Digital Audio Port - HELP!!!

Not being to familiar with the optical adapters I am not sure how much help this will be. But something isnt adding up in my head about that adapter, it is to small to be converting an optical signal(Toslink) to digital electrical, or vice versa in my head. I would lean towards that adapter is not doing what you think it is, or want it to. The problem comes from the toslink being an optical signal, while the spdif is an electrical one, so converting them I wouldnt think to be a peice of cake. I purposely match up my equipment for that reason and havent had to bother with it before, personally I prefer the Toslink because there is less electrical interference being a optical connection but most pro audio stuff unfortunatly seems to prefer the S/PDif.

So yes I would lean towards your hunch is right, that connector is for converting a mini optical connection probably, not for converting a mini electrical connection to an optical connection.

In as far as a way to do it, I think it has been a while since I seen a standalone converter but I do believe they exist, they just arent worth the money though

Seablade

A sudden thought occured to me today thinking about this, and looking at your picture I cant tell for certain but it appears this is the case...

1. There is a hole at the end of the mini plug?
2. There is no seperation on the metal in that plug? This would mean no ground path, and 99.9 percent of the time, it would mean a non-electrical connection if it was the only connection involved...

So yes I am quite certain that it is your adapter that is causing the problems if the above is true. Unfortunatly to get what you need would probably cost quite a deal more money. Look around to see if you can find a S/PDif surround sound breakout into analog connections, that would probably be your cheapest way to go, though it wouldnt hurt to look for a s/pdif to toslink converter while you are at it.

Seablade

Ok I'm not sure if that helps you, BUT on that sound adapter
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/avcards/6e4f/
ThinkGeek :: Surround Sound USB Audio Adapter
It says it got an S/PDIF out and that it is optical AND digital (don't ask me what that's suppoused to mean. Also does the little Adapter look pretty close to yours so maybe you are not so far from the right thing

Digital IS optical...

There are 2 ways to carry out digital signal: either by a "normal" RCA jack (in which case the signal is electrically carried), either using a Toslink cable (in which case the signal is optically carried).

The setup pictured in the first figure is supposed to work. The adaptor just changes the connector from the normal square Toslink to a 1/8" round form, but does not in any way convert any signal. The path is still completely optical.

That being said, it is impossible for this setup to work if there is no red light coming out from the port on the Sager. As you righfully noted, there is light coming out when you are connecting your DVD... Thus, no light, no sound.

Note that getting digital sound out of a notebook can be tricky... You need an actual digital soundtrack (any DVD with a 5.1 dolby digital or DTS will do), but you also need a media player that will allow you to output digital sound (WMP and most DVD players bundled with the computers don't, but I am not sure about the players included with the Sager). On top of that, you have to make sure that the settings for your sound card allow for the S/PDIF port to be a "pass-through", so that the digital signal can get to your receiver...

In summary: must see the red light coming out first... your connectors are OK.

Hope that helps.

>Digital IS optical...

Err Optical CAN be digital, but is not always. In the case of Audio signal it is used digitally yes, at least at this current time.

And vice versa Digital signqal can be carried electronically, in the case of Audio it is done both Analog and Digital over electrical medium. You touched on this below....

>There are 2 ways to carry out digital signal: either by a "normal" RCA jack (in which case the signal is electrically carried), either using a Toslink cable (in which case the signal is optically carried).

This is where you started going wrong. And RCA jack is just like any other Coaxial jack. It has two conductors and carries signal via electricity. A Mini Jack(1/8") can be the same way, having two conductors and carrying a signal electroncally, be it digital or analog. It can also have three conductors, carrying a balanced signal, stereo signal, or two seperate signals via analog, or in digital it could still carry a digital signal. It could theoretcialy carry two digital signals like this, but I dont think anyone does this due, just not worth it.

>The setup pictured in the first figure is supposed to work. The adaptor just changes the connector from the normal square Toslink to a 1/8" round form, but does not in any way convert any signal. The path is still completely optical.

Nope. Coming out of the laptop I believe it is electrical, not optical. So using a toslink converter wont help him/her.

>That being said, it is impossible for this setup to work if there is no red light coming out from the port on the Sager. As you righfully noted, there is light coming out when you are connecting your DVD... Thus, no light, no sound.

Well that is definitly true

>Note that getting digital sound out of a notebook can be tricky... You need an actual digital soundtrack (any DVD with a 5.1 dolby digital or DTS will do), but you also need a media player that will allow you to output digital sound (WMP and most DVD players bundled with the computers don't, but I am not sure about the players included with the Sager). On top of that, you have to make sure that the settings for your sound card allow for the S/PDIF port to be a "pass-through", so that the digital signal can get to your receiver...

