[alexk7110]

Recently I wrote about my experience with the Stick on how it performs over WiFi at Intel Compute Stick 1080p 10Gb mkv playback over WiFi and what I considered as a possible drawback was the ability to get audio to your receiver with it.
Yesterday I realized that my TV has an S/PDIF out connection (duh!) and it was as simple as connecting that to my receiver and selecting AC3 and DTS passthrough on Kodi Audio settings for Dolby Digital and DTS to start playing on my receiver. Now I have the full experience out of a minuscule WiFi connected silent PC. On a side-note DVD .iso playback over WiFi also happens without glitches since I turned the family events DVD's to .iso to gather them all in a single place for easy and quick playback and to future proof them since I expect physical media players to become extinct when I'll want to watch them say 10 years from now. I have to mention that said DVD's are 4Gb and contain compressed camera footage so bitrate is low but nonetheless they play fine.

[Topken]

This doesn't always work considering many different OEM's do not all for 5.1 out over the optical cable except for THEIR own Built In apps and turners. AKA if you plug something into one of the HDMI inputs you will not get 5.1 out from that device on many TVs if you use optical.

Here is a good article on the subject http://www.cnet.com/news/20-tvs-tested-w...sound-bar/

relevant quote "The only problem is that most TVs dumb down incoming surround-sound audio signals to a stereo PCM signal. If you're using a sound bar that can take advantage of a true surround sound signal -- such as the Sonos Playbar and Vizio S4251w-B4 -- your TV might be preventing you from getting the best sonic performance."

[noggin]

Yep - whether DD/DTS passthrough from HDMI to Toslink/Coax outputs on a TV is supported varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Some only output AC3 audio from their internal Smart TV apps and tuner (in the UK AAC to AC3 transcoding for 5.1 on Freeview HD is sometimes implemented) with HDMI audio carried only as PCM 2.0 (which is the native format that most TVs would ask for)