What Dennis Barker over at Designtechnica has discovered about HDMI is the same obscure fact that keeps me hanging onto my nForce2 board for my HTPC - it will pass Dolby Digital 5.1 through its SPDIF-out. Unfortunately, Dennis is finding that not all HDMI chips are doing this at the moment...

"I was very troubled at the recent C.E.D.I.A. Expo to find out that one has to be careful about HDMI these days. Why do I say this? Both Audio and Video products currently on the market that utilize HDMI only passes 2.0 digital audio, and not full-blown 5.1 surround sound audio."