How TO: Playing BluRay Discs on PC With HD Audio

[Portioli]

Introduction

There are several topics with questions about HD Audio using a PC as a Blu-Ray Player.
Most of the answers are "Which hardware" and "what software" is necessary.
According to Big Daddy`s AUdio Guide
there are 3 hd audio codecs and 3 types of connections.
Let's go through each one to see what our options are for building an HD Audio Capable HTPc:



1. Audio Bitstreaming: - The Pc sends the audio codecs in raw digital format to the receiver for decoding to LPCM and digital-to-analog conversion.


First of all you have to download your latest Video Card Driver
and then go to Windows control panel -->HArdWare & Sound --> Sound
In playback tab press right click on HDMI output and set it to Default.
Next choose your speaker configuration.

Appropriate HArdware For Bitstreaming:

GPUs with HDMI 1.3:

• AMD RADEON HD 5xxx/6xxx series
• Intel HD2000/HD3000 (these are Intel`s SandyBRidge - socket 1155 integrated graphics)
• nVIDIA GeForce GT(S/X) 4xx/5xx except 465/470/480/570/580/590

Appropriate Software for Bitstreaming:

• Αrcsoft TMT5 ($100)
  Go to AV center settings --> Audio Output
  SoundCard - AMD High Definition Audio Device
  Output Mode - HDMI
  Mixing Mode - Original Primary Audio only.
  
  Here is a screenshot of TMT5 settings:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Cybelink PowerDVD 11 - PVD11 is a commercial player alternative to TMT5 that also supports bitstreaming.
  
• MPC-HC with LAV Filtes - if you want to save some extra bucks
  
  MPC-HC latest stable release : (download)
  LAV Filters : (Author`s Site)
  
  Step 1:
  Download the lav filter folder from Author`s site and
  run as administrator (both) install_audio.bat & install_splitter.bat
  
  LAV Audio decoder settings for Bitstreaming:
  
  
  
  Step 2:
  
  You also need DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer - necessary to run the latest MPC HC (download)
  
  Step 3:
  
  download & install the latest MPC-HC
  you can also find betta releases of MPC from www.xvidvideo.ru or http://xhmikosr.1f0.de/
  
  MPC HomeCinema is the easiest media player to configure.
  
  Open MPC-HC, go to view --> options (or press O)
  
  All what you need are:
  
  - Options > Internal Filters > Source Filters: uncheck "Matroska" and "MPEG PS/TS/PVA", so that LAV Splitter is used for MKV, M2TS and MPLS.
  - Options > External Filters: LAV Audio Decoder and set it to "Prefer".
  
  Of course you can add any video decoder in External Filters as well and set it to Prefer if you want to use it.
  To play a BD disc, File > Open DVD and point to the drive.
  
  
  
  
  If you need more screenshots for configuring Lav audio in MPC-HC
  read this tutorial: Setting Up LAV Filters + MPC HC For All Your Splitter And Audio Needs
  

2. HTPC set to send LPCM: - If our receiver does not support HDMI 1.3 and cannot decode DTS-HD Master Audio/Dolby TrueHD,
our PC must do this


Appropriate HArdware For sending LPCM,
any full HDMI audio device:

• ATI Radeon HD 4xxx/5xxx/6xxx
• Intel G35, G45 and Arrandale/Clarkdale and newer (with proper mobo support)
• Nvidia 460GTX and lower 400 series, and their 500 series counterparts. Some older Nvidia integrated chipsets too, like the 9300, 9400, 8200, 8300.

We need the same software.

• Αrcsoft TMT5 ($100)
  Go to AV center settings --> Audio Output
  SoundCard - AMD High Definition Audio Device
  Output Mode - HDMI
  Mixing Mode - Mixed To PCM uncompressed Audio (this is the only change)
  
• MPC-HC with LAV Filtes
  
  Now the only change that we have to do is to uncheck the DTS-HD MA & DOlby TrueHD boxes.
  TrueHD decoding does not work when used in conjunction with the MPC-HC/Gabest MPEG Splitter so you must install LAV Splitter ,too.
  
  Unfortunately the DTS-HD MA cannot be decoded by free ds filters.
  LAV Audio supports using the ArcSoft DTS decoder, which allows decoding of full DTS-HD.
  Just drop the "dtsdecoderdll.dll" from the TMT3/5 Codecs directory into LAV Audio's directory, and enjoy.
  This only works on 32-bit!
  
  You will also need to change the Audio Renderer.
  You have to use WASAPI exclusive mode via ReClock to avoid Windows Audio Engine resampling audio streams without your permission.
  - Install ReClock .The latest version is found in the SlySoft forum.(Link)
  - Open Configuration. Audio Interfaces to use for PCM: WASAPI Exclusive. PCM Output Format: 24 bit int padded to 32 (this depends on the audio device).
  You do exactly the same settings in MPC-HC & LAV Audio.
  
  
  
  IF you want to read more infos about Reclock, Read this Reclock Tutorial
  

3. Multi-Channel Analog Connection to the Receiver/Processor, PC Set to Analog Output:

This type of connection is used for analog active pc speakers or AVRs without HDMi (spdiff cannot send uncompressed multichannel audio)
YOu only need a good analog sound card because both conversions (decoding Doby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA and digital-to-analog conversion) must be done inside the PC.
You open Windows 7 control panel --> HArdware & sound --> Your Analog sound card menu and you choose your speaker configuration & Default format.
Even onboard realtek`s sound cards support 6 channels of 24/192
I dont know any commercial BD software that send Multi-channel audio without downsampling.
Our only solution is to use MPC-HC with LAV Audio decoder and WASAPI exclusive mode via ReClock.