Q <raid517@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >But 'piping sound out via any other audio capable cable' isn't really >the answer I was hoping for. SPDIF passthrough - and digital sound in >general - to an external dolby digital amplifier is a whole different >kettle of fish than that, as it involves a considerable amount of post >processing power on behalf of the digital amplifier. There is no true >5.1 (or indeed 7.1) audio playback - and subsequent channel >seperation/decoding without some direct form of digital link. Without Firewire and USB are pretty digital. Firewire can cart about huge amounts of information accurately and precisely. {DVD sound, video, etc...} Both of them are capable of network connections. >this all you get is a kind of dumb (literally) analoge reproduction of >whatever the soundcard throws at it. There is no 'intelligent' Straight network cables can manage to convey information fairly accurately. It seems to me that your "digital" connect is only a conduit for information that's encoded and decoded at either end. I'd think the "intelligence" to be an attribute attributable to the server and client. >processing at all. Your external amp *is* doing the processing. >But it does make me wonder... If Redhat could do it, then surely there I'm quite sure it's possible.