Stupid onboard sound question

[Voixdelion]

ASUS p4p800E-deluxe mobo has jumpers on the "front panel audio" connectors (and I don't have connectors that match them, but assume that LineoutR/L and BlineoutR/L will go to the + and - respectively for R/L?), but I would like to have the front headphone jack available if necessary without having to open the case again to fool with wiring. The manual says that "front panel line out and back panel line out cannot operate simultaneously" and I am wondering if this means
 
A) that I won't be able to use the back line out if I connect the front panel or if it means
 
B) that if I actually plug the headphones into the front panel that the line out in the rear will cease to produce sound and instead I will hear it through the headphones until I unplug them again, but otherwise I can leave the front connector attached and still use the rear jack if nothing is plugged into the front?
 
 
Anybody know? and all of it may be a moot point anyway if I use the optical spdif out, though, right?

[NAVIWORLDINC]

It actually depends on your drivers. For instance my Realtek HD codec/drivers for my onboard gigabyte board has an option to separate the front audio out from the rear, or let them both play the same audio, or mute the rear as the front is connected ect. Now here is the ****ty thing on my end, if I use digital out (through the rear) I have no ability to use my front audio out. In my case this is a problem because I use TOSLINK (rear) so I have no front audio. The problem also occurs if I use Digital Coaxial so don't think it is only a TOSLINK problem. If I want to use front audio I first go into my Realtek Contol panel or whatever, and disable digital out, switching it to analog, then my front audio works again...

Anyway, I might have not answered your question, but I hope I was able to give you some insite.

[Voixdelion]

Ahhh - All replies make much sense (especially with the discovery of something called "audio sensing" that ASUS supposedly employs).  The digital out problem will probably be something I contend with as well: the front out is analog for me too.  I can live with that though, since I can do driver juggling without  having to muck about in the innards of the thing once I finally get everything settled and wired up proper. (Its an aesthetics thing - this is my first case mod too so every cable counts on this one or I probably wouldn't mind so much. )


And the video thing I'm still working on... did get some additional info on that which I've been meaning to post too.  Might as well do it now...

[keyb_gr]

Make sure the audio cables have some half-decent shielding. In addition, signal grounds must not be connected to the chassis or among each other at the jacks (sometimes happens and may result in some of the "nicest" ground loops you'll ever see, or hear for that matter).

[whininggit]

There are two standards for front-panel audio; the old AC97 pinout and the newer Azalia (HD) pinout. I think most modern motherboards can use either but I've never bothered to connect it up so I'm not sure whether it detects the type automatically based on which pins are connected.

[Voixdelion]

Make sure the audio cables have some half-decent shielding. In addition, signal grounds must not be connected to the chassis or among each other at the jacks (sometimes happens and may result in some of the "nicest" ground loops you'll ever see, or hear for that matter).

!!!  actually the front panel cable has the r/l channel grounds as one and the pinout on the mobo has only one pin for analog ground signal anyway

[Voixdelion]

should be firing up the build in just a bit for the first time ... still got a few more cables to customize first (everything in this is likely going to stay put since the board is at the end of its upgrade path - anything after that will be from scratch, hopefully with the upper end stuff and some headroom for improvements.  Meanwhile though, this should improve my current computing situation dramatically considering I bought this VAIO back in '01 at the latest and everything in the new box is supposedly a good candidate for OC'ing - but I've yet to venture to that realm...)

I've been without my stereo system for too long now and I've got a nifty new (well, USED but new to me...) amp/receiver with more inputs than you can shake a stick at... I NEED to get this stuff together so I can get my groove back on...