Which sound card?

[glogrono]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to ask which sound card I should get wchich will allow me to listen to the Dolby, DTS, and PCM traks that are available on Blu Ray? Are there any that support the newer formats like Dolby Live and DTS Master? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

[gvortex7]

Here is one that will support Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD and of course PCM as well, and you can connect it directly to a receiver via HDMI.

http://www.floppyhead.com/2008/01/18...dolby-true-hd/


There are no cards on the market currently or announced that support DTS-HD MA.

[gvortex7]

I guess there is some more high-def audio support on the way. This one is courtesy of Nvidia:

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...=5400&Itemid=1

[saljr]

The best sound card is HT Omega. Hopefully there new card will support DTS-HD,TrueHD,PCI-E,SNR 120db,HDMI. They have better drivers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829271003

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by saljr

The best sound card is HT Omega. Hopefully there new card will support DTS-HD,TrueHD,PCI-E,SNR 120db,HDMI. They have better drivers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829271003

I looked at every picture of this sound card and I don't see an HDMI input. You'd think that for $175 it would include one. I would pass on this.

[Riverside666]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

I looked at every picture of this sound card and I don't see an HDMI input. You'd think that for $175 it would include one. I would pass on this.

wtf? How would you have HDMI? HDMI is purely for the video aspects the soudns aspecrs of HDMI are on the side but clearly HDMI is just another form of DVI. You're more likely to find HDMI on a videocard as compared to a sound card aren't you? I'm not saying that it's impossible to find HDMI on a sound card or anything but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sence to me. I just figuired that HDMI was more of a video thing as compared to a sound thing.

[glogrono]

So then pretty much for the moment, there isn't a solution from what I see. Thanks for the info guys, also, am I right in thinking that the only way to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD to your receiver is through hdmi, but you can get pcm through digital coax and optical out???

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by Riverside666

wtf? How would you have HDMI? HDMI is purely for the video aspects the soudns aspecrs of HDMI are on the side but clearly HDMI is just another form of DVI. You're more likely to find HDMI on a videocard as compared to a sound card aren't you? I'm not saying that it's impossible to find HDMI on a sound card or anything but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sence to me. I just figuired that HDMI was more of a video thing as compared to a sound thing.

Not really. In the future you'll start to see more and more combo cards that can handle both HD video and HD audio, and the only all-in-one connection for that is HDMI. So, there you have it.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by glogrono

So then pretty much for the moment, there isn't a solution from what I see. Thanks for the info guys, also, am I right in thinking that the only way to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD to your receiver is through hdmi, but you can get pcm through digital coax and optical out???

Sure you can get PCM through optical (I'm doing it through my receiver as we speak), but you're limited to only 2 channels. So in essence you're shortchanging your audio experience. Wait a little while longer and get a sound card that can decode these high-def audio options, one that also has an HDMI input.

[Riverside666]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

Not really. In the future you'll start to see more and more combo cards that can handle both HD video and HD audio, and the only all-in-one connection for that is HDMI. So, there you have it.

Could you show me a soundcard currently out right now that has HDMI?

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by Riverside666

Could you show me a soundcard currently out right now that has HDMI?

I don't think there is one available, yet. But, as I stated earlier: What you'll start seeing this year is that both the audio chipsets and video chipsets will be on the same card with one HDMI input for both. (combo card) I believe several major video card manufacturers are already working on these type of all-in-one cards. Going forward that'll be the answer to watching and listening to Blu-rays on your PC.

[kpkelley]

I thought the video cards had a connector that would go to the audio decoding device and bridge them together into one output, similar to crossfire connectors. I haven't bought one of these cards yet, but that was my impression.

[Riverside666]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

I don't think there is one available, yet. But, as I stated earlier: What you'll start seeing this year is that both the audio chipsets and video chipsets will be on the same card with one HDMI input for both. (combo card) I believe several major video card manufacturers are already working on these type of all-in-one cards. Going forward that'll be the answer to watching and listening to Blu-rays on your PC.

Nvidia has said that coming up with cooling solutions for this has been very difficult because you're trying to cram so much into one PC Slot.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by Riverside666

Nvidia has said that coming up with cooling solutions for this has been very difficult because you're trying to cram so much into one PC Slot.

Read the 3rd post of this thread. I put a link in there regarding Nvidia and their goal to be the first to offer HD audio on their video cards.

[Riverside666]

Yeah and they're also having problems because there current videocards 8800 series are quite hot and tacking on sound options doesn't make things any cooler. This isn't coming out anytime soon, would be very surprise if it came out this year and this year has just started if you think about it.

[gvortex7]

MCP78 is a single chipset supporting the new series of Phenom CPUs from AMD. The chipset offers Hybrid SLI technology, DirectX 10 graphics features, a dedicated HD video processor, HDMI and DVI support. In addition, MCP78 has a rich feature set including a second generation PCI Express interface, HyperTransport 3 with link power management, native Gigabit Ethernet MAC, Serial ATA II and ATA-133 support, high-definition audio, USB2.0, PCI, real-time power management processor, and other standard peripheral functions.

MCP78 supports 19 lanes in total, allowing configuration of 1 PCIe x16 + 3 PCIe x1. It is PCIe Generation 2.0 compatible. The chipset also comes with DX10 SM4.0 GPU. It supporst CineFX 4.0 Shading architecture, DX10 vertex Shader 4.0, Multiple render targets etc. It also incorpoates a programmable PureVideo HD Video processor which is a hardware decoder supporting full bitrate H.264, VC1, MPEG2 video decode. There is support of NR, EDge Enhancement, Bad edit Correction, Inverse telecine, high quality scaling etc.

Boards using this chipset is expected to be ready in early 2008. Here is a photo of the MCP78 single chipset developed in Taiwan. It is almost the same size as a NT10 coin. MCP78 is a 24.5 × 24.5 package with 692 balls and has a maximum TDP of 14.3 Watts.

Don't be such a skeptic bud.

[Riverside666]

That's a motherboard not a videocard.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by Riverside666

That's a motherboard not a videocard.

It's actually a chipset . Capable of handling HD video and audio.

[glogrono]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

It's actually a chipset . Capable of handling HD video and audio.

From the description, it looks like this will be a new chipset for a motherboard. This would not be good, for me atleast, since I just got a new XPS 420 with an Intel quadcore

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by glogrono

From the description, it looks like this will be a new chipset for a motherboard. This would not be good, for me atleast, since I just got a new XPS 420 with an Intel quadcore

They may put this chipset on one of their upcoming cards, you never know. I have a feeling that motherboards alone won't be the final destinations to these.