Trying to understand interaction between onboard audio "codecs" and mp3 music

[BernardP]

Hi

I am confused as to how exactly integrated audio works on a motherboard. I currently have a Soundblaster 16 bit discrete audio card. I have always believed that when I play mp3 music in Winamp, it is the mp3 codec in Winamp that does the decoding, and that the only part of the audio card being used is the amplifier section. I also assume that WAV files are processed through the card's decoding circuitry.

Now, integrated audio is referred to as a "codec" too, for example "8 channel HD audio codec RealTek ALC880"
I don't understand what exactly this ALC880 codec is decoding. When music is played in Winamp on one of these integraded audio boards, what is the role, if any, of the onboard codec? To what kind of data stream is the onboard codec being applied? What does it do with WAV files? Is there a discrete amplifier stage? Does the onboard audio codec add an additionnal processing stage to the regular mp3 or WAV stream? Is there a qualitative difference in mp3 music when played through better quality onboard audio?

Thanks for explanations or links

 

[xtknight]

Different kind of codec. The onboard takes the PCM audio and converts it to analog for your speakers.

1. (from google) CODEC: an abbreviation for Coder-Decoder. It's an analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converter for translating the signals from the outside world to digital, and back again.
2. codec: an encoder and decoder for audio/video

 

[BernardP]

Thanks for the reply.

I know what a codec is...mp3 is a codec. divx is a codec. But is RealTek ALC880 (for example) really a codec?

Do you mean that Winamp converts mp3 to PCM audio? And then the ALC880 codec converts this PCM stream to analog?

So the bettter the PCM to analog codec, the better the sound quality?

Is this any different from what a discrete audio card is doing? is there also a "codec" at work in the card's circuitry?

These questions are probably very basic, I admit

 

[MercenaryForHire]

CODEC: an abbreviation for Coder-Decoder. It's an analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converter for translating the signals from the outside world to digital, and back again.

The key here is the A/D and D/A conversion. It's converting the digital signals (from the PCI bus / computer / etc) into analog sounds (that go out the line-level speaker outputs). That would make it a Codec by definition.

Cheers :beer:

- M4H

 

[BernardP]

For more details, maybe I should ask this question in the Highly Technical Forum. Not sure...