VGaudiodesigner

James - I believe the lack of 5.1 audio support is less a limitation of the connector than one of the internal hardware. According to what's been said so far, the console isn't currently up to generating/playing back a discrete 5.1-channel mix (Gamecube certainly wasn't) in-game, so there's no point in their providing an output that supports it.

I have to assume that the (future) DVD-supporting Wiis will include some form of digital output, whether it be optical or digital coax.