Audio setup for Noob

[Sunderj]

In the middle of building my first PVR, thought I would give SageTV a try...

Things going OK - very pleased with the video quality of Recordings, DVD playback & Video playback of HDD stored DVDs.

But audio is another matter :-(

I have a decent motherboard with Geforce 7050PV graphics chip, HDMI out, SPDIF optical out & 6 channel analogue audio out jacks. Running XP & have a confusing array of graphic renderers & filters.

Here is what I want the setup to do - send stereo sound over the HDMI cable to the TV, for 'normal' TV viewing. And send 5.1 sound over the analogue jack ouputs to my cheapo surround sound processor, for watching DVD & HDD stored DVDs. (Eventually I will get a decent processor and use the SPDIF, but not just yet)

I have played around with the sound renderers, filters, AC3 config, PowerDVD settings, Realtec setting, windows system settings - all these inter-related software settings that seem to interact in obscure & bizarre ways.

I consider myself computer & tech savvy (I make a living at it anyway) & all this 'trial & error' stuff depresses me - there has to be a better way; plus, I just can't get what I want to happen, to happen.

I have many configs that will work the 'stereo over HDMI' option just fine; a few that seem to send 5.1 over HDMI (either all effect & no dialogue, or vice versa); some configs that do nothing, and a few which crash Sage TV. But nothing that will send sound over the analogue connects. (Actually not entirely true - I had a very early config that sent what sounded like 5.1 over the analogue connects when watching Sage recorded playback, but I didn't want this & now can't even reproduce it - but it does mean that it CAN be done!)

So, is what I want even possible to do? (stereo over HMDI for 'video' & 5.1 over anlogue for 'DVD')

And if anyone has a similar setup - what config do I need!

Otherwise - is there a more systematic approach I can take?!

Thanks!