thanks for replies..

Hours of googling later...
and it seems SPDIF inputs have been just about abandoned except for a few expensive 'Pro' USB audio interfaces
way out of my price range;
or older budget price Win XP era USB audio interfaces that are at least a few years out of production
and mostly out of stock or discontinued..

Either way, general online opinions are that reliable Win 7 drivers [even more so 64 bit]
are an ongoing issue...

Sods Law, the available laptop for the immediate project is Win 7 64 bit.

Just a simple in line converter requiring no drivers would be ideal,
but as I mentioned earlier, it seems all available affordable basic converter products are for audio output only, not input.


Oh well, keep on looking...