HDMI audio support on latest cards

R

rabident

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
300
What are the options on ATI & Nvidia's latest cards? Does the HDMI audio replace the need for a sound card? Or is it only intended for use with HD-DVD / Bluray sources?

My GTX280 came with a SPDIF cable and the instructions said to run the cable between my card and motherboard :confused:
 
I think it's just a convenient way to route your video/ audio to the same destination instead of multiple cables.
I think you'd need the soundcard to actually decode/produce/process sounds in the first place.
 
rabident said:
What are the options on ATI & Nvidia's latest cards? Does the HDMI audio replace the need for a sound card? Or is it only intended for use with HD-DVD / Bluray sources?

My GTX280 came with a SPDIF cable and the instructions said to run the cable between my card and motherboard :confused:
Click to expand...

That cable connects between your videocard and your audio card's SPDIF out connector. It allows you to send audio through HDMI, when you are using such an output.
 
I'm making an educated guess that the EVGA GTX 280 doesn't have this capacity. It has 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & an HDTV port. Would've been nice to have had HDMI instead of the HDTV port...
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
I'm making an educated guess that the EVGA GTX 280 doesn't have this capacity. It has 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & an HDTV port. Would've been nice to have had HDMI instead of the HDTV port...
Click to expand...
It does have HDMI, sort of. Register your card and they send you an HDMI Dongle.
 
Ah, I did do that, so I'll see how it works out once I have it. Thanks for the tip.
 
Kangg said:
It does have HDMI, sort of. Register your card and they send you an HDMI Dongle.
Click to expand...

my 4850 came with one, but you can't send Audio over the DVI port,. all it does it converts the DVI to an HDMI port no ?
 
Depending if it recognizes my TV or not, my 2600XT, 3870, and 4850 all pass audio through the DVI-HDMI connection using the ATI adapter. Need to make sure the Windows High Def Audio Package driver is installed
 
With ATi's HDMI Audio driver, it apparently pushes an audio signal out unused pins in the DVI connection to adapt to the audio pins on the HDMI end. Or something like that. Thats the only way I can reason it.
Kind of cool.
 
where do you get the audio package from? or how do i know if i have it installed. just installed hotfix thats all.
 
Not sure about the package, but check to make sure your ATI card is set to your default sound source too.
 
This thread got me thinking, I have a ATI 3870 w/ HDMI audio support and a 32" HDTV w/ HDMI. I went in a looked at the CCC and seen nothing about HDMI Audio. I shut down my system, unplugged the monitors, got my DVI to HDMI adapter out and hooked up my HDTV to HDMI. Started the system and shut off my desktop speakers. I heard no start up sounds. I double clicked the speaker Icon next to the clock on the taskbar and seen HDMI in the Playback Devices, selected HDMI as default and now I have sound coming from the HDTV via HDMI. I didn't need any audio cables or anything. I have just onboard Sound and it works fine.
 
The ATI cards (not sure how far back this goes but includes at least the 4000 series) have a built in sound card where the Nvidia cards don't.
 
Yes, the 4870's built in HD audio has a serious advantage over NVidia in that the programs that run BluRay like POWER DVD will allow the ATI board to output full 7.1 surround sound, but most motherboard SPDIFs will be forced to downmix to 5.1 or worse because the motherboard sound stuff doesn't have proper protections for HDCP/HDMI.

I was hoping NVidia would do what ATI did, but no. Both the new AMD and NVidia builtin graphics mother boards... 790G and 8200/8300 have the proper protections in place and can output full HD audio out through the HDMI to your HDTV/AV stuff.
 
[21CW]killerofall;1032768778 said:
The ATI cards (not sure how far back this goes but includes at least the 4000 series) have a built in sound card where the Nvidia cards don't.
Click to expand...

Since the HD 2000 series, ATI cards have onboard sound over hdmi capabilities.
 
But there is still no way I can send DD Ture Hd or DTS HD from an ATI card or another sounds card to 8 channel analogue input on my receiver? I really dont want to buy a new receiver. I got a good deal on a THX certified Onkyo one about 2 years ago.
 
[21CW]killerofall;1032768778 said:
The ATI cards (not sure how far back this goes but includes at least the 4000 series) have a built in sound card where the Nvidia cards don't.
Click to expand...
The ATI Video cards do NOT have built in sound cards, just the ability to pass sound thru HDMI, it still used your existing sound card.


neokeelo said:
But there is still no way I can send DD Ture Hd or DTS HD from an ATI card or another sounds card to 8 channel analogue input on my receiver? I really dont want to buy a new receiver. I got a good deal on a THX certified Onkyo one about 2 years ago.
Click to expand...

You should still be able to hook your sound card up to your reciever just as you did before. Again the video card does not have a built in sound card, as long as you select the output you need in the sound proerties you will be fine.
 
WhiteZero said:
With ATi's HDMI Audio driver, it apparently pushes an audio signal out unused pins in the DVI connection to adapt to the audio pins on the HDMI end. Or something like that. Thats the only way I can reason it.
Kind of cool.
Click to expand...

There are no audio pins in HDMI. ATI have a non-standard implementation of HDMI/DVI (see my post here) that seems to use the pins for the second DVI link to act as sensor/excluder for non-ATI adaptors.

What ATI did to enable audio-over-PCIe was nice (albeit a long-standing option under Intel's HD Audio standard, so I wouldn't call it cool); what they did with the adaptor was totally uncool IMNSHO.

xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
Yes, the 4870's built in HD audio has a serious advantage over NVidia ...
I was hoping NVidia would do what ATI did, but no. Both the new AMD and NVidia builtin graphics mother boards... 790G and 8200/8300 have the proper protections in place and can output full HD audio out through the HDMI to your HDTV/AV stuff.
Click to expand...
Agreed, Nvidia has no excuse for dragging the chain on this.
 
So it sounds like:

Nvidia: 2 channel PCM output from SPDIF, output over HDMI.

ATI: 8 channel PCM via an internal soundcard, output over HDMI

If you're willing to have your sound quality degraded through compression, I think both Dolby and DTS have realtime implenentaions of their 5.1 lossy compression codecs that can output within the bandwidtch restrictions of SPDIF. Can that bitstream also be routed through an NVidia card for output over HDMI ?
 
Here's a more thorough breakdown for ATI:
2000/3000 series 5.1 surround DD/DTS over HDMI.
4000 series 7.1 surround LPCM over HDMI (some say it is downsampled by PowerDVD, etc.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top