Is there an economical way to convert SPDIF (RCA Digital) so as to input to Firewire interface port on a Soundblaster Audigy DE audio card ?.
The application concerned is to transport digital audio from a Roland 880 mixer/recorder to PC hard-drive for final DAW mastering and cd burning.
Transporting the stereo master in digital form from the PC hard-drive to a Tascam DA-20mkII Dat recorder (SPDIF input) would also be useful (mandatory really).
Is there a device for doing these functions ?. - (ie SPDIF to Firewire, and Firewire to SPDIF conversions).
Alternatively, is there a way to fit a SPDIF input/putput port to a standard PC ?.
Thanks, Eric.
The application concerned is to transport digital audio from a Roland 880 mixer/recorder to PC hard-drive for final DAW mastering and cd burning.
Transporting the stereo master in digital form from the PC hard-drive to a Tascam DA-20mkII Dat recorder (SPDIF input) would also be useful (mandatory really).
Is there a device for doing these functions ?. - (ie SPDIF to Firewire, and Firewire to SPDIF conversions).
Alternatively, is there a way to fit a SPDIF input/putput port to a standard PC ?.
Thanks, Eric.
I don't know if it does what you want it to but most (many at least) new motherboards actually have SP/DIF in/out on the motherboard and most new soundcards also like Audigy 2 if talking your family.
Hi, I do know that you can get USB audio devices which have digital inputs and outputs for use with a PC (haven't heard of any firewire ones yet though), but I am not to sure if they would fit into your description of economical. I have never herd of any way of converting the signal manualy, but I presume there must be some way of doing it out there. But if you don't want to replace your soundcard, and want to have a look at some of the devices I mentioned, I wiil go and have a look now for a place I used to know that sold them.
Right, I found the site again, the company is call RedSubmarine and you can find them Here . If you go into the osundcard sectoin and have a look for the 'Edirol UA-1D USB digital in/out', I think that will be the cheepest item they sell which will do what you want of it. I did see some Firewire devices, but they were rather pricy. Anyway, I'm not sure how much shipping would be on the stuff all the way down to you, but I'm sure you could do a google search if that is the sort of thing you are after.
Anyway, hope it is of some help.
Anyway, hope it is of some help.
There are a few inexpensive chips which include S/PDIF input/output capability. The C-Media CMI8738 will interface up to 24/48kHz, equivalent to the Audigy DE's recording rate. Soundcards based on this chip are usually very inexpensive - look around for the Zoltrix Nightingale. An equivalent card used to be sold at a local shop for $12USD.
A newer chip is the VIA Envy24HT, which will handle 24/192kHz input/output. The M-Audio Revolution is based on this chip and runs for under $100USD, but I haven't checked into how many of the Envy24HT's features are supported on this card for recording.
Both of the above chips will allow for digital input and output without resampling the signal.
Take care when using Creative parts. The company has a tendency to manufacture cards to the bare minimum that would allow marketing to make claims without being sued. The first Audigy is a good example - while 24/96kHz operation was a marketed feature, the card would accept 24/96 input, resample to 16/44.1 for DSP, and resample to 24/96 for output, to save on DSP costs (the Audigy2, at least, uses a DSP that can handle 24/96). An AWE64 Gold I have laying around here will resample all signals to 16/48kHz for digital output, including existing 16/48kHz files.
Fortunately, there are other manufacturers who do not play such games...
HTH,
Nikhil
A newer chip is the VIA Envy24HT, which will handle 24/192kHz input/output. The M-Audio Revolution is based on this chip and runs for under $100USD, but I haven't checked into how many of the Envy24HT's features are supported on this card for recording.
Both of the above chips will allow for digital input and output without resampling the signal.
Take care when using Creative parts. The company has a tendency to manufacture cards to the bare minimum that would allow marketing to make claims without being sued. The first Audigy is a good example - while 24/96kHz operation was a marketed feature, the card would accept 24/96 input, resample to 16/44.1 for DSP, and resample to 24/96 for output, to save on DSP costs (the Audigy2, at least, uses a DSP that can handle 24/96). An AWE64 Gold I have laying around here will resample all signals to 16/48kHz for digital output, including existing 16/48kHz files.
Fortunately, there are other manufacturers who do not play such games...
