Sound from HDMI or from X-fi

[Nanometer]

As I'm sure most of you guys know by now, nearly all hdmi video cards have an internal audio controller. I have an HTPC with a HD4350 from ATI. I also have an X-fi sound card. I was wondering, from purely a home theater perspective, which is better to run or could it possibly not matter? The sound is routed to an external home sound receiver.

Thanks for the input!

[alpha0ne]

Is your receiver HDMI ??? if so use HDMI/DVI out from your 4350 to your amp, is not use the analogue out from your sound card to your analogue in of your reciever

If you want full HD sound then buy an HD5450 which will pass thru untouched (not down-sampled) all the new HD formats

[Nanometer]

The 4350 claims to send 6 channel sound through the HDMI port. Is it not so?

[gillll]

only hdmi can transfer the new hd audio formats lpcm 7.1 chaznnels like ddhd and dts true hd.
spdif can't and not due to technology but because of copyrights. that's why hd has hdcp.
if your reciever supports hdmi then this is the one preferred.

might be that the ati4xxx doesn't support that and as mentioned upgrade to 5xxx is the solution.

[Nanometer]

In windows it claims to support DTS and other formats, I don't have it hooked up at the moment so it isn't so easy to check.

I have a Blu-ray drive in the comp, and it seems like it should be just fine. I'm using an onkyo 607 But when I go to set the settings, I don't have DTS as an option when I play a DVD.

[Donnie27]

In windows it claims to support DTS and other formats, I don't have it hooked up at the moment so it isn't so easy to check.

I have a Blu-ray drive in the comp, and it seems like it should be just fine. I'm using an onkyo 607 But when I go to set the settings, I don't have DTS as an option when I play a DVD.

Use Analog and don't bother.

These new very nice formats are mostly wasted in a small areas IMHO. The great thing about Blue Ray is that they do ship with other formats. A good DTS track will give an Average DTS HD Master Audio track a run for the money in 5.1 mode IMHO. The newer formats are meant more for 7.1 than for 5.1 and in a larger area. My Pioneer 819 and Set-top supports the new formats and they're good but didn't blow me away. Even on a much better system than mine I thought they were good, but wasn't blown away. I use a Prelude in my HTPC and run it Analog 90% of the time in the Pioneer 819 for that reason.

[grimREEFER]

the dacs on your reciever are better than the dacs on your sound card. so it's better to use hdmi.
the 4350 can bitstream up to 7.1 channels lpcm, 5.1 dolby digital, and 5.1 dts.
for dts-hd ma and dolby truehd, you have to first decompress it on your cpu and then send it out as uncompressed lpcm.
configure your media player accordingly.
if you had a ati 5000 series, or intel hd graphics, or an nvidia 400 series other than the 465, 470, and 480, you can just send out dts-hd ma and dolby truehd as is.

[alpha0ne]

Use Analog and don't bother.

The great thing about Blue Ray is that they do ship with other formats. A good DTS track will give an Average DTS HD Master Audio track a run for the money in 5.1 mode IMHO. The newer formats are meant more for 7.1 than for 5.1 and in a larger area. My Pioneer 819 and Set-top supports the new formats and they're good but didn't blow me away.

Yes a good DD/DTS track can be very good but sometimes they are not in the same league as TrueHD/DTS HD MA on some of the blooray releases, and I have found near all BD's are 5.1 so I don't really bother with 7.1 though my LX50 is quite capable of playing 7.1 or converting 5.1 to 7.1

[Nanometer]

Yea, That's good to know. Figured out the sound issue, my comp was stuck in stereo mode for whatever reason. But as it is now, it sends 6 channels out to the receiver untouched. Then from there I can choose from a few, but notable, its PL II, Direct, and multiChannel. My first guess would be to set it to PL II. For some reason DTS isn't an option for this particular setup with my HTPC.

[metalop1g]

I just set it to direct.. That's the best sound for me

[Nanometer]

Will do. Seems the 5.1 Problem was having to do with windows media player, doesn't seem like the 6 channels are coming through from windows media player, just 2 channel.

[Donnie27]

Will do. Seems the 5.1 Problem was having to do with windows media player, doesn't seem like the 6 channels are coming through from windows media player, just 2 channel.

metalop1g is right if the sound is processed by the Computer, then Direct is the way to go.

Yes a good DD/DTS track can be very good but sometimes they are not in the same league as TrueHD/DTS HD MA on some of the blooray releases, and I have found near all BD's are 5.1 so I don't really bother with 7.1 though my LX50 is quite capable of playing 7.1 or converting 5.1 to 7.1

Then main difference I see is uncompressed vs compressed sounds. DTS is better than DDL and yes True HD formats are uncompressed and sound better. The problem is just how much better. The big difference is in Larger Rooms or Rooms with bad acoustics in 7.1 mode.

7.1 in a large enough Room sounds more realistic than 5.1. Surround? I like my computer in my 12 X 16 better than my Rectangle Den.

http://www.hemagazine.com/node/Dolby...compressed_PCM

here's one part of this nice write up that is exactly what I saw with a High End system that makes mine look nothing. I agree with about 90% of what this guy is saying.

I hate to say it, but they (HD vs none HD) just sounded more realistic and transparent. The 448 kbps Dolby Digital and standard DTS tracks were less so, a little more closed off. Between the 640 kbps Dolby Digital and the uncompressed, the difference was even less noticeable. Enough so that most people, even those trained to listen for it, probably won’t be able to hear the difference.

The core DTS call is a little harder, as there wasn’t the same blind system in place to A/B as precisely as at Dolby. Results were similar, though.So by all means go for the new codecs, as they definitely sound better than what was on DVD. Uncompressed PCM, on the other hand, is just a waste of space (though compatible with everything).

Read more: http://www.hemagazine.com/node/Dolby...#ixzz0vUPzRhw4


http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-13817_7-6462511-4.html

I use Power DVD10 for True HD formats but Analog out to my Receivers! Hehehe, I use one for Movies and an Old School JVC down stairs and a Harmon Kardon 730 upstairs.