It looks as if Nvidia will be the first chipset manufacturer to offer support for the new HD audio standard on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.  Of course, we are talking about DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel support, something that AMD and Intel can't do at the moment.

AMD and Intel are limited to the older surround sound standards, although if you've got an external decoder that can decode these audio formats to which you've connected your HTPC via HDMI or S/PDIF, then this isn't going to be a problem for you.

However, if you've got a set of analog 7.1-channel speakers connected to your HTPC, then the upcoming range of MCP78 chipsets from Nvidia should be on your short list of motherboard chipsets if you intend to watch discs with the new audio formats.

You will also need a copy of CyberLink PowerDVD with support for the correct disc formats and audio codecs for this to work properly, as it's the only playback software at the moment that supports these new audio formats.