Bug 286914

Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.7.2) 
OS:                Linux

It would be cool if phonon could be configured to pass (dts, ac3, and/or
multichannel PCM) through sdif/toslink/iec958.

In mplayer, this works with this:

> mplayer -ac hwac3,hwdts, -channels 6 -ao alsa:device=iec958 <dts/ac3 file to play>

For GStreamer:

There is a GStreamer plugin for sending AC3 over iec958...
[http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gst-plugins-ugly-plugins/html/gst-plugins-ugly-plugins-plugin-iec958.html]

But the following GStreamer bugs might also be relevant:

[https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=311423]
[http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/wiki/PlayBinPassthrough]
I'm not sure if phonon relies on playbin2. But if it does, passthrough could
be difficult to archive.


[https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=642731]
[https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=642730]
Both are about passing raw aac through iec958. So it is not exactly what I
asked for... (Well, my amplifier could hardware decode mp3, flac, ogg, and aac.
Hence support for this would be cool as well.)

For VLC:

The VLC GUI provides this feature as well. (Normal preferences: Audio -> 'Dolby Surround', All preferences: Audio -> 'Use s/dif if available').

There is also the KDE Bug 275135 requesting this feature on the (now unmaintained) xine backend. However, is not true any more that GStreamer and/or VLC do not provide this feature.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
This would be an enhancement. It is not available in phonon today.

Actual Results:  
No way to passthough raw digital data through s/pdif / IEC958. It seems that it is always stripped down to 2-channel PCM.

Expected Results:  
Option to enable passthrough raw digital data through s/pdif / IEC958.