The motherboard I'm going to use for an HTPC doesn't have S/PDIF out. So I'm looking at something like a cheap Xonar DG PCI card so I can use its optical out. But then some review of the card says it doesn't do DTS. I assumed this to mean the card itself couldn't process and output DTS via it's own speaker jacks.
What I would do is pass the optical out right to my receiver for processing. I was under the impressions the digital signal itself was the same, and since I am not asking the card itself to process the dolby, dts, 5.1, 7.1, etc it shouldn't matter. Am I wrong? My receiver handles Dolby, DTS, up to 7.1
Also I'm hoping for a PCI card (instead of PCIe) because I'd already have a graphics card and Ceton InfiniTV4 in there using the two PCIe slots. For purely passing the S/PDIF is there any particular reason I'd need PCIe over PCI?
S/PDIF Types?
- spanner
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Yes You should be able to use optical out for your receiver to process. If you have a more recent receiver with HDMI , maybe a different graphics card with hdmi audio could be your answer. save some room in your case and allow for more audio options than spdif.
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Does you mobo have a SPDIF header on it? Some do & some don't. Take a look at the mobo manual. The header is usually 3 pins & you can buy a coax and/or optical SPDIF bracket for about $10-$20 that connect to it. The bracket replaces a blank slot cover bracket on the back of the PC.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Gigabyte-M ... 3f030e3464
You have to get the correct one for your mobo because there is no standard as to which pin is signal, ground or +5V. Of course you can swap around the wires in the connector to make it work.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Gigabyte-M ... 3f030e3464
You have to get the correct one for your mobo because there is no standard as to which pin is signal, ground or +5V. Of course you can swap around the wires in the connector to make it work.
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Neither my receiver nor projector do HDMI, but the HTPC should be okay in the future should that happen as my graphics card has HDMI output and S/PDIF input.spanner wrote:Yes You should be able to use optical out for your receiver to process. If you have a more recent receiver with HDMI , maybe a different graphics card with hdmi audio could be your answer. save some room in your case and allow for more audio options than spdif.
I will look into that. Thanks for the tip!Mike88 wrote:Does you mobo have a SPDIF header on it? Some do & some don't. Take a look at the mobo manual. The header is usually 3 pins & you can buy a coax and/or optical SPDIF bracket for about $10-$20 that connect to it. The bracket replaces a blank slot cover bracket on the back of the PC.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Gigabyte-M ... 3f030e3464
You have to get the correct one for your mobo because there is no standard as to which pin is signal, ground or +5V. Of course you can swap around the wires in the connector to make it work.