echo-

It sound's like you're looking for a soundcard that would basically do all the things your Yamaha already does. If you output digitally to the receiver then you don't need to spend a fortune on a soundcard. In the price range your suggesting, I don't think you'll be able to beat the processing in the Yamaha. Plus Yamaha has some of the better DSP modes for home theater.

I'm not sure if you are looking for 5.1 audio from a WMA output. You said the incompatability with the receiver was with WMA. Something doesn't make sense to me here. In my mind, for 2 channel audio, the software on your computer should be converting the WMA file to PCM and the PCM stream is what is digitally sent to the Yamaha (which handles PCM just fine). There should be no incompatability.

For movies, if you're playing DVD's on the laptop, your sound card will need to support and output digitally the appropriate format DD, DTS (SACD can not be digitally transmitted between components, copy protection). But that should not be hard to find. The receiver can handle those as well. The expense in a card is the D/A conversion, go digital out and you won't have to worry about it. I don't think you can do much more in the price you suggest, and I don't think you need to either.

The Yamaha is good. I really doubt you'd be dissapointed for movies or 2 channel. If you find your music listening is really critical then think about an external DAC. But get it up and running and take your time to decide.