audio cable not required for cd and dvd drives??

[tjaisv]

In Anandtech's review of the MSI K8N Neo Platinum the author in describing the board layout states, "Like the disappearing floppy, audio cables are rarely required any more..."

I thought optical drives needed that audio cable for listening to cd or dvd audio. Am i missing something here?

 

[Derango]

Since Windows XP (and 2k if you enabled it), It's been grabbing the audio cd stuff as data over the IDE cable. I haven't had an audio cable for a few years now.

 

[tjaisv]

ah i see, tx

Guess i'll still need it for Linux though.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Derango
Since Windows XP (and 2k if you enabled it), It's been grabbing the audio cd stuff as data over the IDE cable. I haven't had an audio cable for a few years now.

Win98SE does it too.

 

[Boonesmi]

if the software (program you use to play music) plays digital audio then you wont need the little cable... if the software plays analog then you will need it

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: Derango
Since Windows XP (and 2k if you enabled it), It's been grabbing the audio cd stuff as data over the IDE cable. I haven't had an audio cable for a few years now.

Win98SE does it too.

I wasn't aware of 98SE passing cd audio over IDE. IIRC Win ME was the first MS OS to do so.

 

[Boonesmi]

i still have a couple systems running win98 with windows media player 7. none of them have an analog cable, but all are able to do digital playback on audio cd's

with the exception of one of the systems, it has an old 4x cdrom and gives an error that the drive isnt capable of digital extraction at 1x


if i remember right if using windows media player 6 you have to change the default setting of "analog" so you dont need the analog cable. and any version earlier then 6 i dont think even has that option (but its been to long, im not sure i remember right)

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: Derango
Since Windows XP (and 2k if you enabled it), It's been grabbing the audio cd stuff as data over the IDE cable. I haven't had an audio cable for a few years now.

Win98SE does it too.

I wasn't aware of 98SE passing cd audio over IDE. IIRC Win ME was the first MS OS to do so.

Yep, it works fine with WMP and having the digital audio option checked in the device manager.