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Hardware Browser

June 3, 2003
Grounding a Cubid 26xx case

May 23, 2003
DivX 3 on XCards

March 12, 2003
EPIA Overclocking

March 4, 2003
EPIA Digital 5.1 Audio

EPIA 800 IR on COM

EPIA Video/Audio to SCART

January 26, 2003
Chyang Fun E-Note Review

January 6, 2003
EPIA M BIOS

January 4, 2003
Lian Li PC-402A Review

December 18, 2002
Morex Cubid 2699 due in 2003

November 13, 2002
FIR/CIR info

November 4, 2002
Netbox Cubit Review

October 26, 2002
Mini-ITX BIOS updated

October 17, 2002
Netbox launch the "CUBIT"

October 12, 2002
Jetway B860T Review

October 9, 2002
RealMagic XCard Review

October 8, 2002
EPIA-M Specifications

October 6, 2002
New cases from Casetek

Mini-ITX BIOS update

October 3, 2002
Morex Cubid 2688R Review

September 24, 2002
More EPIA-M pix

September 18, 2002
EPIA-M spy pic

September 17, 2002
EPIA-M - more details

August 30, 2002
EPIA M to debut in October

August 28, 2002
Lucky Star's LIVE 2000F

FAQ update

August 27, 2002
Mini-ITX BIOS updated

August 22, 2002
Chyang Fun!

August 21, 2002
Bona announces LIGHT barebones system

August 17, 2002
Morex Cubid 2677R Review

August 15, 2002
Mini-ITX BIOS updated

Why the CNPS6100-AlCu won't fit an EPIA 800

Suppliers and Cases lists updated

August 9, 2002
G-Alantic 610i Review

August 8, 2002
Morex add 2688 case to range

July 25, 2002
PowerLCD goes Final

July 21, 2002
Connecting 2 additional USB ports to VIA EPIA MBs

July 12, 2002
Mini-ITX BIOS updated

July 9, 2002
Mini-ITX suppliers list updated

July 3, 2002
Lucky Star enter Mini-ITX market

June 28, 2002
SilentPCReview Survey

Mini-ITX suppliers list moved

June 24, 2002
Traverse MicroServa 500

June 22, 2002
ZM-NB32J & EPIA-800 mod - Zalman speaks

June 19, 2002
G-Alantic gears up for mass production

June 14, 2002
Mini-ITX manual, diagrams and a new mainboard specification white paper

June 10, 2002
Mini-ITX cases thin on the ground, future looks promising

Cubit 2677

QBox/Checkercube


Step by Step: EPIA 5.1 Digital Audio
Posted on March 4, 2003

The EPIA 5000 and 800 motherboards come with a dual purpose RCA Out and S/PDIF socket which can be used to play AC3 5.1 digital audio to a standard Dolby Digital amplifier. Increasingly, DivX and XviD encoded content is provided with AC3 sound. Here's how to get digital sound out of those DivXes and into your amplifier using just a standard phono cable.

1. Enable the RCA / S/PDIF selection jumper J11 on your motherboard to connect pins 3 and 4. This is what it should look like (it's the blue bit):


2. Make sure you have a video codec installed. In most cases this will be from http://www.divx.com.

3. Install the latest version of the open source AC3 filter from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ac3filter

4. Once installed, select the "Use Waveout (Reboot Required)" from the AC3Filter program group.

5. Reboot.

6. Open the control panel and view it in classic mode. Double-click the "AC3 Filter" icon.

7. In the Output section, Choose S/PDIF (the very last option) in the Speakers pull-down menu. Select OK.


(click image to enlarge)

8. Double-click the Speaker icon on the taskbar, if you have one. If you dont have one, enable it in the "Sounds and Audio Devices" section of the control panel - then go back to this step.

9. Click on "Advanced".

10. Ensure "S/PDIF-Out Enable" is checked.

11. Connect a phono cable between your EPIA and your amp. From here:

Into here... On our amp we used the CD Digital Input.

12. Load up your favourite AC3-enabled DivX player, and marvel at the splendour of 5.1 digital sound coming from your EPIA...

AC3-enabled DivX players

Remember that your media player needs to be able to support AC3. You will get sound from other applications - but unless they are AC3 enabled, you may get strange results.

Some AC3-enabled DivX players: The Core Media Player (previously known as PowerDivX), KoalaPlayer and BSPlayer. Here's a very long list of media playback sotware.



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