SPDIF and analog audio on the z510

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vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

SPDIF and analog audio on the z510

Post by vtailor »

SPDIF is only used nowadays for musicians' studio speaker systems, the kind with 90 watt speakers. I looked for a "home theater" system with spdif, couldn't find one. So then, I looked for an SPDIF to analog converter, and I was able to find and buy one of those. I also got suitable connecting cables to match the RCA inputs of my HDMI capable television set. So, the upshot of it all is that analog output from the pc-2i works, but no lipsync. SPDIF output via the converter works, both with the generic W7 driver and the compulab downloads driver with the patch in it, and it gives lipsync.

So, my z510 pc-2i setup includes a usb-wifi dongle with antenna to clear all the wires in back of my fit-pc2i and uses the SPDIF output to transmission line jack connector going into the SPDIF to analog converter.

And, with the EMGD video driver, I am getting choppy, but with motion, full-screen operation with lipsync and set on low-bandwidth streaming flash. In other words, the fit-pc2i suffers from the same limitations as AMD 350 laptops with the older Intel chipset and my very latest Ivybridge Intel desktop board which has the same tics and mannerisms as the pc-2i z510 until I went to pure HDMI, instead of dvi-d plus analog and stripped the system down to the basic W7 digital audio driver.

Someone at Compulab who plays with these things might want to experiment by routing the SPDIF into the dvi-d output to make it full HDMI. (Since monitors with dvi-d don't know the difference between HDMI and dvi-d anyway.) and by replacing the SPDIF output with analog audio driven by the SPDIF wires. (In other words, no SPDIF since noone uses it.) Same for the z530 version.

That way, the generic SPDIF driver in Windows 7 will take over the audio, without any need for the fussy Realtek audio with patch.

As for Linux, it has problems with SPDIF and/or HDMI output that are due to inadequacies in the alsa and/or oss driver.

vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

Re: SPDIF and analog audio on the z510

Post by vtailor »

One more thing: I think one of the problems with the fit-pc2 is the sound chip, which is a realtek 667 that does not quite handle switching from analog to digital mode easily, especially with the alsa drivers of Linux. I have a DN2700 desktop board with the gma3600 (close to the gma500) and a realtek 887 sound chip, and it does not have the clicking problems of the gma500 with realtek 667. I have also observed clicking problems with older Intel chipsets running AMD 350 and with an Ivybridge motherboard which appears to have the older realtek sound chip.

The "magic" gma500 resolutions are as follows: 1024x600, 1280x720, and 1360x766, there may be a few more. With these resolutions, depending on the monitor used, the EMGD graphics driver suddenly yields intense 3dgfx and noticeable video acceleration, compared with the "full" resolutions that people ordinarily expect to use. My nearly full motion streaming flash video was run at 1360x720 on an otherwise 1920x1024 monitor.

vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

Re: SPDIF and analog audio on the z510

Post by vtailor »

One thing to do until the dust settles:

A USB to analog audio dongle to bypass the internal analog and spdif audio entirely has several advantages: It is almost as fast as SPDIF without all the extra wires and the power supply. It shows 30% cpu utilization for streaming flash audio on the z510. Almost as good at lipsync compared to SPDIF. Built-in drivers available on both Windows and Linux. Excellent sound quality. And, wow, that gma500 3dgfx and colors, what a great chip.

Only problem is finding enough USB outlets to handle external wifi and occasional flash media usb sticks and DVD on the base model.

/etc/asound.conf for Linux:

pcm.MID { type hw; card MID; }
ctl.MID { type hw; card MID; }
pcm.Device { type hw; card Device; }
ctl.Device { type hw; card Device; }
pcm.!default pcm.Device
ctl.!default ctl.Device

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