possible to play Dolby TrueHD on pc?

xappie

[H]ard|Gawd
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Is it possible at all to play HD-DVD movies with Dolby TrueHD on a PC using any of the current soundcards? My video card has HDMI audio built in, but I don't have an HDMI audio/video receiver to connect it to, so it is just connected to my monitor with an DVI-HDMI cable.

Are there any solutions out there to let me play Dolby TrueHD over SPDIF, and will my Logitech z-5500 decode it?????

Yeah, Im kinda confused.
 
Your video card doesn't output audio. The only output right now that allows truhd is HDMI 1.3. I'm not aware of any card that supports it.
 
z-5500 will not decode Dolby TrueHD. It will decode DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1. Only hardware out there that currently decodes that is HD-DVD and BLU-RAY hardware players. If watching through powerdvd .... powerdvd will resample Dolby TrueHD into Dolby Digital 5.1 im pretty sure.
 
no video card outputs Dolby TrueHD. the audio device is a DD pass through over hdmi. both dts and dd hd audio formats are only available in analog through sound cards. the 5500 will accept the analog uncompressed hd audio but a receiver and speaker theater setup will allow you to better hear the difference. power dvd can pass uncompressed hd audio but you need an x-fi to convert it into analog and then to your receiver.
 
predule and the xmerdian suppose to after thef HDMI X-Tension addon that there making comes out. not the current addon thats out. the upcoming one.

http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php
A sample of HDMI X-Tension benefits are listed below:
A single HDMI cable can be connected with External devices like Digital TV or Receiver
High compatibility with various external/internal devices by multi-Input selection (4 input).
Compatibility with Desktop/HTPC/Slim PC (with Standard/LP bracket)
Supports the next generation of Audio format (Dolby True HD/DTS HD)
Swift and stable hardware installation without any installation of related software.
Wide connectivity using the SPDIF Combo Output port.*
Support for HDMI 1.3 and earlier receivers
 
A quote from that link says: "* The SPDIF Input port on the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 is not available with Auzen X-Tension HDMI1.3."

Not sure exactly what this means. Does that mean that the Auzen X-Fi Prelude is "currently" not available with this extension (but you can still attach it later on)? Considering that the extention is only going to be available in Q2 2008, it sounds a bit silly to state the bleeding obvious... So perhaps they're saying this is not going to be compatible with the existing Auzen X-Fi Prelude SPDIF port?


Anyway, I'm interested in the OP's question. How to get TrueHD without using the analogue connections? (the card can be connected via the optical port on the logitech z-5500, but that's not TrueHD)
 
There saying, when you use it, You loose the SPDIF IN connection on the card. But you do not loose the use of the out.I think because it disable the in to use the X-Tenstion. And I think the HDMI X-Tenstion has SPDIF IN on it or something.

The predule has two Digital connections, in and out. The in will be disable when you use the HDMI X-tenstion. Theres other connections on the HDMI X-Tenstion besides the HDMI.

Its compable with the predule as well as the X-merdian. They didnt say it wasnt, they just said the SPDIF will be disable when you plug it into the sound card. So if you have Digital speakers you can still use the Digital out. the HDMI X Tenstion adds the Dobly TrueHD support to the sound card.
 
There saying, when you use it, You loose the SPDIF IN connection on the card. But you do not loose the use of the out.I think because it disable the in to use the X-Tenstion. And I think the HDMI X-Tenstion has SPDIF IN on it or something.

The predule has two Digital connections, in and out. The in will be disable when you use the HDMI X-tenstion. Theres other connections on the HDMI X-Tenstion besides the HDMI.

Its compable with the predule as well as the X-merdian. They didnt say it wasnt, they just said the SPDIF will be disable when you plug it into the sound card. So if you have Digital speakers you can still use the Digital out. the HDMI X Tenstion adds the Dobly TrueHD support to the sound card.

Yes - re-reading that it might just say that the SPDIF doesn't work when you use HDMI.


That thread is focused on the Creative X-Fi, and right now if you have a Creative Xi-Fi, you can only get TrueHD via analogue. I was half hoping that the prelude, since it's being marketed at audiophiles, would address this.

I suppose my real question is now whether the Auzentech prelude will support digital TrueHD once the digital HDMI X-tention is released in Q2 2008?
 
