[mickv31]

Hi,

I run XBMX frodo on my Linux PC and I connected the digital coaxial output of the audio card to my DAC magic plus (PCM only). Alsa is used.

I configured both "Audio output device" and "passthrough" to the same coaxial S/PDIF. It works.

But I wonder why I can control the volume of music played by XBMC with the XBMC volume functionnality. I would expect XBMC to decode a FLAC file to PCM and send this PCM signal to my DAC without transformation. But I guess the volume functionnality modifies the digital stream after FLAC decoding.

Can you confirm me that modifying PCM stream in order to change the volume is not lossless ?

Is it possible to configure XBMC in order to send the PCM decoded from the FLAC without any transformation to the digital output ?

Regards,
Mickaël

[jmarshall]

Yes, the volume control will change the volume. If you aren't changing the volume, it should be essentially lossless (there will likely be an s16 -> float -> s16 conversion along the way, but this is very likely lossless).