17" PB Optical Inputs?

[PSS4]

Greetings, This is my first post. I'm about to buy a powerbook, and noticed that the new 17" comes with an optical input- for hooking up decks, CD players, instruments etc...I was wondering if anyone has used them and how do they work? For Instance if I hooked up a DAT player or an audio CD player, would the PB recognize the audio signal? And if so, how-on what program? i.e. could I import my DAT collection right onto the powerbook and then into iTunes? TIA