Only hardware out there that currently decodes that is HD-DVD and BLU-RAY hardware players.
There are software decoders available currently (one of them open-source). They can decode TrueHD tracks to LPCM for output via HDMI 1.1+ or analog.

The HDMI out on AMD cards is limited to 48kHz for whatever bizarre reason (AC97 compliance?). The X-Tension won't have this limitation -- its HDMI out is supposed to be fully 1.3-compliant.

If watching through powerdvd .... powerdvd will resample Dolby TrueHD into Dolby Digital 5.1 im pretty sure.
Unless it's decoding, resampling and re-encoding, I don't think this is possible.

To answer the OP's question, no, you can't spit out TrueHD over S/PDIF, and you can't decode and spit PCM out S/PDIF either, unless of course you drop four (5.1) or six (7.1) channels and possibly resample it. Go analog.
 
I already said the only output that I'm aware of that gives TrueHD is hdmi 1.3. I didn't know what kind of video card you had :p lol. News to my eyes still. However, like the other guys said I'm sure it's more of just a DD pass through more than anything.
 
Wow, lots of misinformation in this thread.

The short answer is that there is currently no way to output any HD audio format (Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD Master, etc) from a PC. It is not for lack of hardware, though that is in short supply. As was previously posted, the Prelude will gain that ability via an add-on, and there are already some motherboards with the Realtek ALC889a codec, which supports HD audio over HDMI.

However, having the requisite hardware still will not allow you to get these HD audio formats from your PC, simply because there is no standard for transmitting encrypted audio securely through Windows. So for a program like PowerDVD to output TrueHD to a Realtek ALC889a-based motherboard, Cyberlink will have to program PowerDVD to take advantage of Realtek's proprietary method of transmitting HDCP-protected audio to the sound chipset. They are working on that functionality as we post. In the meantime, PowerDVD will downsample HD audio formats to their SD cousins.

Also, TrueHD cannot be transmitted over SPDIF. You would either need to decode it locally and use analog connections, or buy a HDMI receiver.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/10/08/powerdvd_ultra_audio_downsampling_explained/1
 
I understood that you could get some HD audio formats albeit via analogue. So a media PC connected to a receiver via analogue and then to a 7.1 system will not handle any HD format?
 
I understood that you could get some HD audio formats albeit via analogue. So a media PC connected to a receiver via analogue and then to a 7.1 system will not handle any HD format?

See post 9.
 
See post 9.

That was the post I was using for my information. That post says that I can get DolbyHD by using the analogue connectors.

All was clear.

However, Auric then said: "lots of misinformation in this thread. The short answer is that there is currently no way to output any HD audio format (Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD Master, etc) from a PC."

That made things less clear.

Hence my query.
 
Ok. Well basically, some people say you can't because PowerDVD "downres's" everything, but I have yet to see any evidence of this. I can visually confirm the difference as I posted screenshots, and I hear it with my ears. I think most of the people commenting don't really have the hardware/software/movies available in front of them to see for themselves and they are just going off of blog postings.
 
Ok. Well basically, some people say you can't because PowerDVD "downres's" everything, but I have yet to see any evidence of this. I can visually confirm the difference as I posted screenshots, and I hear it with my ears. I think most of the people commenting don't really have the hardware/software/movies available in front of them to see for themselves and they are just going off of blog postings.

I'm going off an interview with Cyberlink's product manager. I linked it in my post above. Also, see this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=892863&highlight=trueHD

To clarify, you can play back TrueHD or any other HD audio format over analog connections with PowerDVD, but it will downsample it to 16-bit/48kHz. This is still an improvement over standard Dolby Digital, as the bitrate is higher, but it is not full TrueHD quality. I'm not sure if WinDVD does the same thing, but only the Japanese version is currently able to play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs.
 
Yes.. we linked to that blog posting in my thread I linked to in post 9. We also linked to an actual news article where an actual spokesperson for Cyberlink said it only downsamples if they are protection flags. If you use AnyDVD, it removes the protection flags. But the protection flags for audio aren't mandatory under AACS encryption from what they said. I'd rather go on the word of the Cyberlink spokesperson than a $8/hr contracted phone/email tech.
 
