I mentioned S1 Digital’s new P500 Media Center system in a post the other day.  While this is intended for the custom installer market, it’s interesting to note that it appears as though it’ll be the first Media Center box to offer uncompressed Blu-Ray audio, thereby supporting Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

From the CEPro article:

The unit – part of S1Digitals’ ProLine Series — is stripped of junkware, optimized for whole-house entertainment, and may be the first Media Center to implement Asus’s highly anticipated Xonar HDAV1.3 sound and video card.
"Apparently, we’re going to be the first Media Center company to offer it [Xonar HDAV1.3] with a 10-foot user interface," says Heitlinger. "We’re working with [Asus partner] Arcsoft on getting it completed."
ASUS claims the HDAV1.3 is the world’s first HDMI 1.3a compliant audio/video enhancement combo card. While it apparently "enhances video with an onboard Splendid HD processor," the card’s real claim to fame is on the audio side.
The HDAV1.3 supports Blu-ray’s two big content protection schemes — Protected Audio Playback System (PAPS) and Advanced Access Content System (AACS) — so it can output uncompressed Blu-ray audio in all its splendor.

Without both of these certifications, PCs typically must down-sample Blu-ray audio to DVD quality (48K/16bit).
S1Digital’s implementation of the HDAV1.3 is called Soundpack, offered as an option for the P500.
Soundpack enables bitstreaming the latest HD audio formats on Blu-ray discs. "This means the P500 can take full advantage of lossless digital audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio," Heitlinger says.

As I mentioned the previous post, this isn’t something I would drop on, but if you are looking to install a high end system and you have the money to spare, you might as well have something that’s going to give you true audio.