What is S/PDIF input for CD audio?

[VBboy]

I was reading some reviews of the Hercules Gamer XP, but noticed that everyone complained about the "missing S/PDIF input for CD audio". What is that S/PDIF for, and is it really important to have it?

What are the benefits of having it, and what happens if I don't have it?
I always connected the CD-ROM drive to sound card using the regular CD audio cable..

 

[Killbat]

The problem with using the MPC2 cables is that your CD sound quality is at the mercy of
1) the dime-a-dozen DAC in the CDROM
2) the ADC of your sound card
3) the DAC of your sound card

With a digital cable, you cut out steps 1 and 2, 1 being the most damaging to sound quality.

 

[VBboy]

Does having that S/PDIF matter when watching DVDs with PowerDVD or another software?

Also, do I need the S/PDIF for better gaming (Quake3, Alice, etc)?

Thanks!!

 

[Frosty20]

The S/PDIF cable is a simple 2 conductor cable.

It works only when playing CD's not DVD's. DVD audio is encoded in MPEG2 as a PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS stream

No, you dont need it for better gaming, it is only used when playing a CD.

 

[VBboy]

Do you guys think I should return the Hercules Game Theater XP I just bought because it doesn't have the S/PDIF, and get a Phillips Acoustic Edge or another good card that does have the S/PDIF?

 

[Killbat]

Why don't you hax0r the SPDIF onto the card? It has SPDIF input on the break-out-box, right? That signal has to go somewhere on the card.

 

[Frosty20]

Two big thumbs up for the Phillips Acoustic Edge (IMHO)

 

[VBboy]

Frosty20,

I would be very interested in reading comparisons of the two cards (Herc Gamer XP vs. Acoustic Edge).. Do you have any linkez for me?

 

[VBboy]

So how much worse is CD music when heard over the regular CD audio cable as opposed the S/PDIF?

What about games that have an AUDIO SOUND TRACK? Do they sound worse with the regular CD audio cable?

Thanks in advance

 

[Killbat]

This problem applies to any audio CD track, music CD or game with CD music.

 

[Frosty20]

Linkage:

GamersDepot
Sharky Extreme
3DSoundSurge

 

[Kingofcomputer]

3 years ago, sb live already has that thing.
the sound come from digital-cd has lower volume than analog-cd for same volume level setting in the mixer, that makes people think that it's clearer than analog-cd.
they say digital-cd let you rip the cd digitally at the full speed of the cd-rom drive, not at the dae speed, but I haven't seen any program supports that. (Does anybody meet such program?)

 

[MrWhiteUK]

You can still have a digital connection form your drive to your card, there is an option in the device manager, under your CDROM drive called 'enable digital audio' what this does is send the digital stream to the card via the pci bus. The only problem is, are you using 2k? I'm not sure if it can be done in 9x, I think it can, anyone verify this?

Read this


Hope that helps.