HTH,
Nikhil
the answer to your problem...
mrfeedback,
Your card has a "CD Digital In", which is meant to take the 2 pin jumper off the back of a standard CD-ROM. This is a SP-DIF interface. It's on the actual PCB of the card (meant to be connected internally like a normal analog CD audio cable), so it would only be accessible through your case... nonetheless, your card does have a SP-DIF input. You could use this as an "input" for recording from your Roland. You could just tap off those pins with some coax cable and run it to a blank slot plate on the back of your PC to a female RCA jack.
The Audigy DE does have a SP-DIF out (it's a multifunctional jack on the back of the card that can also be the analog output for the Center & Subwoofer channels in 6-channel mode). There is a setting in the driver properties for turning on the SP-DIF digital output. You would just need a 3.5mm to stereo RCA jack converter/adapter. I beleive it is the left channel (white) RCA connector on the output, but I'm not entirely sure. I use this method for outputting SP-DIF on my PC, and it works just fine.
Good luck -
mrfeedback,
Your card has a "CD Digital In", which is meant to take the 2 pin jumper off the back of a standard CD-ROM. This is a SP-DIF interface. It's on the actual PCB of the card (meant to be connected internally like a normal analog CD audio cable), so it would only be accessible through your case... nonetheless, your card does have a SP-DIF input. You could use this as an "input" for recording from your Roland. You could just tap off those pins with some coax cable and run it to a blank slot plate on the back of your PC to a female RCA jack.
The Audigy DE does have a SP-DIF out (it's a multifunctional jack on the back of the card that can also be the analog output for the Center & Subwoofer channels in 6-channel mode). There is a setting in the driver properties for turning on the SP-DIF digital output. You would just need a 3.5mm to stereo RCA jack converter/adapter. I beleive it is the left channel (white) RCA connector on the output, but I'm not entirely sure. I use this method for outputting SP-DIF on my PC, and it works just fine.
Good luck -
Hoontech Expansion
Thanks for all the advice everybody.
last night I found this Hoontech SB DB III expansion board , and today I found a local distributor with one in stock, so the problem will be solved in the next few days.
Thanks, Eric.
Thanks for all the advice everybody.
last night I found this Hoontech SB DB III expansion board , and today I found a local distributor with one in stock, so the problem will be solved in the next few days.
Thanks, Eric.
Attachments
Still, the subject of FireWire interfaces is intereting. Will FireWire be practical for the do-it-yourselfer? It is a very complicated protocol with expensive chips and lots of proprietary firmware.
jwb said:
Unless cheap single-chip solutions emerge that form a bridge between FireWire as used on commercial audio products and a much simpler audio data stream format, FW indeed will remain off-limits for audio DIYers and even for smaller audio manufacturers.
It took one of our engineers more than a year to master FW completely and build an in-house implementation that is operational at al levels of the protocol, using commercial phy and link chips.
They should have contemplated IEEE1355/SpaceWire, which is infinitely simpler and offers the same kind of datarates.
Attachments
Better Alternatives ?.
I asked the Firewire question because the SB Audigy DE has such a connector.
Now I have a native SPDIF solution which is easier and probably better in this application.
That said, I am interested to know more of the advantages of these other protocols.
Eric.
I asked the Firewire question because the SB Audigy DE has such a connector.
Now I have a native SPDIF solution which is easier and probably better in this application.
That said, I am interested to know more of the advantages of these other protocols.
Eric.
Eric,
Firewire would be interesting for your application if you needed to transfer data faster than realtime.
With the devices you are connecting, it seams more logical the
S-PDIF.
But keep in mind that Lives and Audigys ALWAYS resample to 48khz.
Put a cd player playing on your cd-rom, with digital extraction activated, and connect the digital out of your card to an HDCD-capable dac.
I did that test with my SB Live.
I never get HDCD.
That's the resampling the crappy SB live does.
Firewire would be interesting for your application if you needed to transfer data faster than realtime.
With the devices you are connecting, it seams more logical the
S-PDIF.
But keep in mind that Lives and Audigys ALWAYS resample to 48khz.
Put a cd player playing on your cd-rom, with digital extraction activated, and connect the digital out of your card to an HDCD-capable dac.
I did that test with my SB Live.
I never get HDCD.
That's the resampling the crappy SB live does.
Thanks for the info Werner. I too have been watching for a single-chip firewire solution. I like the isochronous transport and channel division of the protocol, but so far I have been unable to use these features except in software on a full-blown computer.
mrfeedback,
the following is a brief on 1394...as i understand it...thot might be worth sharing( i wonder if this is the right post for this..)...its not a defenitive reference but is an attempt to familiarise those keen, the underlying principle of the bus...and i call on the experts to correct me if i went wrong...🙂
After Going thru this u might get the magnitude of the issue that u have raised...and the complexities involved!
