[debianlinux]

I was recently gifted a Lenovo G530 which I promptly installed XBMCbuntu upon. While it appears the CPU/GPU of this machine are adequate for my media purposes there is a dearth of worthy media outputs on the machine.

My primary concern is with getting Dolby Digital sound passed to my receiver optically. My wife has a Turtle Beach USB audio adapter for her Windows machine which can pass Dolby Digital signals with the appropriate Windows driver but I am unaware of a Linux driver for this device. What device(s) capable of passing the Dolby Digital signals work with Linux and hopefully also play nicely with XBMC? The only remotely viable option I've run across is the Asus Xonar U3.

My secondary concern is that while I can run the VGA out to my flat panel it seems a possibly better alternative to alleviate both concerns might be a USB to HDMI device that should pass both digital AV in one cable. Linux support looks even sketchier in this realm of devices and I'd seriously question the ability of XBMC to play nicely but am interested to hear if anyone knows of specific devices known to work well for this purpose. I would seriously doubt that a USB 2.0 port has sufficient throughput to pass the HDMI video signal much less the additional digital audio signals.

TIA for any input...

[un1versal]

Audio in that version of XBMC is ok but nothing like now. Your likely to run into limitations/bugs/issues that wont be fixed in that version of xbmc. only by digging into old topics in forums, about audio setup.

You can upgrade your xbmc (via ppa see signature top link) and start working from there, since Newer XBMC has the new AE (audio engine) which is a total rewrite from old way.

I dont have a laptop or know anything about usb/hdmi adapters.

uNi

[debianlinux]

Wow, it is amazing; I am the only person reading this forum who has successfully used a USB audio device on a laptop loaded with XBMCbuntu!! /sarcasm

I pulled the aforementioned Turtle Beach USB device off my wife's laptop and plugged into this machine and started tinkering with it in XBMCbuntu for a couple hours before I thought to open XBMC where it "just worked" by selecting audio device to USB iec958 in the System-Audio settings. It passes Dolby Digital with no issues whatsoever. God forbid actually getting it fully setup and working under XBMCbuntu which is bereft of any useful tools for such a thing but it worked no problem under XBMC.

As for the secondary concern it appears a VGA/spdif to HDMI converter box does the trick for about $40USD.

[artrafael]

Wow, it is amazing; I am the only person reading this forum who has successfully used a USB audio device on a laptop loaded with XBMCbuntu!! /sarcasm

Of all the people who may have found and read this thread in the past 4 days (37 non-unique hits so far), that may well be true. Thanks for sharing your success story since it may help others who may be considering the USB audio option in the future.

[vbat99]

Wow, it is amazing; I am the only person reading this forum who has successfully used a USB audio device on a laptop loaded with XBMCbuntu!! /sarcasm

I pulled the aforementioned Turtle Beach USB device off my wife's laptop and plugged into this machine and started tinkering with it in XBMCbuntu for a couple hours before I thought to open XBMC where it "just worked" by selecting audio device to USB iec958 in the System-Audio settings. It passes Dolby Digital with no issues whatsoever. God forbid actually getting it fully setup and working under XBMCbuntu which is bereft of any useful tools for such a thing but it worked no problem under XBMC.

As for the secondary concern it appears a VGA/spdif to HDMI converter box does the trick for about $40USD.

Would you be talking about this Turtle Beach product? Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB adaptero

[vbat99]

Or what about something like this
6 Channel 5.1 Optical Audio Sound Card S/PDIF Exter 2012 USB

[debianlinux]

Wow, it is amazing; I am the only person reading this forum who has successfully used a USB audio device on a laptop loaded with XBMCbuntu!! /sarcasm

I pulled the aforementioned Turtle Beach USB device off my wife's laptop and plugged into this machine and started tinkering with it in XBMCbuntu for a couple hours before I thought to open XBMC where it "just worked" by selecting audio device to USB iec958 in the System-Audio settings. It passes Dolby Digital with no issues whatsoever. God forbid actually getting it fully setup and working under XBMCbuntu which is bereft of any useful tools for such a thing but it worked no problem under XBMC.

As for the secondary concern it appears a VGA/spdif to HDMI converter box does the trick for about $40USD.

Would you be talking about this Turtle Beach product? Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB adaptero

Yes, that one, TBS-1150.