<P> S / PDIF (Sony / Philips Digital Interface) is a type of digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment to output audio over reasonably short distances . The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fibre optic cable with TOSLINK connectors . S / PDIF interconnects components in home theatres and other digital high - fidelity systems . </P> <P> S / PDIF is based on the AES3 interconnect standard . S / PDIF can carry two channels of uncompressed PCM audio or compressed 5.1 / 7.1 surround sound (such as DTS audio codec); it cannot support lossless formats (other than 2ch LPCM) such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS - HD Master Audio, that require greater bandwidth like that available with HDMI or DisplayPort . </P> <P> S / PDIF is a data link layer protocol as well as a set of physical layer specifications for carrying digital audio signals between devices and components over either optical or electrical cable . The name stands for Sony / Philips Digital Interconnect Format but is also known as Sony / Philips Digital Interface . Sony and Philips were the primary designers of S / PDIF . S / PDIF is standardized in IEC 60958 as IEC 60958 type II (IEC 958 before 1998). </P>

How many channels of audio can spdif carry