[mythtv-users] PCI (or USB) soundcard that can passthrough SPDIF to surround sound amp

[Rob Beard]

Hi folks,

I'm hoping someone might be able to advise me on an issue I have trying
to find a sound card.

Basically I've upgraded my PC to a new Phenom 9600 with MSI K9A2
motherboard (the cheap version).  Now my old motherboard (an MSI P35
Neo2 with Pentium Dual Core E2160) had SPDIF output on the motherboard
which I was able to use an SPDIF header with to output AC3 and DTS audio
to my surround sound amp.

The new board does have an SPDIF header on the board but it is only
2-pin rather than a 3-pin header.  I have tried enabling the SPDIF
output in the Alsa mixer and sending the DVD audio to SPDIF using the
passthrough but I don't get anything (despite trying different
combinations of the 3 pins).

So, after giving up on that I decided to look for a sound card that
would enable SPDIF passthrough.

I've bought an external Sweex USB 5.1 Sound Card which has TOSLINK
in/out.  It's supposedly based on the CMedia CM106 chip.  This works in
Windows perfectly well as far as Windows sounds are sent over the
TOSLINK connection to my amp.  So far so good.

I then reboot into Ubuntu 7.10 and although I can play sounds through
the analogue outputs on the card I can't get anything through the
TOSLINK connection, if I try SPDIF passthrough I get what sounds like
noise (a bit like if I was going to play a data CD in a CD player).

I've also got a SoundBlaster Live 5.1 Digital (I think it's from an old
Dell) which I've tried connecting the digital out to my amp using a
3.5mm to 2 x Phono cable and this doesn't seem to work either (I've
tried all sorts but from what I can tell it needs some specific commands
sending to the EMU chip?).  The analogue connection works but the
digital connection doesn't do anything.  I wasn't able to try this in
Windows as I can't seem to download a driver, just a driver update which
won't install!!!

So I'm on the lookout for a new sound card which is supported by Ubuntu
7.10 (or 8.04) AMD64.  I have an coax SPDIF to optical TOSLINK adaptor
(which does work - my amp has optical input) so either with optical
TOSLINK, coax SPDIF outputs or both would be ideal.

Would something on the CMI8768+8CH chip (such as this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/106539) be suitable?

If anyone has got any suggestions, or even knows how to get the SPDIF
output on a SB Live 5.1 Digital working then that would be ideal.

Ta,

Rob