HDMI Mobo (yes, another one!)

[ldoodle]

Hi,

I'm looking for an ATX or mATX Mobo (my case can hold both) for AMD CPU's that has HDMI onboard, but also carries the sound over the one cable.

I've had a quick scout about but can't find anything decent.

Thanks/...

[ldoodle]

OK, I think I have found the board I am after - The Abit AN-M2HD. This has an NVidia 7050PV IGP which supports PureVideo HD.

First, can anyone who has one confirm if it's mATX or uATX, as the Abit site says mATX (http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/uk/moth...E=Socket%20AM2), but Scan says uATX (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=623454)

Secondly, I will be adding an HD/BD PC drive in the near future, so what is the minimum CPU I should get. I've been looking at the AM2 BE-2350 as it's only 45W TDP, but thinking this might struggle with HD playback.

Any suggestions..?

Thanks/...

[Stolly]

Hmmm you sure that supports Pure Video HD ?

http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/11036/...Comparison.pdf

Its not on this list....


Yet it is on this page

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/purevideo.html

Nice to see contradicting information from the same company, perhaps the spreadsheet is out of date.

[Stolly]

Oh and mATX and uATX are the same thing. Both mean Micro ATX IIRC.

[Repo]

The Asus M2A-VM HDMI seems to be an equivalent board although I couldn't find any details on the Asus site about whether or not it sends audio over the HDMI cable. Having said that there's nothing on that on the aBit site about the AN-M2HD either!

[Wo0zy]

Originally Posted by Stolly

Hmmm you sure that supports Pure Video HD ?

http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/11036/...Comparison.pdf

Its not on this list....


Yet it is on this page

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/purevideo.html

Nice to see contradicting information from the same company, perhaps the spreadsheet is out of date.

Currently it doesn't. Could be a driver issue, could be a permanant problem. Either way you get no HD acceleration.

I had this board and sent it back. Looks good on paper but performance is very poor (at least using Vista). VMC couldn't give a smooth framerate with TV or DVD if you brought up an overlay menu (guide, information etc).

This is before I even started testing HD (which was terrible).

As there isn't acceleration you might as well go for a Intel G35 board. They don't have acceleration either but at least SD playback is good, HD playback is fine with a good CPU and the HDMI audio implementation is the best available on an HTPC (multi-channel PCM). Also the latest NVIDIA drivers still don't support custom resolutions whereas the Intel drivers can be made to do so.

Cheers,

Wo0zy.

[16to9]

I have this board and the BIOS mentions HDMI Audio (as in enable/disable) - which I assume means it can send audio over hdmi, although I do it over spdif optical myself.

Originally Posted by Wo0zy

Currently it doesn't. Could be a driver issue, could be a permanant problem. Either way you get no HD acceleration.

I had this board and sent it back. Looks good on paper but performance is very poor (at least using Vista). VMC couldn't give a smooth framerate with TV or DVD if you brought up an overlay menu (guide, information etc).

Worrying, I bought it to have some future-proofing of HD. Not that fussed if it doesn't - it's only £50 and I'll just get something better whenever I need to.

As for smooth framerate with overlays, I think that's more of a nvidia driver issue. I know exactly what you mean and I saw a similar thing on my old board (but far, far worse) but even then only on recent driver versions. It's not too bad at all on this board with the 7050 graphics.

[Wo0zy]

Hi 16to9,

I agree. It should be a good board (if limited in the scope of the HDMI audio).

I hope the video performance is driver related and nothing else but I worry it could have something to do with the single channel memory architecture

Fingers crossed!

Wo0zy

[16to9]

Originally Posted by Wo0zy

Hi 16to9,
I hope the video performance is driver related and nothing else but I worry it could have something to do with the single channel memory architecture

Yes but experience has taught us all not to expect drivers to fix stuff!

And I think it's a dual channel memory board: see half way down this page
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/mothe...E=Socket%20AM2

I can check if you want and see if it passes audio over HDMI. Let me know and I'll enable it to find out.

[ldoodle]

I have got it sending audio over HDMI, however it's only 2 channel stereo and I can't change it in the Windows Sounds control panel.

What's the point of having an HDMI port onboard - which if I remember was partly used to reduce cable clutter - if it only carries 2 channel audio, which in turn means you have to use either optical or analog outputs for DD/DTS, which in turn increases the number of cables...

????

[Wo0zy]

Originally Posted by ldoodle

I have got it sending audio over HDMI, however it's only 2 channel stereo and I can't change it in the Windows Sounds control panel.

What's the point of having an HDMI port onboard - which if I remember was partly used to reduce cable clutter - if it only carries 2 channel audio, which in turn means you have to use either optical or analog outputs for DD/DTS, which in turn increases the number of cables...

????

It will also pass DD as bitstream if connected to a device that supports it (and DTS I think) so you could get everything you currently have with a DVI cable and SPDIF link. It just can't do multi-channel PCM or any of the HD audio formats. In fact there isn't a PC based HDMI solution that can pass HD audio as bitstream (and won't be until we see HDMI 1.3 devices next year).

The best HDMI audio solution currently available is actually on Intel IGP's as they can do multi-channel PCM.

Cheers,

Wo0zy.

[Wo0zy]

Originally Posted by 16to9

Yes but experience has taught us all not to expect drivers to fix stuff!.

Agreed this is why I haven't bought an Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 soundcard

Originally Posted by 16to9

And I think it's a dual channel memory board: see half way down this page
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/mothe...E=Socket%20AM2

The AMD version is. The Intel version (which I had) isn't. God knows why they did that. Also mine was a Gigabyte board.

Originally Posted by 16to9

I can check if you want and see if it passes audio over HDMI. Let me know and I'll enable it to find out.

It does (see my last post).

Cheers,

Wo0zy.

[dayvg]

I'm personally opting for this board,


http://www.kikatek.com/product_info....ducts_id=37839


Does anyone has a better solution for an hdmi motherboard??

[Wo0zy]

Originally Posted by dayvg

I'm personally opting for this board,


http://www.kikatek.com/product_info....ducts_id=37839


Does anyone has a better solution for an hdmi motherboard??

Looks like a good board for the money.

I've not been that impressed with 1250 solutions I've seen in the past but I know many people that rave about them.

If HDMI Audio is important to you then one of the new G35's might be worth looking at as well. Something like http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...12&modelmenu=1

Worth comparing the two feature for feature before deciding. The Gigabyte is certainly cheaper.

Hope this helps.

[Embarker]

I too have the Abit mobo and have given up with trying to get anything better that 2 channel over the HDMI.

Do we know for sure that the gigabyte can handle HD audio over hdmi - the spec just make a statement about what HDMI can do.