sorted out video now time for audio...

nickb23

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hi guys. well I have now pretty much got my htpc video working gret from bluray and hddvd, so my next step is to sort out audio.
I will be plugging my htpc into an oldish yamaha amp which only has DD and DTS and not the new audio HD stuff. my mobo has both optical and coaxal, and my card can output audio over hdmi. I would like to be able to have both audio from the hdmi and through optical or coaxal, but I reckon that this might be impossible.Is this a straight forward thing or can it be a pain like video codecs?
any help with setting this up would be great.thanks

nick b
 
hi guys. well I have now pretty much got my htpc video working gret from bluray and hddvd, so my next step is to sort out audio.
I will be plugging my htpc into an oldish yamaha amp which only has DD and DTS and not the new audio HD stuff. my mobo has both optical and coaxal, and my card can output audio over hdmi. I would like to be able to have both audio from the hdmi and through optical or coaxal, but I reckon that this might be impossible.Is this a straight forward thing or can it be a pain like video codecs?
any help with setting this up would be great.thanks

nick b

If you are playing back blu-ray and hd-dvd originals, i think powerdvd should sort the audio out. If your playing HD video from files, then i'd advise installing AC3filter as your audio codec. Ensure that you've got the spdif boxes ticked and it should pass the raw ac3 and dts signals direct to your amp for decoding.

I'm not sure how you'd get audio over both your spdif AND hdmi..... or if its even possible!! I think you'ld have to do some real fiddling there.
 
Thanks Mick. I have thought of a possible way to be able to have audio through the hdmi aswell as through my 5.1 amp. The LCD I want to get is the KDL-40W3000, which has an optical out in the back. I presume this is for sending audio recieved through the HDMI out into a 5.1 Amp. Does this sound correct??

thanks

Nick
 
Don't think so mate, the optical outs are usually for digital audio from the onboard tuner.

Also, unless you want PowerDVD to re-encode the HD audio into normal DTS (using the S/PDIF mixing feature) you're going to need to use analogue connections from your system to your receiver and set PDVD to 6 channel. Otherwise you're going to get 2-channel PCM and your receiver will probably DolbyPL it. Not really what you want.

Also PDVD currently downsamples HD Audio. Many of us our hoping the Arcsoft's new play wont do this.

Good luck.

Wo0zy.
 
Thanks Woozy.

Problem is my reciever does not have analogue inputs. Don't most disks come with a 5.1 DD soundtrack, aswell as the HD Audio one? Also would I not have this problem if I had a receiver that could handle the HD Audio formats?

Many Thanks

Nick B
 
Also, unless you want PowerDVD to re-encode the HD audio into normal DTS (using the S/PDIF mixing feature) QUOTE]

Sorry Woozy, just read this again. So PowerDVD CAN resample the HD Audio tracks to normal DD and DTS. If this is correct, this is all I want...


Is it easy to do, and does it sound the same as DD and DTS on a normal DVD. Thanks

Nick
 
Don't think so mate, the optical outs are usually for digital audio from the onboard tuner.

Also PDVD currently downsamples HD Audio. Many of us our hoping the Arcsoft's new play wont do this.

Good luck.

Wo0zy.

WoOzy

Will Cyberlink dvd ultra be able to decode DTS HD MA via the analouge outs without downmixing? Any idea when an update is due to Ultra?
 
Also, unless you want PowerDVD to re-encode the HD audio into normal DTS (using the S/PDIF mixing feature) QUOTE]

Sorry Woozy, just read this again. So PowerDVD CAN resample the HD Audio tracks to normal DD and DTS. If this is correct, this is all I want...


Is it easy to do, and does it sound the same as DD and DTS on a normal DVD. Thanks

Nick

If you start the movie and go to Settings, Audio you'll see a tickbox for "S/PDIF Mixing". You should be able to select DTS (AC3 is usually greyed out on my system). If you try this without content running the whole section is greyed out.

I've only experiemnted with it but it sounds OK to me. Not HD Audio but pretty good normal surround sound. Also, it doesn't seem to hold the setting. You must select it everytime you play a movie.

