Spdif?
So I just took a PCI backslot off of my mobo (connected by a three cord cable) and it has two outputs. One looks like a square four square holes, the other looks like an RCA Video out...both say "SPDIF OUT" on them. I'm pretty sure they're some sort of optical video out, but what is the full story with this?
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Prof
Not really true.
I use SPDIF out with great success and have done so for a long time. The thing is though, that it is mostly used for passing through the signal into an external amplifier which then decodes the signal and gives brilliant 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby Digital.
Another great area is for Minidisc. If you want to record a minidisc directly from mp3 or any other format, it´s directly digitally recorded and doesn´t have to be converted to analogue signal first. That is if your Minidisc have an Optical connector off course. Haven´t seen one without though.
The 2 different connectors is Optical and Coaxial. The square is Optical. Optical is generally giving much better quality than Coax.
Just wish there were some soundcards that did this.....
NS
SPDIF though it uses standard RCA connectors, the cable itself is 75 Ohm coaxal which is quite common for video applications. You could probably use standard video RCA cables (they should say 75Ohm on them somewhere). I haven't found a difference between the high end cables and the consumer cables but I make my own high end SPDIF cables for cheap anyway. Not too hard if you make cables. The trick is to use a reamer to widen the RCA barrel to accept the cable. Last note, I've done real A/B comparisions with SPDIF and AES/EBU and there is no sonic difference IMHO. AES/EBU is preferred for longer digital cable runs.
Hows that for answereing everything but the question? lol
My company sells professional multi-channel MPEG decoder circuit boards, and one of our products has 2 SPDIF connectors as 1/4 inch mini plugs on the board. Each connector carries the digital audio for 2 outputs of a 4 output board. Customers just need to wire up their own cable, or by an off-the-shelf cable that separates the 2 streams of 5.1 Dolby out of each wire. With that set up, one of our circuit boards can output 4 separate channels of high quality MPEG-2 video in either composite, S-video or RGB mode, and 4 separate Dolby 5.1 AC-3 streams via SPDIF connectors, or just plain old stereo in balanced or unbalanced connections.
Aren't they both digital all the way? So unless you're actually losing 1's and 0's in between, both should be "perfect" copies.
The most important thing about SPDIF is the optical IO in the back of my PS2. Once I get a receiver, amp, and 5.1 speakers for that puppy I'll be happy.
It is easier to keep optical 'clean', but wires work very well.
I have yet to see anyone measure the performance of these systems, so I am not going to quible over conection types.
Making s/pdif Cables
"If you are experienced with a soldering iron and like to make your own studio cables, here's some tips on making your own very high quality S/PDIF cables for a fraction of the cost of store-bought cables. To get a better idea of the parts/prices I made an example using MOUSER ELECTRONICS www.mouser.com catalog. You can find most of these parts in Radio Shack etc. as well as Mouser. You'll need..."
Full article here:
http://www.prosoundreview.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121