SPDIF What's it do?

[Wayniac]

I thought the digital audio output was only used to connect to a suitable socket on your motherboard (onboard sound) or your soundcard - with a view to just listening to music and hence getting a better sound.

When you record music data to a cd, doesn't it go through the IDE cable regardless of whether or not you've got a digital outpuit on your cd-rom? The same goes for grabbing music - it's done through the IDE cable, right?

However If I am wrong I'll stand corrected!

I think some of those digital cables are extremely over-priced when you consider you're only getting a couple of wires! :-)

Keep burning guys