compression with surround isn’t really the issue. it’s that the newer dolby/DTS stuff needs more bandwidth. imo, 2.1 is more than enough for 95% of pc users.
That’s disappointing, as one of the advantages of SPDIF is no ground loops between the PC and the receiver/amp. Maybe that’s not really as much of a problem now, but it solved that for me years ago and I’ve used it ever since.
Then again, I don’t have a surround setup, simple stereo is good enough.
I still have a sound card, because I have a stupid sound bar that works great except it only takes optical audio input.
Your mobo doesn’t have optical? I thought that’s pretty standard on everything except basic models.
Surprisingly, it’s not even on some high-end boards.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X670-AORUS-ELITE-AX-rev-10-12/
wait… the specs say 7.1 audio… but it only has stereo out?
Oh that is hilariously scummy. It’s probably 7.1 through HDMI…
I think SPDIF is being phased out because it needs to use compression to do surround sound.
compression with surround isn’t really the issue. it’s that the newer dolby/DTS stuff needs more bandwidth. imo, 2.1 is more than enough for 95% of pc users.
That’s disappointing, as one of the advantages of SPDIF is no ground loops between the PC and the receiver/amp. Maybe that’s not really as much of a problem now, but it solved that for me years ago and I’ve used it ever since.
Then again, I don’t have a surround setup, simple stereo is good enough.