upcoming update of the mac-mini. An update that includes a blueray-player
we can't speculate here what Apple will or will not do.
and HDMI-port. How real is this.
though slightly unrelated, see this http://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/13/apple-updates-macbook-pro-mini-displayport-i mplementation-to-support-both-audio-and-video/.
Let's hope they add SP/DIF (audio optical out).
the mini has that already. see http://support.apple.com/kb/SP505 and scroll down to audio.
JGG

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