[mythtv-users] SPDIF Hardware

[Steve Hodge]

On 2/21/06, Eric Hattemer <eric at hattenator.dyndns.org> wrote:
> I'm so confused, and have been searching
> around and looking at pictures for hours.

Here's a tip for buying computer components: you can usually download
the manuals from the manufacturers site. That's the best way to really
find out about a product.

> Both cards say that they have spdif, but I've been staring at the
> pictures trying to figure out how I can connect my big RCA digital coax
> wire to those tiny little ports.  Do those cards actually have digital
> coax on-card, or do you have to buy a special adapter for them?

The Audigy 2 Value does not come with the required adapter. From the
specs page on Creative's site:
    * Digital I/O (for stereo SPDIF output to Digital I/O Module**)
** Available as upgrade option

The Audigy 2 ZS also seems to use a 3.5mm plug and a custom cable
(which is "available separately").

The Audigy 2 ZS Platnium and Platnium Pro come with the required gear
for it work out of box.

> The nforce3 chipset doesn't have the soundstorm acceleration, so
> I'm in the market for a new sound card.  I want proper Dolby coding for
> DVDs and hardware openAL support for America's Army.  I don't want to
> pay a ton of money for the card.  I'm looking at the Audigy 2 ZS or
> Audigy 2 Value. I want good hardware decoding, and an spdif out.

You've got a separate surround sound receiver, right (that's why you
want coax spdif output)? Then for DVDs you only need Dolby AC3 and DTS
passthrough. Pretty much all cards with spdif output do that.
Certainly your motherboard will. If you want America's Army to produce
surround sound via spdif you need a card that can encode either AC3 or
DTS. AKAIK neither the Audigy 2 Value or the 2 ZS will do that - they
certainly don't mention it in the specs or the manual. You need a
soundcard that offers "Dolby Digital Live", e.g. TurtleBeach Montego
DDL.

> If I need an add-on card, will the one that came with my motherboard work?

No. Creative like to lock you in to their own stuff.

> If so, why doesn't Creative include the spdif adapter in their box?

So they can get more money out of you.

> I know plenty of people here have spdif solutions, and I'm wondering how you did it.

I bought one of these:
http://www.dse.co.nz/isroot/dse/images/products/XH7847~LGE.JPG
It came with the extra bracket which has spdif optical + coax in/out
ports. The downside is that it can't do AC3 or DTS encoding. My
motherboard does have spdif out but doesn't come with the required
bracket. That didn't matter to me because I needed two sound cards for
recording anyway.

Steve