Let me know what you think.

Wo0zy
 
WoOzy

Will Cyberlink dvd ultra be able to decode DTS HD MA via the analouge outs without downmixing? Any idea when an update is due to Ultra?

No mate. AFAIK PDVD Ultra still downsamples HD audio (even with the latest patch). The reason given is something to do with "protected path" audio but I'm not sure that's the whole story.

I've had feedback from others that Arcsoft's new player (the Japanese trial anyway) doesn't do this so either it's not mandated by AACS and Cyberlink have messed things up or Arcsoft are being a bit cheeky.

Either way, I've been using PDVD Ultra since launch and am a bit fed up with all the bugs. As soon as the English version of the Arcsoft player is launched I'll certainly be giving it a go.

Cheers,

Wo0zy.
 
No mate. AFAIK PDVD Ultra still downsamples HD audio (even with the latest patch). The reason given is something to do with "protected path" audio but I'm not sure that's the whole story.

I've had feedback from others that Arcsoft's new player (the Japanese trial anyway) doesn't do this so either it's not mandated by AACS and Cyberlink have messed things up or Arcsoft are being a bit cheeky.

Either way, I've been using PDVD Ultra since launch and am a bit fed up with all the bugs. As soon as the English version of the Arcsoft player is launched I'll certainly be giving it a go.

Cheers,

Wo0zy.

Thanks for clearing that up. A bit of a bummer then on Cyberlinks part. I read that power dvd ultra WILL be upgraded sometime soon to BD profile 1.1. So at least they seem to be doing something to keep on top of things.

Oddly enough my mobo spec made a big deal about 'FULL BIT RATE LOSSES AUDIO SUPPORT FOR BD/HD DVD' on the specs and that is why i went for that particular mobo only to find out later that Cyberlink down res the audio:suicide:

Hopefully the pc industry will get it together when it comes to sorting out the issues with HD sound. Don't care how i get it, sound card/graphics card/mobo etc. Just want it so that i can enjoy HD audio
 
To be honest I want an HDMI 1.3 enabled system that can pass HD audio as bitstream. This will remove the problem and allow my expensive (when I buy it :D) HDMI receiver to do what it's supposed to do.

Hopefully first half of '08. Looking forward to seeing who gets there first :).

Cheers,

Wo0zy
 
To be honest I want an HDMI 1.3 enabled system that can pass HD audio as bitstream. This will remove the problem and allow my expensive (when I buy it :D) HDMI receiver to do what it's supposed to do.

Hopefully first half of '08. Looking forward to seeing who gets there first :).

Cheers,

Wo0zy

Well said. HDMI v1.3 is the best option. As you say, lets see what 2008 brings....
 
I have this issue as I have HDMI audio on my Asus P5E V HDMI. Also have onboard HD audio via realtek.

For me its a case of one or the other. HDMI audio is provided by the intel graphics, coax output is from the realtek.

The easiest way is to use the audio out from your tv.
If you have optical out like my samsung your laughing.

Unfortunately my bravia only has standard phono sockets.

Mind you I got round this by a bit of advanced planning.

I bought the logitech z5450 5.1 system months ago as I knew I could connect pretty much anything to it.

Has standard PC connectors, plus 1 coax and 2 optical.
 
To be honest I want an HDMI 1.3 enabled system that can pass HD audio as bitstream. This will remove the problem and allow my expensive (when I buy it :D) HDMI receiver to do what it's supposed to do.

Hopefully first half of '08. Looking forward to seeing who gets there first :).

Cheers,

Wo0zy

I presume this would mean just a new graphics card rather than a new mobo etc.

thanks

Nick
 
I presume this would mean just a new graphics card rather than a new mobo etc.

thanks

Nick

That's going to depend on who gets there first. If it's NVIDIA or ATi then yes it should just be a graphics card. If it's Azuentech then it'll be a card card. If it's Intel with later G35 boards or maybe G45 then it'll be a new motherboard.

Hopefully we'll get more than one option at around the same time. Just have to see how it pans out.

Cheers,

Wo0zy
 

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