Hello, I have installed mythbuntu 8.04 to replace windows xp media center 2005 and are encountering an issue with it. I've got an a8n-sli deluxe motherboard with realtek ac'97 compatible alc850 builtin motherboard audio. I can play back music in mythmusic if my .asoundrc file is this: pcm.nforce-hw { type hw card 0 } pcm.!default { type plug slave.pcm "nforce" } pcm.nforce { type dmix ipc_key 1234 slave { pcm "hw:0,0" } } ctl.nforce-hw { type hw card 0 } Here are the settings that are used in mythtv: Audio output device: ALSA:default Passthrough output device: Default Max Audio Channels: 5.1 Upmix: Passive x Enable AC3 to SPDIF passthrough x Enable DTS to SPDIF passthrough But then sending out the audio through xine doesn't work when playing back dvd's. Unless of course I use this for an .asoundrc file. pcm.!default { type hw card 0 device 2 ## Uncomment the following to use "mixed-analog" by default # slave.pcm "dmix-analog" ## Uncomment the following to use (unmixed) "digital" by default slave.pcm "digital-hw" ## Uncomment the following to use "mixed-digital" by default # slave.pcm "dmix-digital" } # Alias for digital (S/PDIF) output on the card # Do not use this directly--it requires specific rate, channels, and format pcm.digital-hw { type hw card 0 # device 1 # - Comment out "device 1" above and uncomment one of the below or create a new "device N" line as appropriate for your sound card or device 2 # device 4 } The sound then is sent out properly with ac3/dts being sent out compressed and mpeg2 being sent out uncompressed. Here is the command I use to launch xine: xine dvd:// -F -V xv -A alsa:device=hw=0,2 --no-splash --no-gui --no-mouse --borderless So what I want to do is since the uncompressed audio has to go through "hw:0,0", can I up convert that using stereo up mix and encode it to ac3 automatically in real time and then put that compressed ac3 through the spdif plug which is "hw:0,2". I have verified that I am sending audio as pass through in xine. I've been searching for how to do this for the past 2 weeks and are hoping someone else has already done it so that I can just change the .asoundrc file settings so that both will work. I'm currently running a bash script to copy each version of .asoundrc depending on what I want to do at the time with my mythtv box. I was able to do it in windows media center 2005 easily enough, can I do it in linux? Thanks.