Ok I have very little knowledge of what this is all about - my son is trying to connect his new laptop to his Logitech Z5500 surround sound system which has it's own dolby pro logic decoder.
The laptop has only a mini jack output usually used for headphones, but within the sound setup you can change the output from this socket to a "realtek" output, which I believe is digital (an spdif output). The Logitech is usually connected to a soundcard with 3 minijack plugs, but it does have a digital input which it describes as "coax" but looks to me like an ordinary phono plug. Do we simply need a mini jack to phono (or possibly coax) lead to make it all work, is there a difference between coax/phono or are they different names for the same thing?. There is also a digital optical input which i assume is of no use as the laptop doesn't have a optical output.

get an ipod splitter from pc world, just goes into pc then into sound system. Works a treat

Belkin 2.1MStereo HiFi Cable

[Edited on 5/9/08 by welderman]

Get a proper USB soundcard with lots of minjack outputs to the various channels...thats the only way to get true surround sound

As tegwin advised, the only way to get true surround is with another soundcard. A minijack is not able to deliver the required channels. You could get the minijack to 2 phono cable but this is only stereo.

realtek is digital but if the only output socket is a minijack, then i believe (fairly sure) it will not be digital.

Coax is different to phono but the connections look the same. Coax has 1 connection & phono has 2-left n right. Phono cables have been known to fry when connected sometimes.

I'm far from an expert but digital is spdif & coax/optical are different ways to achieve this - dependent on connections.

ATB, Rob