SPDIF_IO From Mother Board to Sound Card

I´ve got myself one of these (my motherboard is Asus):

http://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Cable-Bracket/dp/B003AV944Y

Be sure it supports your mobo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mshenay 

So I recently discoverd I have a spdif-_io on my mother board, my question is how the heck to I utilize it... I see that there's cables for it, but how can I set it up so that I can have a direct output to lets say an  Onkyo A-5VL

I would like to improve the quality of sound coming from my desktop but over and over I keep hearing "use Spdif Out" and my question is how? 

It sounds like you don't have the documentation to your motherboard which would explain how to make the connection. I'm assuming the "spdif-io on motherboard" you are referring to is a multipin male header. If you built the computer yourself, the motherboard box most probably came with a of metal S/pdif bracket similar to the one described by the link in the second post, eliminating the need to buy another bracket. You should also consider calling the motherboard manufacturer, if you can determine the make and model to see if they can send you the bracket you need. The bracket would have a wire with a female multipin connector at the end which would plug in to the keyed S/pdif header on your motherboard. You would insert the metal bracket into an open slot inside the rear of your computer case and screw it down. A male to male RCA 75 ohm digital cable would then connect between the female RCA on the computer bracket to your Onkyo's female RCA digital input. You would also have to check that your BIOS has the onboard audio (S/pdif) activated and that Windows Sound is setup correctly (assuming you are using Windows).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mshenay 
So I recently discoverd I have a spdif-_io on my mother board, my question is how the heck to I utilize it... I see that there's cables for it, but how can I set it up so that I can have a direct output to lets say an  Onkyo A-5VL

I would like to improve the quality of sound coming from my desktop but over and over I keep hearing "use Spdif Out" and my question is how? 

S/PDIF is optical and coaxial, and the Onkyo A-5VL has both inputs

What motherboard are you using?

If you do not have the printed manual for it, download it from the manufacturers website.

Make sure you have the latest version of your audio drivers/control panel installed.

In the Windows control panel> in the Sound subsection> in the playback tab, make sure S/PDIF is the default output.

Now in the audio control panel, there should be one or two options for S/PDIF output, DDL (Dolby Digital Live) which you do not want, the other setting should be PCM, which us what you do want.

PCM is uncompressed 2-channel audio, DDL can compress up to 7 channels of audio.

The Onkyo does not appear to to work with DDL and you only need 2-channels of audio