Yes.. we linked to that blog posting in my thread I linked to in post 9. We also linked to an actual news article where an actual spokesperson for Cyberlink said it only downsamples if they are protection flags. If you use AnyDVD, it removes the protection flags. But the protection flags for audio aren't mandatory under AACS encryption from what they said. I'd rather go on the word of the Cyberlink spokesperson than a $8/hr contracted phone/email tech.

Where do you see a blog? I've linked to two things: an interview with PowerDVD's Product Manager from a reputable tech news site, and a forum post on one of the most popular and respected A/V forums on the web. No blogs were involved. I can understand your reluctance to trust a forum poster you do not know, but the word of PowerDVD's Product Manager should be more than sufficient.
 
Post # 326 in that thread was what I was talking about. We already covered everything in the TrueHD thread on this forum that I linked to in post 9 of this thread.

But for the record, forums are a form of blogging. That is all I was referring to in that regard.
 
Post # 326 in that thread was what I was talking about. We already covered everything in the TrueHD thread on this forum that I linked to in post 9 of this thread.

Post 326 is just a quote of the very interview to which I linked.

It seems from this thread and the other you linked that you're basing you're argument on the fact that you can hear a difference, and that PowerDVD is reporting an output sampling rate of 96kHz. I believe these points were already refuted in the other thread, but I'll repeat them for your benefit.

You can hear a difference between the downsampled TrueHD and standard Dolby Digital because the output is being decompressed to PCM from a lossless source (the TrueHD stream) with a much higher bitrate than a lossy Dolby Digital stream. That arguably makes a far greater difference in sound quality than a higher sampling rate.

As to why PowerDVD tells you you're getting 96KHz, that was covered. That reading is taken before the downsampling occurs. If you have a receiver that tells you the sampling rate of its input, that would be a better way to tell.

In any case, the evidence is all there, believe it or don't.

But for the record, forums are a form of blogging. That is all I was referring to in that regard.

That depends on whose definition you use, but I think the Internet at large would disagree with you.
 
Yes... we already went over all this in the original thread in post 9. Why are you still going on?
 
Yes... we already went over all this in the original thread in post 9. Why are you still going on?

No, other posters went over all of this, and you refuted what you could and ignored what you couldn't. If you want to be stubborn that's your prerogative, but when you spread this misinformation in other threads such as this one, I'm going to endeavor to see that the OP and any other interested parties get the truth. Don't think you can just dismiss every argument that comes up because you successfully ignored it the first time around.
 
awwww boo hooo.. :p

We went over everything that we have at our disposal hardware and software wise, and we can neither confirm nor deny the claims. You have to remember we're stripping all protection flags with AnyDVD.

If you will link me to a utility that will prove with PowerDVD stripping protection flags that it still downres's the audio going into the driver, I will gladly test it so we can put this to rest. Otherwise we don't know. Cyberlink is just claiming because of the protection that it downres's.
 
Taken from the Bit-Tech interview:

I think there might be some bug in our program that downsamples everything. That is not our intent. We only need to down-sample premium content (AACS, CPRM, etc)."

There is your confirmation. If you had bothered to read the thread on AVS, you would also know that removing the protection with AnyDVD doesn't help, because PowerDVD isn't properly detecting it in the first place.

I've already given you an alternative method to determining PowerDVD's output: hook your PC up to a receiver that gives you a sampling rate readout. Mine does, and I would offer to do it for you, but somehow I still don't think you'd be convinced.
 
I read that already. Did you even go through the thread I linked you to?

We want proof. They sure use a lot of "I think" and "there might" for being so confident. This is [H]. We don't like just going off what people "say". We want to see for ourselves. We aren't really doubting anything, because they could be totally right. We just can't confirm it.
 
I've already given you an alternative method to determining PowerDVD's output: hook your PC up to a receiver that gives you a sampling rate readout. Mine does, and I would offer to do it for you, but somehow I still don't think you'd be convinced.
Which receiver shows sample rates over the analog amp inputs? Maybe I can find someone that has one by me so we can test it. I have the Onkyo 605, but I haven't found a menu yet that shows it.
 
I read that already. Did you even go through the thread I linked you to?

Yes, I know it was posted before, but either you didn't read it or you just chose to ignore it.

