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

[Kevin Kuphal]

On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 12:54 PM, Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk> wrote:

> 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.


I can *strongly* recommend two cards:

TurtleBeach Riviera:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118105
AOpen Cobra AW870LP

The first is a 5.1 with optical that *just works* out of the box with ALSA
and passthrough (no crazy asoundrc files) and the second is a low profile
card that works just as well in case you have a smaller case and are looking
for that.  I cannot recommend the Riviera strongly enough for optical
passthrough.

Kevin
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