Dolby Digital/DTS in Vista

[Roost]

Lo dudes,

On the new motherboard i've just got i have a optical out connection. Was hoping to hookup my 360 hd-dvd drive to pc and then that connection to my Denon AV receiver and get 5.1/DTS up and running.

However it just ain't happening! I've installed the latest drivers for the Realtek ALC889A codec that supposed to give me upto 7.1 sound but nothing. When i go into the control panel and test the formats it'll support it works fine, the receiver changes to Dolby Digital and plays the test notes fine, same with DTS.

However a DVD or HD-DVD through PowerDVD just ain't having it at all
When i look at Manage Devices it only gives me the configuration on the HDMI audio device (which is my ATI 2900XT) not for the realtek high definition device.

Any ideas at all??

[sj33]

Does PowerDVD actually convert the HD Audio formats to DD/DTS? I've not tried because I use 5.1 analogue, but your Realtek will only pass through DD/DTS if the source is DD/DTS (so it will depend on PowerDVD converting the sound to DD/DTS itself).

If not, you will have to pick up a card which supports Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect.

[talizker]

In PowerDVD try Configuration -> Audio and change Speaker Environment to Use SPDIF.

[dvdmike]

If not, you will have to pick up a card which supports Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...atid=11&subcat=

[huxley]

I have the Auzentech version of that card on my htpc - the one thing you must do is uninstall the Realtek drivers for your motherboard before you install the card.

[Roost]

Cheers lads will look into it all, i got so annoyed with it i ended up hooking it backup to the 360. Wouldn't mind it on the PC as it's so much quieter than the 360!

[Roost]

Ended up going for the analogue 5.1 with three 3.5mm stereo to 2 phone cables. Working a treat

Is this the method to use to get the best quality sound from hd-dvd's on your PC?

[sj33]

From a normal PC, yep! Basically because PowerDVD will decode the HD Audio formats, and your PC will send them to your speakers as 5.1 analogue, rather than recompressing them to DD/DTS.
I use 5.1 analogue myself anyway, as the upmixing stuff on my X-Fi doesn't work over digital.

It's a shame the whole PC audio thing is a mess right now, but things might become simpler now we're beginning to see the audio chipset built into the GPU (so they can provide HD Audio formats over HDMI).

[Dazzyman]

A lot of onboard and dedicated boards just mess up optical completly and you end up with just 2channel no matter what. Onkyo 605 is the first time EVER Ive been able to use 5.1/7.1 with my main home cinema and Ive been gaming on PCs for 15yrs as I use analog connectors before that its either been 2.1 with Marantz and previous, soundworks speakers 6.1/7.1 (not a fan of those cheap satelites) or a Medusa 5.1 headset. Warning with Vista as well some makes still have bad setup drivers in the panel and send the wrong signal to the speakers when in actual fact their setup right.

PCI-E cards are starting to hit to change all this luckily so by next year the norm will be 5.1 over HDMI.

[sj33]

Actually, isn't the big reason we've not really seem mass adoption of PCI-E based sound cards because PCI-E has a higher latency? And bog standard PCI is more suited for the job? The only PCI-E sound card I know of is a PCI-E based X-Fi Xtreme Audio (which is nothing more than a rebadged Audigy SE).

Some GPU's already support passthrough of SPDIF over HDMI, but ATi's new GPU's are already confirmed to have built-in HD Audio processing, so all sound output can be handled on the card itself and output over HDMI. imo that's where things will eventually go as far as HDMI audio goes.

For standalone cards, Auzentech is working on their X-tension HDMI addon for their X-Meridian and X-Prelude cards, but they're a little out of peoples price range given most are satisfied with their onboard audio.

[Dazzyman]

You want to try getting a Xfi gamer card working properly with spdif and read the thousands of complaints regarding it (really good of them that they wond supply the dongle anymore or allow manual switching in their software).

I havent used onboard since the advent of sounblaster 1 as it can bring your PC down in speed over a dedicated card. Crikey a Xfigamer even with a bust spdif you can buy for £20 and thats miles better than my onboard 7.1. I just dont like the way Sb make you pay a load to get a descent optical connector when their spdif has been flakey for years. I know Creative where having problems over PCI-E over the bus hence why Xfi stopped PCI for ages up till now (pro is just rebadged Xfi) but not Asus with their PCI-E. Theirs plenty more in the pipeline as well. Dedicated GPU cards are just coming out now but lets face it its a very expensive way to upgrade the same card for HDMI audio (and lets face it Nvidia drivers are still broken with overscan via HDMI anyway so still a futile upgrade as you cannot use powerstrip to correct this), until the cards go "true" HD compatible next year with video and sound I wouldnt touch them. I personally wont support Soundblaster again (and Ive been with them since 1992) until they fix the gamer Xfi Spdif and give us a manual change which they promised when they discontiued the dongle addon, until then mine and many others have a broken microphone socket and a broken audio ouput so have to use analog only and in my case an alternative dedicated card for microphone.

