SPDIF What's it do?

I've noticed that every cd drive these days has a 2-pin "SPDIF" digital output socket as well as the old 4-pin analogue socket that you connect to your sound card. Has anyone ever tried connecting the "SPDIF" socket to their sound card?
Is it worth shopping around for the damn cable? ???

[SeTeC]

Yes. But I have a Soundblaster Live Platinum. It is worth if you want to record audio material on a audio CD. The noise level of the SPDIF (Sony Philips Digital InterFace) output is lower than the noise level of an analog output.
Hope that helps a bit.
M. Brice

[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