SPDIF connector

T

Tanatz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
271
I have (and in prior builds as well) my optical drive connected to my sound card. In an effort to reduce clutter in my PC, I'm trying to research a way to get sound without this connection. The way I understand it, the SPDIF connection is to retain the digital quality to the sound card while playing CD's. But what about mp3's that are already on my hard drive that do not need to run through that connetion?

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/179

Can I unplug the wire connecting my DVD drive to my sound card? In the past I have tried and could not get sound to come out, but I don't understand why it's necessary for sound coming from the hard drive.
 
While I agree that it's kinda a dumb design... You can't get sound without it.

~Adam
 
That's the way it's designed, all sound goes through the spdif. I've tested it myself as well and it never worked without it.

~Adam

Edit: on second thought you might want to check this out because I could be wrong, it's been a long time since I did that test.
 
Tanatz said:
Are you genuinely surprised to learn this or are you aware of something we are not?
Click to expand...

No, he says that because it's wrong. You don't need to hook up anything to your optical drives other than ATA and power. Optical drives have all supported DAE (digital audio extraction) for several years.
 
The only use for the audio connector on an optical drive is to bypass the OS and play directly through the hardware. Back in the days of 386s and 486s, the OS couldn't keep up with the task of rendering digital audio. So the optical player can bypass and send CD audio directly to the sound card.

However, modern processors and XP can render the audio just fine. Leave it off, and WMP or Winamp will render the audio through the OS.

Digital audio stored on your hard drive ALWAYS goes through the OS. MP3, video files, whatever. The OS renders the audio and pipes it through the sound card.

SPDIF out on the sound card allows you to send high-quality digital audio directly to your speakers/other audio device without the losses inherent in converting to analog then traveling through a low-quality 1/8" mini plug to your speakers.




Tanatz said:
I have (and in prior builds as well) my optical drive connected to my sound card. In an effort to reduce clutter in my PC, I'm trying to research a way to get sound without this connection. The way I understand it, the SPDIF connection is to retain the digital quality to the sound card while playing CD's. But what about mp3's that are already on my hard drive that do not need to run through that connetion?

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/179

Can I unplug the wire connecting my DVD drive to my sound card? In the past I have tried and could not get sound to come out, but I don't understand why it's necessary for sound coming from the hard drive.
Click to expand...
 
BigDave said:
The only use for the audio connector on an optical drive is to bypass the OS and play directly through the hardware. Back in the days of 386s and 486s, the OS couldn't keep up with the task of rendering digital audio. So the optical player can bypass and send CD audio directly to the sound card.

However, modern processors and XP can render the audio just fine. Leave it off, and WMP or Winamp will render the audio through the OS.

Digital audio stored on your hard drive ALWAYS goes through the OS. MP3, video files, whatever. The OS renders the audio and pipes it through the sound card.

SPDIF out on the sound card allows you to send high-quality digital audio directly to your speakers/other audio device without the losses inherent in converting to analog then traveling through a low-quality 1/8" mini plug to your speakers.
Click to expand...

So essentially, I just plug my sound card (SB Audigy 2) into a PCI slot and that's it.

Pretty silly question considering I've been building my own computers for almost 5 years now, but hey, ya never stop learning I guess.
 
Yes, you can leave all audio cables between the CD/DVD and the Sound card/mobo off. I have not used those in ages. Here is what you have to do if you still do not have sound after removing those cables:

Open up the device manager
Locate your CD/DVD drive and open up the properties window
Under the properties tab there is a checkbox that says "enable digital CD audio for this CDROM device" or something like that. Check that box.

Hit ok.

CD audio should work without cables.
 
digaudio.jpg
 
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