Trouble getting SPDIF to work in m SBLive!
 

Well, I really have this expensive setup and a dolby digital decoder, and I really hate to boot to windows to play my DVDs in 5.1 dolby... so...

I have Suse 8.0 and Mplayer 0.9, and ALSA 0.9

SBLive! is configured in Yast2 but whenever I try to enable hardware AC3 in mplayer, I get cracking sound.

I say:

mplayer -ac hwac3 -ao alsa9 -dvd 5

which tells it to use hwac3 (i.e. use SPDIF out) and use ALSA9 which supports this function and plays title 5 of the DVD.

I can't even get the software AC3 to work.

Any clues?

Thank you.

did you compile our SBLive support in the kernel??
I have SBLive, and all my DVD's, cd's, mp3's, etc...play without any problems. I have a doubly digital surround system in my apartment coming off my SBLive card, and I get beautiful sound.

I believe that the support is already compiled into the Kernel in Suse 8.0, I have no problems with getting the sound out of my SPDIF to my digital decoder to play CDs, MP3..etc, I have problems playing 5.1 AC3.

I've got 5 speakers laying around, and only two of them are utilized!

yeah, but you need to have physical connection to the other 3 speakers. What are your connections like??? The SBLive card only has 2 speaker holes. Front and Back.
My setup is, I have an output cable connected to the Front sound Hole of the card, which has RCF connection on the other side, which is plugged into my Receiver. Then, off the receiver I have my badass Subwoofer, and other 5 speakers around my living room. So, 5.1 doubly digital, works great!

oh, well, I have an external Panasonic Dolby Digital decoder, the SPDIF output is connected to the decoder via an optical cable, and then the external decoder is connected to the 5 speakers.

The SPDIF is working okay but I can't get Mplayer to play any DVD of VOBs in 5.1 AC3.

When I try to do that, I just get very annoying cracking sound. Maybe I should post this problem to their mailing list.

Does SBLive! not have built-in Dolby digital decoder?

My SB Audigy2 Platinum rules all under Linux with ALSA drivers. I honestly think Dolby 5.1 sounds better with MPlayer under Linux than with PowerDVD 5 in Winblows. I am surprised. I'm anxious to get the full 7.1 surround-sound up and running.

Are you using ALSA? If not, I would suggest using it. Try recompiling a kernel with just basic soundcard support (no drivers for cards) and then compile ALSA specifically for your card.