Its a totally diffferent approach at serial data transmission and varies wastly from the S/PDIFS and the I2S's
Ok...A brief intro to start with....1394 was introduced as firewire by apple...later on IEEE standardised this and is primarily intended at high quality high bandwidth mutlimedia content transmission...there are 2 standards 1394a which can achieve bitrates of 100,200,400mbps and 1394b much more advanced with proposed bitrates of upto 3200mbps...
The system uses 2 pairs of differential signalling for data transport...! In addition the cable may also carry power for some devices..!
The system is hot pluggable ...in the sense a device may be added or removed from a collection of devices without a wee bit of reconfiguration,....the network formed by the different devices reconfigures itself...!
Each device in the network is called a leaf node and after network configuration assumes the status of a child, a parent or something called an isochronous resourse manager...
Ok now, lets through a simple example, try to understand how it works when its all hooked together..... by a simple analogy..
people( representing leaf nodes) in a hall(nework) is our starting point..and our objective(application) a debate competetion..
(the brackets with the tech: specifiers points to the analogous terms...)
Assume we have a bunch of ppl (tech: leaf nodes) gathererd in a hall....we are going to start a debate contest on some topic.. say (tech: the reset state )...immediate next step is to divide the big group into participants and audience (isochronous nodes and asynchronous nodes coarsly....will discuss this in detail later... this is analogous to device identification and hierarchy grouping)....ppl start forming small groups by way of each one intimating another person and so on...so at the end of it we have say 1 person who had recieved invitations from say 4 different ppl...so this guy becomes a kind of leader ( tech: a parent node ) and all other 4 guys become his subordinates ..what is called (tech : leaf nodes or childs)...now since we dont have any moderator we need to chose one....To aid this all the leaders of the group start the intimation/voting process again...so at the end of this cycle we have identified a new set of higher level leaders and subordinates( Only among the leaders) ...suppose at the end of it we have two or more candidates for the moderator post what is done is similar to a toss ( Tech: Uses a randomly chosen time out value to select a node from these high level nodes to form what is called the "Isochronous resource manager.") Okay...now we have some kind of a hierarchy....a moderator, a set of group leaders, and a set of team members....This is the Tree structure of a 1394bus after configuration....(Tech Isochronous resourse manager, Parent nodes, Child nodes) ...Tree..!! i shud say Root..😉 ok u got a picture...) Now the very basic rules...!! to allow maximum participation what we do is we allow a stipulated time for the participants to speak ...each participant can speak only once and his maximum time is limited... After all the participants finish...we will have a question answer session by the audience...)
Ok before starting the debate lets look at one more aspect... We now find that there are two kinds of people the Isochronous ppl(Participants) and the Asynchronous ppl(audience) lets try to analyse their charecter...For all Isochronous people what is important is they just talk for a few minute on the topic ..they dont care if the others are listening or not....his idea is to talk ...and he cannot be interrupted and asked to repeat what he said....and no body even bothers to interrupt at the moment saying he is wrong...(Oh our system doesnt allow that...!.) so this is the character of an Isochronous device.. All that is important to an isochronous device is data be transmitted/recieved at proper time intervals and there is NO mechanism of resending data or error correcting it...the availbility of data is more important than its credibility...!
The second class of ppl the audience or the critiques....they catch u by the throat...they ask u a question...u give an answer ...if it doesnt satisfy them the question is rephrased and all until a satisfactory response....they form the asynchronous group...there is an elaborate handshake mechanism in place....!!Also in our system , to be fair, each person can ask one question and get it clarified, after which he is not allowed to raise a new question...this allows a kind of fairness in people getting chances to critique...
OK now lets start the debate...!
The bell rings and its chaos ...!! (tech: this is the start of an arbitration cycle)
Each team member if he is ready to talk lets know his leader abt the same....so if either the leader or any of the members in a team is ready to talk the leader raises his hand.....So out of the many raised hands the the moderator selects one....the selected goes to the podium and talks for the stipulated time....once he speaks his chance to speak again for the current session (until QA) is lost ....As soon as the first guy finishes the leaders who want the next chance raise their hands again ....so on until all the ppl WHO WANT TO SPEAK are done with...So if all of them dont speak we have some idle time...( for the fire to subside.) then starts the question answer sessions...by the audience....A person form the audience may raise atmost one question and try to get the best possible answer out when the participants respond to him.... Also in the above its quite possible that a person in the audince sitting in the front row gets a better chance to ask a question than a guy in the back row just because of his/her proximity to the action...!
