6860 digital output?

The audio control panel says there is some type of digital output?
Is it sharing the output headphone or microphone input? and how do I toggle it?

I've been playing around and haven't figured it out yet.

Note for others, if you want your microphone slot to work you got to go to Control Panel---->Audio control panel. Then at the 'jack' area, click the Microphone/Line-in icon and choose micropone (instead of 'Line-in'').

 

Digital input or output? Digital outs are through HDMI and SPDIF. I don't think there are any digital inputs.

 

I mean output. I can't figure where I should put my coaxial cord for my 5.1 speakers. It seems to be the headphone thingy, but I can't figure out how to toggle it to send the digital signal.

 

I think it's an optical mini-TOSlink connection so depending on your setup your will probably need a mini-TOSlink to TOSLINK cable which will run from your laptop to your amplifier. If you are running directly to some 5.1 speakers with a built in amp I hope they have an optical connection.

To enable it right click on the sound icon in your system tray -- click playback devices -- right click on SPDIF and set it to default.

 

havent tried the optical yet, because im too lazy for some reason t go buy one....

but now the hdmi digital output works when you plug it into your hdmi enabled lcd tv.

 

I don't see a slot for optical output though. So I'm assuming its sent via Coaxial cable through either the microphone or head[hone slots; just I can't toggle it.

 

it's different on some laptops. some use the headphone jack as an optical output.

 

or an external sound card as suggested in post#5 of
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=267459 ?

cheers ...

 

This laptop doesn't support 5.1 audio out. That is one thing people were complaining about. The only way to get digital audio is to buy an aftermarket Soundcard.

 

It supports 5.1 over HDMI and it also support 5.1 out of the optical mini-TOSlink connection in the headphone socket.

 

Sounds interesting; but I got no idea what you're saying! xD

mini-TOSlink connection in the headphone socket? You talking about using some type of socket-adapter used upon the headphone socket? My monitor doesn't carry over sound through the HDMI so I need the sound from another source.

 

A mini-TOSlink connector will just fit straight into the headphone socket. If you look very carefully you can see the optical transmitter at the end of the socket.

 

He is correct there is a very unknown solution that will fit, crazy as it sounds, into the headphone jack and actually sends optical signals to an adapter that is the same size. I myself use it for my Logitech Z-5500 speakers at this point but I will eventually buy an external solution since onboard just doesn't have what I want. However for most people it is enough so just enable it in control panel and buy a 4 dollar toslink to mini adapter on Amazon and your set to go. Hope this helps

 

he said "crazy unknown" lol

it's known and is used with most "not all" newer model laptops that have optical.

or you can get real creative and run it through an hdmi source and have top quality sound....

 

HDMI / SPDIF optical will both give identical quality of sound.

 

is spdif 5.1 or just stereo?

 

SPDIF has a maximum bandwidth of 25Mbps so theoretically it could even carry 7.1 HD audio formats (Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS-MA) but in practice HDCP restrictions do not allow this. Unfortunately the HDMI port is only v1.2 and v1.3 is required for HD audio passthrough. So the current maximum quality that either the HDMI or SPDIF can carry is 7.1 DTS-EX which runs at about 12Mbps.

It must be noted however that you will only get 5.1 or 7.1 sound when the original source is 5.1 or 7.1 such as DVD's or BluRay's. The soundcard chipset is only 2 channel so all of your games will have to be upsampled externally. Although just thinking about it there are some games with built in Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding which would work such as Mass Effect.

 

Anyone try this with the P68xx?!!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=257390&highlight=spdif

 

wow, good looking out on that info! i had no clue!

 

In playback devices -> Digital Audio Device (SPDIF) Properties -> Advanced -> Default formats, every format for the digital output appeard to be just 2 channel.

 

Yeah that's when the sound card is encoding the signal. If you have a 5.1/7.1 source such as DVD, HD-DVD or AC3 encoded video and output via SPDIF or HDMI your external receiver will receive full 5.1/7.1.