[Alsa-user] spdif through line out on Lex light barebone

[jpgygax <gy...@pr...>]

Hi,

After having tried for a solid day, I have to concede defeat and must 
call for tech support. My problem is this:

I have a Lex "light" fanless barebone box, based on a VIA chipset. I was 
able to get standard sound output easily enough (after correcting some 
stupid mistakes on my part, that is). Problem is, the stereo jack output 
of this box is low-quality, meaning it picks up some very noticeable 
50Hz noise, so I wanted to move up a level and use spdif, for which my 
amplifier conveniently has both optical and coaxial inputs.

However, no matter what I try, I cannot make my line out produce 
anything else than standard stereo output. (For the longest time, I 
suspected a problem in my amplifier's setup, until I hooked a headset to 
the output and heard the music.)

lspci identifies the chip as:

  00:07.5 "Multimedia audio controller" "VIA Technologies, Inc." "AC97 
Audio Controller" -r50 "VIA Technologies, Inc." "AC97 Audio Controller"

and I'm using the snd-via82xx driver, version 1.0.6a. The lib is version 
1.0.6 (there doesn't seem to be an "a" revision).

To test, I'm using MPlayer - most recent release candidate -, using the 
following command line:

  mplayer -ao alsa:device=spdif Track01.mp3

The strange thing is that alsa seems to understand what I ask of it, 
because mplayer says:

  alsa-init: soundcard set to spdif

before it starts.

If anybody can point me in the right direction, I'd be very thankful indeed!

-- Jean-Pierre Gygax