S/pdif Digital I/o (rca) ? Options

[Xajen]

Please Excuse me if i sound stupid when I ask, what is the deal with S/PDIF digital I/O (RCA), or S/PDIF in general?

Ie, Quality, Channels, etc...

For example, the Mbox from Digidesign offers S/PDIF digital I/O (RCA), how many seperate channels is that, can i assign each channel to record its own channel path?

Ie, hook up a 8 XLR input device that has S/PDIF digital I/O (RCA), route it to the Mbox and have the ability to record 8 seperate channels of pristien audio at the same time? Or is this just a pipe dream?


Xajen

[Xajen]

Ok, so it is a "bounce" port?

ie, it has a two track limit?

So if i had say a 16 (pick any number) mixer and went out of its Spdif (RCA to keep the example simple). It would "bounce all 16 tracks to 2 tracks on the mbox? And the quality would still be prisiten i am assuming?

Could the RCA or Optical spdif receive a input from a "line out L/R" from a mixer or a track out? (ie, XLR/quarter to Spdif)

What about the "Optical" versions vs. the RCA versions? whats the difference there other then the connection type and word description?

Thank you for your Help,
Xajen