Well I've had few days to install the HDAV and try and get to grips with it so I thought it was a good time to let you all know what I think. By the way, my apologies for the pants photos!
First off lets have a look at the nice packaging;
According to the specs on the box the HDAV is sporting TI Burr-Brown PCM1796 24-bit DAC and Swappable DIP-typed NS LM4562 output OPAs. The DIY audio guys will be particularly pleased with those swappable OPAMPs.
It also says on the box that it's 'The Essential Component For High Def HTPCs'......well lets see shall we!
Here's the main card. Those with other Xonar cards will be familiar with that EMI sheild;
And the rest of the package contents, including the analogue output card that comes with this deluxe version.
It's nice to see that Asus has included a DVI to HDMI and a HDMI cable for hooking up the HDAV to your video card. There's also a set of RCA to 3.5mm adapters for those with PC style 5.1 speaker systems.
Right then, after a quick trip out to the garage for some compressed air action (hadn't blown the dust off for a while!), and a bit of rewiring to supply it with a 4 pin molex, the HDAV is looking at home in my HTPC. Note the front panel audio connector on the top of the card.
It's a bit of a shame that Asus didn't make that ribbon cable a round one, I just hope that it doesn't affect the air flow into my graphics card too much. I might try and find out if it's the same as a floppy drive cable as I have a round one kicking around somewhere.
Heres a shot of the back panel and all of those lovely RCA connections. I've also got the Toslink adapter plugged on here as I've just realised that I dont have enough RCA connectors to make up 3 sets of leads so the analogue out test will have to wait for now. With all of those connections this sound card really is the most versatile you can currently get for a HTPC.
Time for a quick pizza break............mmmmmmmm......... and maybe a glass of Beaujolais and then it's off to install software and drivers.
I won't go into the details of what functionality is, and isn't, available with the HDAV right now as that's well documented. Besides, I don't have an amp that will handle the HD codecs from a HDMI connection anyway so the point is moot for me right now. I intend to get this from the analogue outs when I can make up some more cables and Arcsoft/Asus get the driver/software sorted to stop the Blu-ray software from down sampling the HD audio tracks.
Here's the Asus control panel for the HDAV.
With it set to PCM 192khz it will upsample my music to the SPDIF out for some nice sounding ccchhhoooooooonnnsss! A nice upgrade over the PCM 48khz that I was getting from the on board sound card.
Next I've been busting to try out the DD live feature of this card, as my onboard was never able to give surround in games, so I set it in the control panel and fired up COD4. Instantly the whole sound system came to life and the amp showed that all important DD information on the display.
I've so far managed to get it to work easily in all of the game I've tried, with the exception of GRID which initially wouldn't even launch. After a bit of googling I eventually came across some information on a file that the Soundmax driver had left behind (even driver cleaner had missed it) and was causing some trouble.
I have to say that I've really been missing out on 5.1 in games. In Crysis, for example, the sound of a gunshot echoing around the hills is awsome as is the bass that rocks from an explosion!
In Grid, the sound of the cars behind you are enough to put you even more on edge and the engine noise as you go through a tunnel is very realistic and emerging.
Anyway, back to the HDAV and lets start up a Blu-ray disc. I had initially downloaded a beta version of Total Media Theatre from the Asus website but when it wouldn't play any discs I gave the version on the supplied disc a go. this version played 'No Country For Old Men' no problem so we sat down for a bit of 1080p movie action on the projector.
TMT also integrates itself nicely into Vista Media Centre which means it's also fully compatible with the remote control too, or in my case with my Harmony remote.
This is something that I'm particularly pleased with.
Well that's it for now. I'll be back with more once I get those analogue's tested out properly.
