[mythtvnz] Break out audio from HDMI

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2014 19:54:22 +1200, you wrote:

>Oh what fun!!
>
>Just discovered (after owning it for some 9 years) that my theatre amp
>only switches the HDMI, it doesn't actually take the audio from it :(
>
>That means that of the several options for a frontend I've been looking
>at, they all have HDMI output and/or analog audio but no SPDIF.
>
>I can get a USB<->SPDIF device for $15 from China or a $35 HDMI breakout
>patch box from Amazon. Can anyone thing of alternatives since optical or
>coax digital audio seems quite scarce now with HDMI being so prevalent.
>
>Cheers

Lots of sound cards and motherboard audio has the SPDIF connector as
standard.  That is because the chipsets used for audio these days do
SPDIF by default, so why not connect the pins since they are there.  I
have it on the back of all of my modern PCs, and an optical one
(Toslink) hidden at the bottom of the headphone jack of my laptop.
Sometimes it is not available on the back but is still on the
motherboard internally.  So check for that first.

Failing an existing SPDIF or Toslink connector, then I would recommend
a USB SPDIF adapter.  There are some that are reputed to be very Linux
compatible, and quite cheap.  SPDIF gives you more options.

Another less good option is to use the SPDIF connector on the back of
your TV - many have one now.  That will likely only be stereo though.
I have that working for the rare occasions I need it.