[sj33]

Well, I don't use SPDIF anyway because I prefer 5.1 analogue (EAX 5, HD Audio and use of the CMSS upmixing which I adore, without having to recompress as DD/DTS or put additional load onto the processing), but Creative are certainly lagging when it comes to SPDIF, it's why so many people went mad over the X-Meridian. Me and you are just asking for different things from a sound card mate.

As for sound built into the GPU, the point is that many people will be buying a new GPU at some point anyway (if only for the hardware assisted H.264 decoding), so it's in fact a very sensible way of making your computer capable of HD Audio over HDMI. Lets face it, anyone these days wanting to use HD Audio codecs over HDMI must have a fair bit of money to splash.

[Dazzyman]

I mean Shakey a normal desktop PC. I have a 8800gtx (Nvidia) and their are problems with the DVI port (for HDMI) it creates overscan with any HD telly and you cannot correct this as powerstrip is unsuported and their stupid own driver is borked for the overscan feature (it doesnt work) which for me is pathetic if I want to run 1080p as my CPU can easily cope and do any HD format. Thats why I say wait until proper dedicated HDMI cards come out next year. Even the new flagship 8800 series with full HDCP audio and video have this problem and the only way to fix this is to add a hack from nvidia; problem is though it disables HDCP so then you cant watch BR and HDDVD stuff so in a word totally pointless and yet again a pain in the jacksy for trying to use HDTV tellies like it has been with nvidia for 2yrs. ATI dont have this problem as you can tweak via powerstrip if needs be. I use analog also since geting a Onkyo 605 but up to that point like the vast majority of PC gamers out their had to rely on spdif on 2 channel because its borked but the whole argument for everyone is it shouldnt be you should be able to get 5.1 out of it.

Their is going to be a big push from both Nvidia and ATI next year due to BR/HDDVD drives becoming the norm from bought PC's but until Nvidia sort their crap out you dont want to be going anywhere near them for HDMI gaming or films. I mean if peeps are using an onboard they arent going to be able to fork out for a £400 reciever etc.. it would be cheaper to just buy a 360 and HDDVD drive and shove that into reciever instead what doesnt have 5.1 analog.

[sj33]

In fairness, your problem with HDMI and overscan is a flaw in the TV and the fact that it doesn't support 1:1 without overscan. Some manufacturers even have the cheek to market this as a special feature called Full Scan or similar. The GPU is correctly outputting an exact 1920x1080 signal, and the fact that there are so many 1080p TV's out there which don't support 1:1 is very bad.

(I know your saying that the fact you cannot use Powerstrip to correct the overscan is bad, and I agree. I'm just saying the very fact some people need to do this at all is bad in itself).

[Dazzyman]

Na m8 thats not right, its a genuine fault with how the 8800 series drivers are made (I know what overscan is), Nvidia admit this is a fault and they are trying to fix it unfortunetly they thought they had fixed it with their last update but it arrived broken. Its not a complete overscan issue its a HZ issue as well I guess so you end up with part of the left of the screen missing and say top and bottom of the screen (because you should be able to setup the screen position with the drivers also) so it arrives misaligned no matter what resolution you use via HDMI. Overscan should crop abit to stop noise from a transmission (not that their is hardly any these days I get a border on Emmerdale thats it all the stuff I watch) not a huge chunk and shifted like this. Their is nothing stopping Nvidia letting your retime it but until they get with the program its not worth forking a huge amount of cash on a HDCP card

I have a Sony X 46" and you can run it full 1:1 pixel mapped no problem via 1080 via any source I can do it with a alternative ATI card no problem it even gets auto configured by finding the Sony X (you dont have to alter and create a custom hacked HZ range like some tellys and thats them with those that cant do full pixel). The only alternative until they fix it is to stick with VGA at unfortunetly my max of 1368 resolution. Its also another reason why Powerstrip is broken with it to do in how they setup the hz range. You can read about it here on the official forums http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...hp?t34832.html

The really sad thing about it is they killed a rival to powerstrip off for nvidia only and then broke their own implementation of it (when they moved from the old driver setup to the new) it worked for one driver update (94.xx) but ever since even this is broken. As you need newer and newer drivers all the time ie Bioshock where all sat twidling our thumbs waiting. This is one thing ATI has leaps and bounds over Nvidia in their drivers (they had no issues with stuff like Nvidia on Vista out of the box they had games running full speed wheras it took months for Nvidia to fix COD2 etc..). Its something that their going to get more complaints about unless they get it fixed quickly as everyone wants a true plug and play HDMI to HDTV card. I hope they get it sorted for 9800 series in November.