Best DOLBY TRUE HD, DTS-HD,SACD,DVD-A sound card

[cirrus18]

My AVR doesn't support these audio formats, DOLBY TRUE HD, DTS-HD,SACD,DVD-A,
so instead of buying a new one I thought I might update to a media centre with a good soundcard that supports these formats.

I really want something with good audiophile hi-fi properties. I listen to a lot of stereo classical CDs so it must excel in this field.

I want to use the soundcard virtually as a preamp and only have audio frequencies going to five separate Hypex class-d power amplifiers. The soundcard would do all the digital decoding. IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Balanced outputs would be nice but not necessary.

I don't want to spend too much money, looking on this forum some of the soundcards cost over £500. Way beyond my budget.

Any suggestions please? Your suggestions will be greatly received.






SACD

[Donnacha]

I use an ASUS X2 Sonar PCI soundcard. That has 7.1 analog outs into my amp for DolbyHD and DTS MA / HD over analog. The playback software is used to decode the format (PowerDVD) to the external outs.

Cost around £120 at the time (last year) but it sounds great and on par with my standalone Toshiba HD A1 HD DVD player via its analog outs.

I don't use the digital outs / ins, but they're there if you need 'em.

[cirrus18]

Originally Posted by Donnacha

I use an ASUS X2 Sonar PCI soundcard. That has 7.1 analog outs into my amp for DolbyHD and DTS MA / HD over analog. The playback software is used to decode the format (PowerDVD) to the external outs.

Cost around £120 at the time (last year) but it sounds great and on par with my standalone Toshiba HD A1 HD DVD player via its analog outs.

I don't use the digital outs / ins, but they're there if you need 'em.

Wouldn't this be better? ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Quote: Without Xonar HDAV1.3, Blu-Ray Disc goes down to DVD Quality on PC!

I didn't know that, did you?. I suppose that means everybody who has up to now been playing Blue Ray discs from their PC thinking they're getting HD quality are sadly mistaken.

Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe
Enjoy 100% Blu-Ray Quality Audio with HDMI 1.3 Compliance, Video Enhancement and 7.1 Channel Analog Output
- Full-HD Audio/Video digital output
- HDMI v1.3a compliance
- Non-downsampled 192kHz Blu-Ray audio
- Splendid Technology Video enhancement
- Complete Dolby True HD & DTS Master Audio support

Certificated HDMI 1.3 Support

[Stephen Neal]

Does your amp support multichannel PCM over HDMI - if so then you may be best off with an ATI video card that supports this format (4550 or better?)

The Auzentech and Xonar HDMI cards are really only better than this solution if you need AVR decoding of bitstreamed True HD/DTS HD etc. - with the 4550 cards the PC decodes to PCM.

If you don't need an HDMI solution then you are in the realm of high quality decoding to analogue - and others will be better qualified than I to advise on these solutions.

BTW - I don't think there is a PC SACD drive is there - so I'm not sure SACD is possible? (It uses a bespoke optical format which requires a special drive to play non-hybrid discs)

[Donnacha]

Originally Posted by cirrus18

Wouldn't this be better? ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Quote: Without Xonar HDAV1.3, Blu-Ray Disc goes down to DVD Quality on PC!

I didn't know that, did you?. I suppose that means everybody who has up to now been playing Blue Ray discs from their PC thinking they're getting HD quality are sadly mistaken.

Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe
Enjoy 100% Blu-Ray Quality Audio with HDMI 1.3 Compliance, Video Enhancement and 7.1 Channel Analog Output
- Full-HD Audio/Video digital output
- HDMI v1.3a compliance
- Non-downsampled 192kHz Blu-Ray audio
- Splendid Technology Video enhancement
- Complete Dolby True HD & DTS Master Audio support

Certificated HDMI 1.3 Support

as far as I know its the software that downsamples the audio. Supposedly over analog, using PowerDVD for playback the best we are getting is 48khz/16 bit samples, which most Blurays are anyway! I don't think my equipment or ears may be good or trained enough to spot the difference between sample rates! I still think its something to do with software rather than hardware, although a HDMI connection bypasses the issue. Others are more educated on this than me, so that's about as far as my knowledge goes!!

[glimmerung]

Originally Posted by cirrus18

Wouldn't this be better? ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Quote: Without Xonar HDAV1.3, Blu-Ray Disc goes down to DVD Quality on PC!

I didn't know that, did you?. I suppose that means everybody who has up to now been playing Blue Ray discs from their PC thinking they're getting HD quality are sadly mistaken.

Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe
Enjoy 100% Blu-Ray Quality Audio with HDMI 1.3 Compliance, Video Enhancement and 7.1 Channel Analog Output
- Full-HD Audio/Video digital output
- HDMI v1.3a compliance
- Non-downsampled 192kHz Blu-Ray audio
- Splendid Technology Video enhancement
- Complete Dolby True HD & DTS Master Audio support

Certificated HDMI 1.3 Support

Did you try this solution Xonar? I'd be very interested if you did manage to get a soundcard/software solution to decode DTS Master Audio and Dolby True HD and pass it to the power amps via analog cables as I could find myself in a similar situation soon.

