VT1618 codec on EN15000 board: Is Dolby possible?

[novorado]

Dear All,

I am nearly (void *)0 in car audio, just picked up some basisc, like 6- 8- channels
(5.1, 6.1, 7.1 definitions). So thanks for your time in advance.

What I need - use EN15000, better sound, less installation time, less $;
So I am primarily interested in practicality of getting surround sound on
EN15000 under Linux. One of the reasons - I want this card to properly balance stereo mp3 / avi files sound (+which may also have 5.1), play DVD's,
in the car.

Spec for VT1618 codec used in En15000 board

Key Features are:
» 8-channel audio outputs
» 20-bit/96kHZ analog support for leading audio fidelity
» 16-bit/96kHZ digital I/Os
» Integrated high quality Headphone Amplifier
» Sixth-Sense™ Jack Detection

Silly and funny question: is it good or bad, technically (suppose that PCB EM design is clean low-noise, which I can only find out by experiment).

Board only has 3 stereo jacks on the back side and no guide shipped with motherboard.
Q1: How to physically enable 8-channel sound, ie how to plug into stereo jacks?
Q2: Is it possible to get Surround sound throw S/PDIF output ?
Q3: Q1 and Q2 on linux - anyone done it?
Q4: Quality of sound - see red - is it worth buying PXA-H701 bundle to try it with?

[novorado]

Adding some links from VIA Arena for future tracking:

Hissing Noise from SPDIF on EN15000

EPIA EN High Pitch Sound

How do I get full support for the VT1618 audio chip on LINUX (EN12000)

[rijndael]

Red would definately be more capable of answering this than I will....but my answers are:

A1: those jacks (Green, Blue, and Pink/Red) are for Green: analog output stereo sound. Blue: i forget. Pink/Red: Microphone in. You will need a "virtual Speaker Emulator" like the one they use in the 2.1 channel version of Power DVD.

A2: Yes, and that is the prefered method, since digital is much better for signal integrity.

A3: There are quite a few things that i have seen floating around, but not with an onboard sound solution...try google.

A4: This is where Red would be very handy, as I just got my H701 in the mail 2 days ago and have yet to install it. but i would have to say that you are much better off getting a new sound card (X-Fi, Merridian 7.1 or the like) to get the most out of it...

[b10hazard]

Green usualy means line out, and sometimes amplified headphone out (should be black)

Blue is Line in

pink/red is Mic in (NOT the same as line in)

Now, that is the standard color code, but many sound cards, and I believe, the via boards, have the ability to change the use of the jacks, line out becomes fount out, line in becomes rear out, and mic becomes center/sub out (I may have those mixed up), look in the motherboard manuals for specifics.

As far as surround sound in linux, your best bet would be to use digital out, and use a surround sound decoder/amp. Install xine (only one that does DVD menus, and just does a great job overall) and in the preferences, under the audio tab and output subtab, change speaker arrangement to "pass through". this will pass all the audio to your decoder threw the digital connection

[novorado]

Thanks for your replies guys, it more or less helped to understand the picture.
I've visited viaarena also and downloaded Vynil codec pack; it was shipped with GUI application also, pretty much self-explanatory. I've attached Dolby 5.1 6-channel PC speakers setup, and found quality of Dolby digital sound on some HDTV movie, and also surround-sound for mp3 quite acceptable.
It actually has okay mixing capabilities. Some screen shots:

[novorado]

As stated in this handy carpc project page, VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC Audio AC' 97 codec is working on Linux; This is my ultimate goal to make 5.1 work on kernels 2.6.+
There are definitely 5.1 Linux drivers for 5.1 available for the mother board EN15000 , which has VT8237R south bridge supported by Vinyl Linux drivers. Could not make it work yet though, installation trouble. Anyone has?
I'll be off line for next 10 days.