And once all questions are done the cycle starts over again...!!that is the particpants start speaking one by one on newer points....
Tech:...to give some figures...bell starts...ie the isochronous arbitration window starts, extends for 125us...after this the asyncronous transactions start...this is a little bit more complex than the simple analogy above...! Also the chances of arbitration wins due to proximity also exist in the protocol...!
Looking Further ....
1394 is quite similar to a computer network ..for simplicity...its often defined as 3 layers...
a physical layer a link layer and a transaction layer...
the transaction layer implements the actual protocol...
link layer is a link between this software and the hardware section represented by the physical layer..
Link layer functionality include, handling the packets of data to be send on the physical link (say wires) items like header insertion, isochronous packet handling and stuff.
Link layer devices have been through three generations ..
the first cud interface to a 32 bit microcontroller as the host interface..
second generation interacted thru a PCI the and supported OHCI ...(open Host Controller Interface) meaning it provides a standard operating suystem interface to an application
and third actually aims at clubbing all the layers into one..(this is the one the DIY shud be eying i guess...but still that is not easily available)
The physical layer has the actual cables, the trancievers ..nosdes etc etc and of course the connecting wires (cables)
The four major users of this protocol lie under the broad catagories of digital video , mass storage , home networking and wireless..
Of this digital Video also handles all specs related to audio transmission and the works..
The biggest advantage being u can connect various kinds of devices like a Camcoders, DVD'd , printers etc without actually having a central host computer to control the functions. The real advantages of this lies in the flexibility that it allows in capturing ..say.. high defenition motion pictures into a hard disk recorder or providing multiple streams of video data for mixing etc etc..by just hooking 1394 capable devices to each other...
A large number of additional specifications have risen around digital audio and video...these include elements like camera/equipment control thru commands send over the bus, content protection, audio and music and video conferencing..!
Also defenetive specifications and control models have been developed for audio and superaudio CD with some flexible storage medium specifications.
Ok so basically if u have 1394 capable peripherals u can hook them all together and each device will automatically identify itself and assume the role its supposed to perform...no extra control software or dedicated PC required...The system is very flexible for example a simple operation of controlling all other devices on the bus may be done from the control pannel of just one device...the possibilities are innumerous....and last but not the least...an area of domestic audio which is going to benifit from this is MLP, if its going to gain popularity...a lossless packaging scheme developed by meridian for DVD A, but requires very high data rates of the order of 11 MBPS etc which the USB fails to accept...!
ajju
the following is a brief on 1394...as i understand it...thot might be worth sharing( i wonder if this is the right post for this..)...its not a defenitive reference but is an attempt to familiarise those keen, the underlying principle of the bus...and i call on the experts to correct me if i went wrong...🙂
After Going thru this u might get the magnitude of the issue that u have raised...and the complexities involved!
Its a totally diffferent approach at serial data transmission and varies wastly from the S/PDIFS and the I2S's
Ok...A brief intro to start with....1394 was introduced as firewire by apple...later on IEEE standardised this and is primarily intended at high quality high bandwidth mutlimedia content transmission...there are 2 standards 1394a which can achieve bitrates of 100,200,400mbps and 1394b much more advanced with proposed bitrates of upto 3200mbps...
The system uses 2 pairs of differential signalling for data transport...! In addition the cable may also carry power for some devices..!
The system is hot pluggable ...in the sense a device may be added or removed from a collection of devices without a wee bit of reconfiguration,....the network formed by the different devices reconfigures itself...!
Each device in the network is called a leaf node and after network configuration assumes the status of a child, a parent or something called an isochronous resourse manager...
Ok now, lets through a simple example, try to understand how it works when its all hooked together..... by a simple analogy..
people( representing leaf nodes) in a hall(nework) is our starting point..and our objective(application) a debate competetion..
(the brackets with the tech: specifiers points to the analogous terms...)