Actually most sound cards will put a stereo signal through an optical port just as well as they will a surround sound signal, it all depends on which port you tell it to be routed out of. Obviously putting a stereo signal out of it means that either some of your speakers wont work, or they will put out an identical signal to other speakers, so you arent taking full advantage of your system, but in a lot of cases that would be true anyways.

Seablade

OK, let me rephrase what I was trying to say before...

1- When speaking about audio connections, an optical connection using a Toslink cable is digital, right?

2- I got confused about the nature of the S/PDIF connector on the Sager... I thought that the port was optical, because I have rarely (if ever) seen a 1/8" port for an electrical digital out. I though electrical digital signal was always carried out on coaxial cable with RCA jacks...

3- For reference, my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Notebook has a 1/8" Digital Output, which is optical (and can be used for the headphones too!), which I use to connect my computer to my receiver via Toslink.

4- You are right about the fact that even if not digitally encoded, any media player will be able to at least output a stereo signal through the digital output. Thus, if the port was optical, then there should be light...

5- Which means that the port must be digital coax. In that case, Bootylactin needs to find a 1/8" MINI to Coax adaptor...

Sorry for the confusion.

>1- When speaking about audio connections, an optical connection using a Toslink cable is digital, right?

Yep, at these times anyways. The capabilities of it with analog though are something I hope someone eventually exploits cause it could throw analog audio well ahead of anywhere digital ever goes. Was just a personal thing that I corrected you on, not really important I will admit

>2- I got confused about the nature of the S/PDIF connector on the Sager... I thought that the port was optical, because I have rarely (if ever) seen a 1/8" port for an electrical digital out. I though electrical digital signal was always carried out on coaxial cable with RCA jacks...

More just for clarification sake, a digital signal can be sent over any medium that can be turned on or off. So pretty much anything that can carry electricity can carry a digital signal if you think about it, or really anything that can carry light, or any other number of mediums we havent even explored yet that I am not quick enough to think of But that goes much more into physics than most people need to know.

The short of the above though is that ANY cable can carry a digital signal, it is how well they can carry it the lends to why you see most on 75ohm coax, it just does better at higher frequencies(digital signals are much higher frequencies in terms of audio, than the analog signals) due to the impedance characteristics of the cable. Any cable can be used, just certain cables give you better results, of course losing 1 sample out of 44,100 every second probably wont be able to be told very easily

>3- For reference, my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Notebook has a 1/8" Digital Output, which is optical (and can be used for the headphones too!), which I use to connect my computer to my receiver via Toslink.

Yep, and you were completly correct had that been the case on this notebook. Unfortunatly this one had an 1/8" SPDif instead. I am in the opposite boat as you though, I see more of the electrical connections on a mini jack than I do the optical, its a shame because I like optical better.

>5- Which means that the port must be digital coax. In that case, Bootylactin needs to find a 1/8" MINI to Coax adaptor...
>This is correct, after all these threads I finally figured out exactly what you stated above. Unfortunately, it does me no good, as the receiver I'm connecting to doesn't accept a digital coax signal, only optical.

Did you look into convertors or breakout boxes at all? And if you did what was the price range on the breakout boxes, I kinda gotta look into that myself for a show I am designing at the moment

Seablade

seablade,

thanks for clearing all of this up... It is very much appreciated. And thank you for not flaming me in my moments of ignorance...

While doing some research yesterday, I found the following "Toslink to RCA Digital coax" box, for the price of 26$...



The web site is : link

And Bootylacin, to answer your question, yes I was refering to the PCMCIA version, and no, you don't need special headphones... The single port spits out the two signals continuously... The exact nature of the signal is dictated by how the soundcard is set up via software...

Cheers.

>seablade,
>thanks for clearing all of this up... It is very much appreciated. And thank you for not flaming me in my moments of ignorance...

Not a problem More than happy to teach a bit about sound to anyone that cares to listen, well as long as I have time at any rate

>While doing some research yesterday, I found the following "Toslink to RCA Digital coax" box, for the price of 26$...

Thanks, I need to keep that in mind myself, might have a use for it in about a month.

Seablade

>Avovan, thanks for the info on the Audigy card. One thing to note about the product you included above, I think it does the exact OPPOSITE of what I need. That box converts optical to coax. I need to go the other way The converters I've found that do this are $100+

Heh I didnt even notice that... good point. Ah well it was something at least

Seablade

OK! Last try...

This one is bidirectional!



After that... I give up!

80$...

You can find the link here