[linux-audio-user] Re Digital Audio Out on kernel 2.6

[Rick Taylor]

Q <raid517 at fairadsl.co.uk> wrote:

>But 'piping sound out via any other audio capable cable' isn't really 
>the answer I was hoping for. SPDIF passthrough - and digital sound in 
>general - to an external dolby digital amplifier is a whole different 
>kettle of fish than that, as it involves a considerable amount of post 
>processing power on behalf of the digital amplifier. There is no true 
>5.1 (or indeed 7.1) audio playback - and subsequent channel 
>seperation/decoding without some direct form of digital link. Without 

 Firewire and USB are pretty digital. Firewire can cart about huge
 amounts of information accurately and precisely. {DVD sound, video,
 etc...} Both of them are capable of network connections.

>this all you get is a kind of dumb (literally) analoge reproduction of 
>whatever the soundcard throws at it. There is no 'intelligent' 

 Straight network cables can manage to convey information fairly accurately.
 It seems to me that your "digital" connect is only a conduit for information
 that's encoded and decoded at either end. I'd think the "intelligence" to
 be an attribute attributable to the server and client.
 
>processing at all.

 Your external amp *is* doing the processing.

>But it does make me wonder... If Redhat could do it, then surely there 

 I'm quite sure it's possible.