[theandrewbailey]

I'm sad that PC surround sound is (mostly) either multiple analog wires to plain old speakers, or HDMI to a receiver. HDMI mostly works, but it's not ideal, since running it through the video card and drivers introduces points of failure, and needs a monitor output to piggy back off of to work. (That's fine for a TV, but PC audio and video are separate concerns.) Why can't they use USB instead? Is the market too small? Receivers have had USB ports for years, but those are for playing MP3s off a flash drive. A PC isn't a flash drive.

[bitslayer]

_those are for playing MP3s off a flash drive._ I am reminded of the workaround people used to use for inputting streamed audio to their old car stereos through a cassette tape adapter. Could the computer emulate a flash drive somehow?