Is there a way to get dtruehd and dts master audio running thru your pc?

[prerich]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

The DVI you use is DVI-D or DVI-I, that is digital only or digital/analog combo, respectively. It doesn't use all the pins that the DVI connector allows. I'm assuming that the ATI video cards have female DVI connectors that have the DVI-D / DVI-I pins as well as the unused pins. The unused ones are used for the audio. The DVI/HDMI adpater is also special with these unused pins. they are connected to the corresponding HDMI pins so that you can have video and audio through HDMI.

What I don't understand is how you are able to get full LPCM with the ATI cards. Don't they use a SPDIF cable to connect to your audio card? I thought that you couldn't us SPDIF for LPCM, DTS-HD MA, or Dolby TrueHD.

No - they dont. Neiter does the Nvidia 9300/9400 and 8200/8300 series motherboards. The Intel G45 chipset also delivers 8 channel LPCM. ATI,Nvidia nor Intel will bitstream - they take the converted DTS HD MA or TrueHD signal and deliver it as LPCM like the PS3 via the HDMI cable. If you use the analog cables - its still lossless - It does all of the steps in the PC and sends it out over the 7.1 cables - like a Standalone with 7.1 analog-outs - HTPC is a big learning curb for the novice - but great for the experienced user

[prerich]

Originally Posted by SpoonMaN

nope, they have an onboard realtek audio chip that does all of the work.
as of the 9x00 cards nvidia uses a spdif connector to get audio through their dvi-hdmi adaptors but ati has no need for the spdif adaptor. however its not some highend x-fi card it is more like the onboard chips used on most motherboards. still it does work rather well

The Nvidia cards use the Spdif - but the motherboards don't (I'm wondering why the don't put that technology into their video cards? If ATI didn't have the problems with Yamaha I would have went that route - but alas - I'm not a real gamer so using the 9300 8channel LPCM board with a 8500gt video card for video boost - is working fine - one cable to my receiver - the HDMI - and I get LPCM 5.1 and 7.1 at a 192khz sampling rate.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

I'm personally waiting for the Asus Xonar HDAV Slim card. But it's good to know about all the options!

That will work too

[tlmaclennan]

Wait, I'm confussed? I wasn't saying that they bitstream over HDMI, just that the audio is sent over the HDMI cable as LPCM. I know that if I use analog cables it can still be lossless too...I am doing that right now. But it is with my onboard HD audio.

I would like to eventually bitstream with the Asus slim card.

[BLindsay]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

The DVI you use is DVI-D or DVI-I, that is digital only or digital/analog combo, respectively. It doesn't use all the pins that the DVI connector allows. I'm assuming that the ATI video cards have female DVI connectors that have the DVI-D / DVI-I pins as well as the unused pins. The unused ones are used for the audio. The DVI/HDMI adpater is also special with these unused pins. they are connected to the corresponding HDMI pins so that you can have video and audio through HDMI.

What I don't understand is how you are able to get full LPCM with the ATI cards. Don't they use a SPDIF cable to connect to your audio card? I thought that you couldn't us SPDIF for LPCM, DTS-HD MA, or Dolby TrueHD.

to be honest its the first card ive had that can do it and i havent really read into it that much

but, the ATI card shows up as its own sound device in my control panel, and it is not linked with any cable to my onboard sound at all, so no SPDIF cable is used

[tlmaclennan]

Yea, I didn't do my research. I was looking into an nVidia card and noticed they use SPDIF. I only assumed that the ATI card did the same. I was confused on how that could be when a SPDIF cable can't handle the HD audio codecs nor LPCM. But prerich cleared that up, letting me know that the ATI card had onboard audio from realtek.

I'm going to wait and get a dedicated sound card like I said. I would prefer to have a dedicated component for video and one for audio. I'm looking at one of the 200 series nVidia cards and the Asus Xonar HDAV Slim. But for now my onboard analog HD audio works just fine!

[BLindsay]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

Yea, I didn't do my research. I was looking into an nVidia card and noticed they use SPDIF. I only assumed that the ATI card did the same. I was confused on how that could be when a SPDIF cable can't handle the HD audio codecs nor LPCM. But prerich cleared that up, letting me know that the ATI card had onboard audio from realtek.

I'm going to wait and get a dedicated sound card like I said. I would prefer to have a dedicated component for video and one for audio. I'm looking at one of the 200 series nVidia cards and the Asus Xonar HDAV Slim. But for now my onboard analog HD audio works just fine!

i had an interesting discussing on some computer forums i belong to about that, if the sound card is just passing the audio along untouched does it really matter then what card u have?

[tlmaclennan]

No, but I don't think you can prepare the realtek chip on the ATI card to a fully dedicated soundcard. I mean the realtek chip is more like a sidekick, if you will. Not saying the realtek chip is bad just I would prefer a dedicated card.

I mean you wouldn't say that the standard onboard HD audio on a motherboard is at the same level as a fully dedicated Creative X-Fi card? Not knocking the onboard card, it's great but the dedicated card most likely has the upper hand. That's my view on the ATI cards versus the Asus Xonar HDAV.

[BLindsay]

yeah but thats why i asked the question

If the onboard audio doesnt touch the sound and just passes it along, then there is NO difference

[tlmaclennan]

I'm not sure. I would assume if you use a better chip then you will technically get better results. That's also assuming that the better chip is on the dedicated card. I would compare the onboard audio as having a receiver. It works great. But you can do better than just a receiver and that's with separates. Separates are IMO equivalent to using a dedicated sound card.

Maybe not for blu-ray playback as you are just letting the audio pass through the audio chip, but overall I would say the dedicated card is better. And I use my computer for much more than blu-ray movies so the overall performance is what I care about.

Plus, I'm going the dedicated route because that is the best solution for bitstreaming. I want to bitstream. As of now I feel like I'm using the receiver analogy...my computer does everything and all my receiver does is send the audio to my speakers. I would like to eventually become the separates analogy...where my computer reads the bu-ray, the video card handles the video, the receiver and sound card handle the audio. That will free up the computer and let the dedicated components work their magic.

[BLindsay]

This is the thread i mentioned

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/foru...d.php?t=103129


people seem to go back and forth a bit on it lol

[-Sandro-]

You can't send 5.1/7.1 LPCM (from decoded lossless source) trough SPDIF, can you?

[prerich]

Originally Posted by -Sandro-

You can't send 5.1/7.1 LPCM (from decoded lossless source) trough SPDIF, can you?

No you can't - spdif doesn't have the required bandwidth to support uncompressed 5.1/7.1 audio.