Hello all,
Forgive me if this is a recurring topic.
I'm completely new to Linux and have recently installed Jaunty Jackalope 64bit on this machine. So far I am enjoying it – it looks great, is smooth and responsive. There are a couple of quirks though, and while I usually relish problem solving as a good way of learning, there is one which is really hampering my enjoyment.
I'm using a Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R mobo, which uses Realtek's Azalia ALC889A codec. The problem is I am unable to get the multi channel pass through working properly. On VLC, for example, I have it set to use SPDIF and force detection, yet it will only pass through the front two L/R channels, regardless if the source contains more.
I know this is a Ubuntu 'thing' as it works fine in XP. Music and anything that's 2 channels works fine. I have ensured that the 'IEC958' box is ticked in the switches tab in the Alsa sound mixer as well. I have also set it to 6 channel output.
I'll add that I use SPDIF out to a receiver exclusively, and the receiver will, on the display, indicate which channels are being sent to it.
Oddly, I had the opposite problem when I had my old Audigy 2 card in the machine: I lost 2 channel PCM but the pass through for multi channel worked fine. I removed the Audigy because of it's 48khz resampling properties which the Realtek doesn't do, and after listening to music on both there was a very noticeable difference in the Realtek's favour.
I'd appreciate any help on this one, I've been doing some googlefu and this seems to be a fairly common occurrence, but as yet I've not found anything that I can understand or which works for me.