HTPC sound card recommendations

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hasole

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#26900 6-Oct-2008 21:58

Hi

What sound cards are everyone running in their mediaportal boxes?

My only real requirement is that it has optical out to pass through into the a/v receiver and let the receiver do all the decoding Dolby digital & HD etc from dvd/blu-ray, stereo for mp3s.

davidcole

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#169438 6-Oct-2008 22:20

On board.

Stereo to TV and SPDIF (digital coax) to amp.

So sounds like you could get away with similar if your board has spidif. Some I think are comng out with hdmi onthe motherboards that i think pass sound.

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mcraenz

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#169439 6-Oct-2008 22:22

Onboard optical on intel dp35dp mobo, it's digital, it either works or it doesn't, no quality issues here; receiver and speakers, well that's another story.

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#169455 7-Oct-2008 00:20

Onboard. Using SPDIF Coax due to no optical cable (anyone wanna donate?)

browned

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#169496 7-Oct-2008 10:03

hasole: Hi

What sound cards are everyone running in their mediaportal boxes?

My only real requirement is that it has optical out to pass through into the a/v receiver and let the receiver do all the decoding Dolby digital & HD etc from dvd/blu-ray, stereo for mp3s.

Auzentech X-meridian 7.1 THX, used to have a Creative x-Fi but it had issues with my Nforce 4 motherboard. Using Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 speakers.
I have read that Cyberlink PowerDVD or UltraDVD or whatever they call it will output blu-ray 7.1 to analogue speakers with a little bit of compression and conversion so I am happy with that. Will switch to optical if ever required as I have Creative DDTS 100 sitting in the cupboard as well.

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hasole

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#169499 7-Oct-2008 10:09

hmm I definately want everything going through digital, bit pointless playing music through the tv when you have a good stereo setup.
Has anyone got it setup how I want it done?

browned

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#169509 7-Oct-2008 10:36

hasole: hmm I definately want everything going through digital, bit pointless playing music through the tv when you have a good stereo setup.
Has anyone got it setup how I want it done?

No soundcards will do dolby digital HD or DTS HD at the moment. They are coming soon though. Auzentech are doing a card with HDMI, and Asus are doing one as well. But I think with first gen cards there will be issues (sound sync). Also these will have to go to digital receivers that have hdmi input/output passthrough to get the full HD experience.

I have analogue 7.1 speakers so use the media center as a stereo, TV player/TV Recorder, video, dvd, bluray player and it all works great. Of course I am itching for an HDMI sound card but do not want another box (receiver) in the mix and I def do not want to buy new speakers just yet. I would just rather let the soundcard do the work. But I am a minimalist. I have TV, PC, Speakers and that's it. No other device is required.

cheers
db

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hasole

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#169513 7-Oct-2008 10:40

Hmm. Can it not just pass through the digital signal and let the receiver do the processing i.e. Dolby HD? or even Dolby Digital for that fact.
I know the quality of the bluray disc played back through my htpc (dvi-hdmi) is not as good as playing the disc through the ps3 (hdmi).

browned

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#169518 7-Oct-2008 10:50

hasole: Hmm. Can it not just pass through the digital signal and let the receiver do the processing i.e. Dolby HD? or even Dolby Digital for that fact.
I know the quality of the bluray disc played back through my htpc (dvi-hdmi) is not as good as playing the disc through the ps3 (hdmi).

Current sound cards will do dolby 5.1 and some may do 7.1 but not in HD. So the best you can get is 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 but it will be compressed and not lossless LPCM.

It looks like Auzentech and Asus sound cards will have input from the video card, they will add the HD sound in and output it to HDMI which then needs to go to either your TV (for 2 channel output) or to a receiver with HDMI so the sound can be pulled and output to the speakers and then send off to the TV for picture display. Not ideal, maybe Asus' top model will output directly to 7.1 speakers or a 7.1 capable receiver but I am not sure if this is going to be HD.

It is all still up in the air until we get a lot more speakers, receivers, and sound cards capable of HD sound. There are only bits and pieces available at the moment.

cheers
db

hasole

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#169534 7-Oct-2008 11:40

I think I'll just use the ps3 to play blu-ray instead of trying to use the htpc so I can the full blu-ray experience.
I'll keep the htpc just for tv, rips and mp3s.