Assume we have a bunch of ppl (tech: leaf nodes) gathererd in a hall....we are going to start a debate contest on some topic.. say (tech: the reset state )...immediate next step is to divide the big group into participants and audience (isochronous nodes and asynchronous nodes coarsly....will discuss this in detail later... this is analogous to device identification and hierarchy grouping)....ppl start forming small groups by way of each one intimating another person and so on...so at the end of it we have say 1 person who had recieved invitations from say 4 different ppl...so this guy becomes a kind of leader ( tech: a parent node ) and all other 4 guys become his subordinates ..what is called (tech : leaf nodes or childs)...now since we dont have any moderator we need to chose one....To aid this all the leaders of the group start the intimation/voting process again...so at the end of this cycle we have identified a new set of higher level leaders and subordinates( Only among the leaders) ...suppose at the end of it we have two or more candidates for the moderator post what is done is similar to a toss ( Tech: Uses a randomly chosen time out value to select a node from these high level nodes to form what is called the "Isochronous resource manager.") Okay...now we have some kind of a hierarchy....a moderator, a set of group leaders, and a set of team members....This is the Tree structure of a 1394bus after configuration....(Tech Isochronous resourse manager, Parent nodes, Child nodes) ...Tree..!! i shud say Root..😉 ok u got a picture...) Now the very basic rules...!! to allow maximum participation what we do is we allow a stipulated time for the participants to speak ...each participant can speak only once and his maximum time is limited... After all the participants finish...we will have a question answer session by the audience...)
Ok before starting the debate lets look at one more aspect... We now find that there are two kinds of people the Isochronous ppl(Participants) and the Asynchronous ppl(audience) lets try to analyse their charecter...For all Isochronous people what is important is they just talk for a few minute on the topic ..they dont care if the others are listening or not....his idea is to talk ...and he cannot be interrupted and asked to repeat what he said....and no body even bothers to interrupt at the moment saying he is wrong...(Oh our system doesnt allow that...!.) so this is the character of an Isochronous device.. All that is important to an isochronous device is data be transmitted/recieved at proper time intervals and there is NO mechanism of resending data or error correcting it...the availbility of data is more important than its credibility...!
The second class of ppl the audience or the critiques....they catch u by the throat...they ask u a question...u give an answer ...if it doesnt satisfy them the question is rephrased and all until a satisfactory response....they form the asynchronous group...there is an elaborate handshake mechanism in place....!!Also in our system , to be fair, each person can ask one question and get it clarified, after which he is not allowed to raise a new question...this allows a kind of fairness in people getting chances to critique...
OK now lets start the debate...!
The bell rings and its chaos ...!! (tech: this is the start of an arbitration cycle)
Each team member if he is ready to talk lets know his leader abt the same....so if either the leader or any of the members in a team is ready to talk the leader raises his hand.....So out of the many raised hands the the moderator selects one....the selected goes to the podium and talks for the stipulated time....once he speaks his chance to speak again for the current session (until QA) is lost ....As soon as the first guy finishes the leaders who want the next chance raise their hands again ....so on until all the ppl WHO WANT TO SPEAK are done with...So if all of them dont speak we have some idle time...( for the fire to subside.) then starts the question answer sessions...by the audience....A person form the audience may raise atmost one question and try to get the best possible answer out when the participants respond to him.... Also in the above its quite possible that a person in the audince sitting in the front row gets a better chance to ask a question than a guy in the back row just because of his/her proximity to the action...!
And once all questions are done the cycle starts over again...!!that is the particpants start speaking one by one on newer points....
Tech:...to give some figures...bell starts...ie the isochronous arbitration window starts, extends for 125us...after this the asyncronous transactions start...this is a little bit more complex than the simple analogy above...! Also the chances of arbitration wins due to proximity also exist in the protocol...!
Looking Further ....
1394 is quite similar to a computer network ..for simplicity...its often defined as 3 layers...
a physical layer a link layer and a transaction layer...
the transaction layer implements the actual protocol...
link layer is a link between this software and the hardware section represented by the physical layer..
Link layer functionality include, handling the packets of data to be send on the physical link (say wires) items like header insertion, isochronous packet handling and stuff.
Link layer devices have been through three generations ..
the first cud interface to a 32 bit microcontroller as the host interface..
second generation interacted thru a PCI the and supported OHCI ...(open Host Controller Interface) meaning it provides a standard operating suystem interface to an application
and third actually aims at clubbing all the layers into one..(this is the one the DIY shud be eying i guess...but still that is not easily available)
The physical layer has the actual cables, the trancievers ..nosdes etc etc and of course the connecting wires (cables)
The four major users of this protocol lie under the broad catagories of digital video , mass storage , home networking and wireless..
