[LAU] S/PDIF Passthrough and stereo files

[abergon at free.fr]

Hello,

I am currently setting up a HTPC, for my use and also for the family. My sound
card is M Audio 24/96 Delta DIO, connected via the S/PDIF optical link to a A/V
receiver. Software mostly used is gxine and rhythmbox. For mixer, I use
Envy24control. For DVDs, gxine audio config is set to passthrough and Dolby/DTS
works fine, with Envy24Control Patchbay/Router settings to S/PDIF out. For
stereo music mp3s, ogg and flac formats are read with Envy24 settings to
DigitalMix.

What I would like to avoid is having to switch between S/PDIF and DigitalMix in
Envy24 depending on the encoding of the file (Dolby/DTS on the one hand or
mp3/ogg/flac on the other), as I aim to make the system as easy to use as
possible.

One solution would be to avoid passthrough in gxine settings for Dolby/DTS but
that would be detrimental to sound quality for DVDs, so it is not an option. I
have tried playing stereo files with gxine, but even though I can keep the
Pasthrough setting, I still need to set Envy24 to DigitalMix.

I do not really understand why a stereo file cannot be passed through directly
to the S/PDIF under the same conditions as a Dolby/DTS one. My purpose is to
send the data as is to the A/V receiver, which seems to be perfectly able to
handle whatever it is getting.

Any explanation, hints and solutions will be very much appreciated.

Albert