Re: Siemens card and SPDIF

[Peter Hofmann <junk@pxh.de>]

Hi,

On Sep 18, 17:29, lars@skynet.e.ruhr.de wrote:
> I was thinking about buying a Dolby Digital receiver and was wondering if
> it was possible to connect the SPDIF signal from J2 to it via a coaxial
> cable.

I have a DVB-C (cable) card and an Onkyo AV receiver. Playback via the coaxial
SPDIF connection of the DVB-C card works perfectly without any problems.

> As I understand it at least Pro7 broadcasts DD. Does the card send it to
> the digital output. Does it work on recorded streams as well or does it
> just output the regular stereo sound?
>-- End of excerpt from lars@skynet.e.ruhr.de

The SPDIF output of the DVB cards cannot output AC3 data because not all of the
relevant SPDIF header bits can be set appropriately.

I also have a Hoontech Digital 4DWave NX soundcard with coaxial and optical
SPDIF outputs that are supported by the ALSA sound drivers. In the current CVS
releases these drivers should be able to program the relevant header bits of
the SPDIF frame so that AC3 output is possible. ALSA development is in constant
flux, however, so I was not able to get a working combination of ALSA driver
and ac3play program, yet.

So, in short, the pieces are all there, but things must stabilize a little bit.
And you need a soundcard capable of outputting AC3.

I hope this helps,

Peter

-- 
Peter Hofmann                  e-mail: junk@pxh.de