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| Registered: June 9, 2007 |  Posts: 1,208 |
| | Posted: | | | | Hey all.
I've recently purchased a Bluray drive for my htpc and would like to know from fellow htpc'ers how you go about getting the hd sound formats to the receiver.
From some searching it seems as though optical can only carry 2 channel pcm and 5.1 dolby digital. Do I need a soundcard with hdmi out? |
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| Registered: January 1, 2009 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 3,087 |
| | Posted: | | | | If you want to see HD you need a HDMI-out. This should also give you HD Sound. Or do I miss something? |
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| Registered: June 9, 2007 | | Posts: 1,208 |
| | Posted: | | | | Video is going straight to the TV via a DVI-HDMI cable but as this is coming from the GPU it carries no sound. |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 |  Posts: 630 |
| | Posted: | | | | I would look at a new GFX card with sound support on HDMI. Check it supports the audio formats you need (for example the ATI HD 5000 series as far as I could see from a quick Google search). The new Sandy Bridge series of processors from Intel supports this on the on-board graphics system as well, but that is a bit of an investment compared to a cheap graphics card  | | | Regards
Lars | | | | Last edited: by lmoelleb |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 5,734 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting MarEll: Quote:
Video is going straight to the TV via a DVI-HDMI cable but as this is coming from the GPU it carries no sound. DVI never carries sound. But I would have thought that a HDMI output of a HDCP compliant graphics card would also carry the lossless audio bitstreams, doesn't it? Maybe the software player can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and you could connect the sound outputs of the card/mainboard to the analog inputs of your receiver? Guess you'll have to wait until the technicians wake up. | | | | Don't confuse while the film is playing with when the film is played. [Ken Cole, DVD Profiler Architect] |
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| Registered: June 9, 2007 | | Posts: 1,208 |
| | Posted: | | | | I looked at passing the sound through my (or a) GPU but as I have the picture going straight to the tv (so I can have different picture calibrations for each input) the receiver wouldn't get the audio.
I think analogue may be the way to go. PowerDVD decodes the HD formats and I think with a bit of work MPC-HC does too. |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 5,918 |
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| Registered: June 9, 2007 | | Posts: 1,208 |
| | Posted: | | | | That's the one I've been looking at. Does it need to have the video output from the GPU going through it? Or can it just carry the sound? |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | Not sure what you mean by the output from the GPU. It's a sound card that takes an HDMI signal in, adds an audio stream to it, and then outputs the combined signal through it's own HDMI out.
One thing to note if you do go this route is that you have to manually adjust your speaker settings to use the device after installing if using Win7. Flaw in the installer. |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting bbbbb: Quote:
But I would have thought that a HDMI output of a HDCP compliant graphics card would also carry the lossless audio bitstreams, doesn't it? Not every video card adds the audio stream to the HDMI signal and the ones that do are simply a pass-thru where you plug in a two-pin wire into the HD out pins on the motherboard and the other end to the video card. |
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| Registered: June 9, 2007 | | Posts: 1,208 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Dr. Killpatient: Quote:
[...]
It's a sound card that takes an HDMI signal in, adds an audio stream to it, and then outputs the combined signal through it's own HDMI out.
[...] But what I mean is, does the soundcard need to have the inputfrom the GPU? Or can the two signals be kept seperate? I'd want the video going to the TV and the audio going to the receiver. I've just ordered four 3.5mm jack to RCA leads to see how the analogue connections sound. As they were only £1 each I'm not losing much if it's a no go. I don't think I could buy that card for a while, I've spent way too much this year already (and its only April!). |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,463 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting MarEll: Quote:
Hey all.
I've recently purchased a Bluray drive for my htpc and would like to know from fellow htpc'ers how you go about getting the hd sound formats to the receiver.
From some searching it seems as though optical can only carry 2 channel pcm and 5.1 dolby digital. Do I need a soundcard with hdmi out? If you have a spare PCI slot, you can get a graphics card that will do it for reasonable prices I think. I have been using the VisonTek/ATI 4850 for awhile, and it has drivers including Windows 7 x64 that output audio through the HDMI port. I also have digital out from my sound card, but the HDMI audio is satisfyiing enough for me so far. BTW the graphics card did not require any external connections to the motherboard or sound card. | | | Thanks for your support.
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Hey, new product!!! BDPFrog. | | | | Last edited: by mediadogg |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 5,734 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting mediadogg: Quote:
I have been using the VisonTek/ATI 4850 for awhile, and it has drivers including Windows 7 x64 that output audio through the HDMI port. DTS-HD Master Audio, as requested, or only the core stream? | | | | Don't confuse while the film is playing with when the film is played. [Ken Cole, DVD Profiler Architect] |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting MarEll: Quote:
But what I mean is, does the soundcard need to have the inputfrom the GPU? Or can the two signals be kept seperate? I'd want the video going to the TV and the audio going to the receiver. I've no idea. But doesn't your receiver have an HDMI video pass-through to your TV? My Denon receiver takes HDMI in with both video & audio, handles the audio, and passes the video onto the TV via it's own HDMI cable. |
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