Windows 7 and SPDIF audio

Question

I have a P8Z77 Pro motherboard, and I'm trying to use the SPDIF audio jack to connect to a Home Theather. I have the Realtek HD Audio Manager installed from the motherboard, but I can't get it (or Windows) to detect that I connected the cable. This program detects any other cable connect fine, but not this SPDIF one. Or if I go Sounds -> Playback Devices in Windows, there's no information at all about this SPDIF, only the HDMI and Speakers.

How can I figure what is the issue (if it's the cable or the motherboard)?

Is this SPDIF connection supposed to be just plug and play?

Answer 1

Windows has no way to detect you attached the cable. RCAs don't have a sensor switch like mini-jacks.

You need to switch your default device to S/PDIF in the CP. If it doesn't appear at all, that may be a driver/hardware recognition issue rather than cabling.

However, S/PDIF is not very good at transmitting 5.1, you end up with a double-decode - if you have analog outs [5 or 7.1] that would be better, sonically. [You can safely ignore the 'extra' 2 channels that make up 7.1 as they're almost always artificially decoded from the other 4 surround channels anyway.]

Also, make sure you have the better Realtek CP directly from their site - High Definition Audio Codecs, it contains a lot more settings than the one you get from Microsoft, global EQ, individual channel balancing, time delays per speaker etc.