New Audio Edits: UD2 - Full 100% Audio outputs coming soon

[adamsmasher]

I had hoped that in the box for the UD2 would be the S/PDIF input bracket, but alas it was not. Why do you dash my dreams, Gigabyte?

 

[thelostswede]

No offence ectoplasmosis, but I don't think that's a great idea.

First of all you're voiding the motherboard warranty, but I guess you knew that already.
Secondly, you're going to run into problems with things certain ports, as when you extend the traces they might not work as intended, things like the Gigabit Ethernet port would be the most sensitive one I guess.

I just don't see the point of the mod you're trying to do and afaik no-one's tried the S/PDIF input as yet, so it's an unknown factor.

 

[ne0shell]

If he's using connection headers the soldering would be on a cable, the mobo wouldn't need any modification then, just an audio header cable or two. I don't see why you would need to remove anything from the mobo, even w/o the right headers you could simply take short cables, connect them to the mobo panel and then solder them to the G5 panel.

I'd look into modifying the fit of the expansion slot part of the case and move the mobo in to make room for the G-5 audio board before I'd try to hack a brand new mobo.

One modder on insanely rebuilt the audio connection section of his G-5 case so the mobo audio connectors match up.

 

[ectoplasmosis]

No offence ectoplasmosis, but I don't think that's a great idea.

First of all you're voiding the motherboard warranty, but I guess you knew that already.
Secondly, you're going to run into problems with things certain ports, as when you extend the traces they might not work as intended, things like the Gigabit Ethernet port would be the most sensitive one I guess.

I just don't see the point of the mod you're trying to do and afaik no-one's tried the S/PDIF input as yet, so it's an unknown factor.

I agree it might be a bad idea for someone with no electronics experience, although I'm comfortable with soldering and have done this exact same mod several times in the past (as part of making custom home theatre PC installations with relocated connector arrays).

Trace length is not an issue in this kind of scenario (in fact, no traces will be modified at all), the interfaces in question are designed with high tolerances in terms of cable resistance, hence the existence of USB extension cables, 100m GbE cable runs etc. The amount of extra resistance induced by the ~30mm extra wire soldered directly to the Gigabyte solder points won't make any difference.

Warranty is also not an issue for me.

The reason for doing this mod is simple; to end up with a system in a G5 case that looks immaculate inside and 100% stock from the outside, with all internal cables hidden and any unnecessary connectors removed... hence the desoldering and retaining the original G5 connector block.

 

[ne0shell]

It doesn't seem to be working on my board. I'm just getting a random, low noise form the digital input.

My rear panel line in and outs still work but everything is still labeled the same as it was with the old kext.

Oh - any my mobo has two digital ports on it - one optical and one coaxial. I don't know which one is supposed to be which but I'm hoping the optical one is the input.

 

[ne0shell]

I figured out part of the issue -

On my mobo both of the back panel connections for SPDIF are outputs. If I want to use the digital input I have to order a SPDIF bracket that connects to a mobo digital input header.

(Thanks to Giga for not including it w/ the mobo - now I have to spend over 20 bucks for this thing w/ shipping).

Attaching back panel audio diagram, legend and SPDIF bracket.

I'll have to test the analog I/O later but so far I don't see a way to switch between stereo and HD multi chan audio. Is it possible the 888 codec on my board needs further kext edits?

 

[tonymacx86]

I'll have to test the analog I/O later but so far I don't see a way to switch between stereo and HD multi chan audio. Is it possible the 888 codec on my board needs further kext edits?

Make sure you check out the /Applications/Utilities/Audio Midi Setup utility. There you can configure custom speaker setups.

 

[ne0shell]

I'll have to test the analog I/O later but so far I don't see a way to switch between stereo and HD multi chan audio. Is it possible the 888 codec on my board needs further kext edits?

Make sure you check out the /Applications/Utilities/Audio Midi Setup utility. There you can configure custom speaker setups.

I noticed it but I'm not set up for surround where the computer is located anyway, just wanted to verify everything is working. The multi channel speaker menu button only shows when you click on one of the speaker outputs in the audio / midi setup menu.

The SPDIF input cable and backplane came yesterday, just installed it and tested the optical digital input using my Xbox360. It's working fine. I did have to set the digital input to 48Hz and 2-chan/ 24bit resolution or the only signal heard was digital noise.

I have to use a utility called "line in" from rogue amoeba in order to hear my inputs through the system speakers / headphones. I believe this is an OS issue as the older Mac OS's still had the "pass through" option. That option shows up in my menus but is not usable.

What file can I edit in order to fix the "names" in my audio settings? Is this a kext file edit or can it be performed in my DSDT file?

 

[MacMan]

What file can I edit in order to fix the "names" in my audio settings? Is this a kext file edit or can it be performed in my DSDT file?

I am working on figuring that out as part of cleaning up audio support.

 

[humph]

Hi MacMan,

I just posted info regarding working digital and need for "Built-In" key in the call for testers thread, didn't see this one where all the activity seems to be until now...