Of this digital Video also handles all specs related to audio transmission and the works..
The biggest advantage being u can connect various kinds of devices like a Camcoders, DVD'd , printers etc without actually having a central host computer to control the functions. The real advantages of this lies in the flexibility that it allows in capturing ..say.. high defenition motion pictures into a hard disk recorder or providing multiple streams of video data for mixing etc etc..by just hooking 1394 capable devices to each other...
A large number of additional specifications have risen around digital audio and video...these include elements like camera/equipment control thru commands send over the bus, content protection, audio and music and video conferencing..!
Also defenetive specifications and control models have been developed for audio and superaudio CD with some flexible storage medium specifications.
Ok so basically if u have 1394 capable peripherals u can hook them all together and each device will automatically identify itself and assume the role its supposed to perform...no extra control software or dedicated PC required...The system is very flexible for example a simple operation of controlling all other devices on the bus may be done from the control pannel of just one device...the possibilities are innumerous....and last but not the least...an area of domestic audio which is going to benifit from this is MLP, if its going to gain popularity...a lossless packaging scheme developed by meridian for DVD A, but requires very high data rates of the order of 11 MBPS etc which the USB fails to accept...!
ajju
Firewire chip
Check out this suggestion by nuppe in the PC music player thread:
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tsb43cb43a.html
-Robert
Check out this suggestion by nuppe in the PC music player thread:
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tsb43cb43a.html
-Robert
Re: Firewire chip
Thanks Robert. I had a look but retreated, baffled. Sadly, I have to own up to the fact that if I lived to be 100 - or even 200 - I'd never command the expertise to make use of this myself. I noted the modest price (US$11.40 for quantities of 1K+).
I suppose that Island Digital employed the TI chip in their 'Spigot' connector concept (recalling that TI was associated with the press release announcing its development).
Do you think that there's any possibility that anyone will incorporate this chip into a consumer product enabling Firewire-spdif connectivity, given that MS presumably acquired the rights to 'Spigot' with the aim of forestalling any such thing? There must, surely, be quite a significant demand for such a connector?
Any theories as to what MS's game is?
RFScheer said:
Thanks Robert. I had a look but retreated, baffled. Sadly, I have to own up to the fact that if I lived to be 100 - or even 200 - I'd never command the expertise to make use of this myself. I noted the modest price (US$11.40 for quantities of 1K+).
I suppose that Island Digital employed the TI chip in their 'Spigot' connector concept (recalling that TI was associated with the press release announcing its development).
Do you think that there's any possibility that anyone will incorporate this chip into a consumer product enabling Firewire-spdif connectivity, given that MS presumably acquired the rights to 'Spigot' with the aim of forestalling any such thing? There must, surely, be quite a significant demand for such a connector?
Any theories as to what MS's game is?
I don't think we will ever see a simple 1394 to I2S/SPDIF interface chip ready to solder in (plug and play) for a number of reasons:
1. Copy control. The 1394 data is encrypted (requested by RIAA) so that you can't copy the precious DVD-A and SACD disks directly. If there was a single chip solution to get to the data then this would most surely violate the DMCA (in USA).
2. Industry control. Sony, Pioneer, Philips and the other big players like these complex interfaces because it creates a "higher cost of entry" to the market and keeps the small hi-fi companies out. Since Sony and friends are among TI's biggest customers, it is not in TI's interest to develop a chip that would remove this barrier. However TI is more than willing to refer to a third party vendor who would develop the necessary software for around $100k.
Sorry for the pessimistic post, I would love to be proven wrong.
On a positive note: Since this is DIY we are free to design better interfaces between transports and DACs ourselves, only problem is they will not be compatible with anything else out there.
1. Copy control. The 1394 data is encrypted (requested by RIAA) so that you can't copy the precious DVD-A and SACD disks directly. If there was a single chip solution to get to the data then this would most surely violate the DMCA (in USA).
2. Industry control. Sony, Pioneer, Philips and the other big players like these complex interfaces because it creates a "higher cost of entry" to the market and keeps the small hi-fi companies out. Since Sony and friends are among TI's biggest customers, it is not in TI's interest to develop a chip that would remove this barrier. However TI is more than willing to refer to a third party vendor who would develop the necessary software for around $100k.
Sorry for the pessimistic post, I would love to be proven wrong.
On a positive note: Since this is DIY we are free to design better interfaces between transports and DACs ourselves, only problem is they will not be compatible with anything else out there.
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