I'm looking for a weekend project and was going to attempt to install GNU\\Linux (hehe ) on my HTPC.
I'm pretty comfortable with all the stuff but after looking around Nvidia's site as well as the Xine mailing list where someone posted this question, I'm hung up on one issue:
Does anyone know if Nvidia's nforce driver supports AC3 pass-through?
Here's a link to the readme and I really don't see much of a mention of it. I don't _need_ the DD encoding, just pass-through of an AC3 stream out the SPDIF port.
If you aren't hell bent on putting something together and don't already have an nForce, it might be worth waiting for an nForce2. The specs look much better than the vanilla nForce. However, I haven't ben able to discern availablity time-frame yet either.
I've already got one (Abit NV7m.) I don't use the onboard video so I don't see the nForce 2 offering me anything hugely advantageous. I'm sure the bus, memory interface and such will be faster, but I don't have a huge need for that right now.
Not a linux guy, but you may want to check the MSI forum. I remember reading some threads in their concenring the linux drivers operating the network port. I believe they had the passthrough working..I THINK. Hard to remember and I lack the time to dig for you right this sec...I will try a little later
We can rule out the nForce for a Linux system since NVIDIA has not yet shown even a glimmer of support or released documentation for volunteer development.
That message refers to the 2.2 kernel, not 2.4. I'm not sure why Alan says it does not work in 2.4, since Nvidia's kernel drivers are clearly stated to be for the network and audio components. Lots of companies are not releasing their source code for drivers, this isn't exactly a novel thing.
The networking built into the chipset is not supported by either
system. Basically its windows computer
Which is patently not true if drivers supporting the audio, network and video are available. The Nvidia drivers also add the pci ids necessary to get the IDE controller working. This negates the followup post saying you need to run 2.5 kernel (unstable) to get it supported. These drivers are for RH 7.2 or Mandrake 8.1, both of which are the 2.4 kernel I believe?
OK, I have been interested in nforce if ever someone would come out with a micro/flex atx mobo. I am hoping MSI comes out a nForce-based NetPC, or a Shuttle would be even better
I take it you have been running Linux on your nForce system, and just don't have AC-3 pass thru? How well is the nForce running Linux working for you? Stable?
I have heard that Alsa has good support for AC-3 passthrough.
No I've yet to do it. I was thinking I would hold off on installing until I could find an answer to the AC3 question. If I can't get multichannel audio, I'm not going to bother trying it out.
Namlemez, you'll probably have to do some experimenting for yourself on this one. However, I kind of doubt the intel_8x0 driver that's used as the basis for the nforce audio chip will support S/PDIF passthrough. At least not without some modifications.
You might also want to test the lastest (cvs) alsa-driver which *might* have better support, but I kinda doubt it as it's probably just an open-source implementation of the nvidia driver.
If I were you, I would check the alsa-dev/user and mplayer-dev/user mail list archives. It also wouldn't hurt to check out the nvidia-linux forum.
Good luck and let us know what you find.
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