We want proof. They sure use a lot of "I think" and "there might" for being so confident. This is [H]. We don't like just going off what people "say". We want to see for ourselves. We aren't really doubting anything, because they could be totally right. We just can't confirm it.

Not we, you. You're the only one arguing this point. I dare say the product manager knows more about his product than you do.

As for which receivers show sampling rates, I don't know off the top of my head. I have an old Pioneer VSX-D411, and when it detects input at 96kHz, it shows up on the display in very big letters.
 
Yes, I know it was posted before, but either you didn't read it or you just chose to ignore it.
I take everything I read on the internet with a grain of salt because many times these companies say things that turn out to be false, or only partially true depending on the situation.

Not we, you. You're the only one arguing this point. I dare say the product manager knows more about his product than you do.
No, we all should want rock solid answers. Why should we just believe everything a corporate company says? Also, if you've been around companies and retail, you'd know product managers don't know anything about the details of the products they sell. Just go to the AMD/Microsoft tech tour and listen in to some of the things they say. When you ask them questions they can't even answer them half the time :p
 
No, we all should want rock solid answers. Why should we just believe everything a corporate company says? Also, if you've been around companies and retail, you'd know product managers don't know anything about the details of the products they sell. Just go to the AMD/Microsoft tech tour and listen in to some of the things they say. When you ask them questions they can't even answer them half the time :p

That may be, but under the circumstances I'd say their word is worth more than yours.
 
But the reason I want to know, is so we can see under which circumstances their statements are true. That way we could develop workarounds or test different configurations. That really is all its about. We want our full resolution audio.
 
According to them, all circumstances, at least until they fix the software. If you don't want to take them at their word, the first obstacle is actually finding a HD movie that has a 24/96 TrueHD track. Most TrueHD tracks are still 16/48, or in some cases 24/48. They're particularly rare on HD-DVD, owing to the smaller disc capacity. A very small number of Blu-Ray movies have 24/96 LPCM tracks, which could also be used.
 
No, other posters went over all of this, and you refuted what you could and ignored what you couldn't. If you want to be stubborn that's your prerogative, but when you spread this misinformation in other threads such as this one, I'm going to endeavor to see that the OP and any other interested parties get the truth. Don't think you can just dismiss every argument that comes up because you successfully ignored it the first time around.

FWIW I agree with Auric on the analysis of the evidence that w1retap has shown. It does not convince me that there really is full bandwidth TrueHD output going on with PowerDVD. I also would tend to believe that Auric's reference to PowerDVD's product manager's is correct.

The fact is, when PowerDVD decodes the encrypted TrueHD stream and sends it to the sound card for output, the unencrypted decoded stream IS STILL DIGITAL. The DRM nazi's don't like that digital stream to be unencrypted at all, but really make a fuss if it's 96kHz/24bit, so to keep the studio's happy (most probably it's in the license agreement to be able to decode TrueHD) PowerDVD downsamples the audio stream for unencrypted transmission to the sound card.

One just has to look at how Sony would not allow the output of SACD's be digitally transmitted out of the CD player unless an encrypted link was used as an example of the absurdity of it all and apply it to the PC world where digital data streams can be intercepted on the PCI bus enroute to the sound card.
 
w1retap you should be able to test this. run a trueHD stream to your onkyo 605 and hit the DISPLAY button next to DIGITAL INPUT on the front of the receiver (i assume it has that much in common with the 705). one of the displays available is [fs: XXkHz]. that should settle the question of powerDVD downsampling!
 
w1retap you should be able to test this. run a trueHD stream to your onkyo 605 and hit the DISPLAY button next to DIGITAL INPUT on the front of the receiver (i assume it has that much in common with the 705). one of the displays available is [fs: XXkHz]. that should settle the question of powerDVD downsampling!

Didn't know that. Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try later on today and take some pix if it works. :)
 
Doesn't work. It only displays "Multichannel" when you press it once. If you press it twice it goes back to displaying the volume. If you hold it down it shows the video HDMI pass through of "1080p60--->1080p".
 
I'm having the strangest feeling of deja vu. I could swear I've participated in this discussion with w1retap among others on the Home Theater board, lol. I don't think the onkyo will show the frequency if in multichannel mode (i.e. using analog inputs). Looks like we still don't know anything more about what PowerDVD is doing.
 
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