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As a complete newbie on computers, I image the sound card as a sort of box. An input either analogical or digital (say from the microphone or a MP3 file) comes in, and somehow it outputs an analogical signal, that we can redirect to peripherals like headphones, speakers (built in or not) etc.

I imagine those output devices are responsible for the name 'built in analogue stereo'?

Digital Stereo (HDMI) is a piece of digital information going through the named cable?

Any help to clear this mess out will be appreciated.

mister nobody
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  • Does [Digital-to-analog converter - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital-to-analog_converter#Audio) answer your question? – DavidPostill Jun 05 '20 at 21:49
  • @DavidPostill could you add #Audio to the link so it points to the right section? Either way, it's rather difficult to understand :-( – mister nobody Jun 05 '20 at 21:54
  • @DavidPostill what does this mean `Video signals from a digital source, such as a computer,` for example? – mister nobody Jun 05 '20 at 21:56
  • A computer is digital so to process analog it uses a DAC to convert. – DavidPostill Jun 05 '20 at 21:56
  • @DavidPostill computer means processor in that sentence? – mister nobody Jun 05 '20 at 21:57
  • That applies to audio and video. – DavidPostill Jun 05 '20 at 21:57
  • It refers to the CPU and any other digital components in the computer (which is most of them). A DAC converter will usually be attached pretty much directly to an analog input (like a microphone socket). – DavidPostill Jun 05 '20 at 22:00
  • See @Pavel 's comment to one of the answers to https://superuser.com/questions/427554/is-it-possible-to-detect-the-previous-byte-position-on-a-hard-drive-after-it-has regarding "digital" signals that many people don't understand. The key concepts in using "digital" signals are modulation (for generation) and sampling (for retrieval). – sawdust Jun 05 '20 at 22:31

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The difference is simply where the processing is done.

All sound in your computer is digital. That's the only way a computer can handle sound.
All sound you can hear is analog, that's how it moves the air to make it audible.
Any analog sound coming into the computer is converted to digital. Any sound going out is converted back to analog.

Analog stereo has already been converted by your computer's sound chip, then via an analog amp, ready to connect to speakers/headphones.
Digital stereo [whether HDMI or any other method] is still digital & will be converted to analog by the receiving device.

Tetsujin
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