I note that it's actually quite an elegant solution, using the PC as the preamp and doing away with that stage at the Hi-Fi end. Of course, it's only elegant if you can get it to work, but it would help to cut down on boxes at least - and remote controls, for that matter.

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by glimmerung

Did you try this solution Xonar? I'd be very interested if you did manage to get a soundcard/software solution to decode DTS Master Audio and Dolby True HD and pass it to the power amps via analog cables as I could find myself in a similar situation soon.

Even on-board audio solutions will do this - the player software decodes the True HD or DTS HD tracks to PCM and then the on-board sound solution converts this PCM to analogue audio - just as with any other app. (Probably limited to 48K/16bit)

Onboard analogue sound solutions are notoriously poor quality - but there are higher quality analogue sound cards that do much better. This is a route many have taken - the card doesn't do the True HD/DTS HD decoding - the player software does.

Some graphics cards (ATI 4xxx series) and some IGP solutions (8200, 8300, 9200, 9300) DO support output of the decoded PCM via HDMI - again subsampled to 48K/16bit if originally at a higher sampling rate or bit-depth (not a huge number are)

The tricky bit is bitstreaming the True HD or DTS HD digital audio un-decoded via HDMI. This is not currently supported by IGP or Graphics card solutions (as it requires a Protected Audio Path - which AIUI Microsoft don't have standardised driver support for) and only the Xonar and Auzentech solutions (which use proprietary implementations requiring specific playback applications)

The Auzentech has not been released yet, the Xonar is shipping, but is very specific in OS terms - and doesn't support 24p video.

[Digicon]

If you want the Full HD audio experience through the PC at the moment the only solution is the HDAV 1.3 from Asus although expensive and still cannot pass 1080/24p it is the best solution for bitstreaming.

Now if you have one of the ATI 48XX series cards or one of the IGP's 8200/8300 or 9300/9400 and are willing to take a steep learning curve then Full HD audio is possible through those cards and M\B's i have mentioned.

The only way at the moment is to convert your Blu ray's to MKV format with .flac audio, All the necessary programs are freeware its just taking the time to learn how to convert them. And best of all MPC-HD or KmPlayer can play these MKV's back with no loss of picture quality or audio quality as .flac is the only as far as i know audio container that does not downsample through any windows operating system.

[eddiem74]

Originally Posted by Digicon

The only way at the moment is to convert your Blu ray's to MKV format with .flac audio, All the necessary programs are freeware its just taking the time to learn how to convert them.

I'd be interested in this, any guides or directions on how to do it ?

[andyUK101]

Originally Posted by eddiem74

I'd be interested in this, any guides or directions on how to do it ?

Yes but you will need to google them

[andyUK101]

Originally Posted by Digicon

If you want the Full HD audio experience through the PC at the moment the only solution is the HDAV 1.3 from Asus although expensive and still cannot pass 1080/24p it is the best solution for bitstreaming.

Now if you have one of the ATI 48XX series cards or one of the IGP's 8200/8300 or 9300/9400 and are willing to take a steep learning curve then Full HD audio is possible through those cards and M\B's i have mentioned.

The only way at the moment is to convert your Blu ray's to MKV format with .flac audio, All the necessary programs are freeware its just taking the time to learn how to convert them. And best of all MPC-HD or KmPlayer can play these MKV's back with no loss of picture quality or audio quality as .flac is the only as far as i know audio container that does not downsample through any windows operating system.

Rather than convert to MKV you could demux and wrap them back into a different container, such as m2ts. This is a lot quicker and simpler than converting to mkv, using FFDshow to decode things should result in non downsampled audio (at least i think)

[Theydon Bois]

Originally Posted by eddiem74

"The only way at the moment is to convert your Blu ray's to MKV format with .flac audio, All the necessary programs are freeware its just taking the time to learn how to convert them."

I'd be interested in this, any guides or directions on how to do it ?

Please note that any guides to articles that could be used as a form of piracy would be removed from here, and infractions could be given.

[cirrus18]

Originally Posted by Stephen Neal

Microsoft don't have standardised driver support for very specific in OS

If Microsoft is of no help and won't allow you to do what you want to do: what about Linux? Perhaps this is a better way to go.

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by cirrus18

If Microsoft is of no help and won't allow you to do what you want to do: what about Linux? Perhaps this is a better way to go.

Linux is unlikely to have anything close to this. AIUI Protected Audio Path is a licensing requirement - AIUI no Linux Blu-ray player app is in the public domain yet (though this doesn't mean that Blu-ray player hardware doesn't use Linux) Similarly AIUI there isn't a Mac OS BD player app either yet.

Currently - on a PC - it is Windows or nothing.

(Ignoring illicit remastering of discs etc.)

[cirrus18]

Originally Posted by Stephen Neal

Linux is unlikely to have anything close to this. AIUI Protected Audio Path is a licensing requirement
Currently - on a PC - it is Windows or nothing.

What about this then? Moderator Comment: Site link removed as it contains to a guide on disabling DRM on Blu-ray disc's