http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/audio/codecs/vt1828s/ 2 independent 16/24-bit S/PDIF TX Outputs supporting 16/20/24-bit, 48K/96K/44.1K/88.2KHz sample rate http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P7P55DE_PRO/#specifications - Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O do your motherboard have any onboard hdmi connector or internal spdif out header in addition to the coaxial spdif ? you may need to use hda-jack-retask to change the pin default of node 0x2d from HDMI to optical spdif out Node 0x0e [Audio Output] wcaps 0x611: Stereo Digital Control: name="IEC958 Playback Con Mask", index=0, device=0 Control: name="IEC958 Playback Pro Mask", index=0, device=0 Control: name="IEC958 Playback Default", index=0, device=0 Control: name="IEC958 Playback Switch", index=0, device=0 Control: name="IEC958 Default PCM Playback Switch", index=0, device=0 Device: name="VT1828S Digital", type="HDMI", device=3 Converter: stream=8, channel=0 Digital: Digital category: 0x0 IEC Coding Type: 0x0 PCM: rates [0x5e0]: 44100 48000 88200 96000 192000 bits [0xe]: 16 20 24 formats [0x1]: PCM Power states: D0 D1 D2 D3 Power: setting=D0, actual=D0 Node 0x0f [Audio Output] wcaps 0x611: Stereo Digital Converter: stream=8, channel=0 Digital: Digital category: 0x0 IEC Coding Type: 0x0 PCM: rates [0x5e0]: 44100 48000 88200 96000 192000 bits [0xe]: 16 20 24 formats [0x1]: PCM Power states: D0 D1 D2 D3 Power: setting=D0, actual=D0 Node 0x2d [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x400701: Stereo Digital Control: name="HDMI Phantom Jack", index=0, device=0 Pincap 0x00000090: OUT HDMI Pin Default 0x185600f0: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI Conn = Digital, Color = Unknown DefAssociation = 0xf, Sequence = 0x0 Pin-ctls: 0x40: OUT Power states: D0 D1 D2 D3 Power: setting=D0, actual=D0 Connection: 1 0x0e Node 0x2e [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x400701: Stereo Digital Control: name="SPDIF Phantom Jack", index=0, device=0 Pincap 0x00000010: OUT Pin Default 0x074411f0: [Jack] SPDIF Out at Ext Rear Panel Conn = RCA, Color = Black DefAssociation = 0xf, Sequence = 0x0 Misc = NO_PRESENCE Pin-ctls: 0x40: OUT Power states: D0 D1 D2 D3 Power: setting=D0, actual=D0 Connection: 1 0x0f post the pulseaudio verbose log https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log ports: analog-input-microphone-front: Front Microphone (priority 8500, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown) properties: device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone" analog-input-microphone-rear: Rear Microphone (priority 8200, latency offset 0 usec, available: no) properties: device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone" analog-input-linein: Line In (priority 8100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no) properties: analog-output: Analog Output (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown) properties: analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown) properties: device.icon_name = "audio-headphones" hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority 5900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown) properties: device.icon_name = "video-display" 0 sink input(s) available.