Dolby Digital Live on HDMI graphics cards

[pallys]

Hi, can these new graphics card (like ATI 5xxx series) output Dolby Digital Live via the HDMI connection when gaming?

I.e. without a traditional sound card.

 

[nshire]

Not sure of dolby live but 5xxx and 6xxx will output dolby digital normal and dolby truehd as well as the.dts audio formats

 

[kylew]

They don't do Dolby Digital Live, that's realtime 5.1 encoding, the graphics cards essentially just pass through the sound stream, so you'd need a soundcard that does DDL encoding to get it.

 

[james.miller]

they dont need to be capable of dolby digital live when they support fully uncompressed 7.1 192khz LPCM.

 

[kylew]

they dont need to be capable of dolby digital live when they support fully uncompressed 7.1 192khz LPCM.

Dolby Digital Live is the realtime upmixing/encoding of any audio source, DDL 5.1 separates audio tracks in to 5.1 in a similar fashion to Pro Logic II, just much better, and it's also pretty good for games even without the game properly supporting surround sound.

 

[james.miller]

Dolby Digital Live is the realtime upmixing/encoding of any audio source, DDL 5.1 separates audio tracks in to 5.1 in a similar fashion to Pro Logic II, just much better, and it's also pretty good for games even without the game properly supporting surround sound.

setting 5-7.1 lpcm output achieves the same result . no encoding (or decoding) needed, just straight multi-channel pcm output.

prologic is a completely different kettle of fish. PL is a surround sound processor encoder/decoder, enabling limited surround sound info to be encoded in to stereo audio steams and in the case of decoding, to either decode that surround info or pseudo-generate it from regular stereo audio. It's limited in the sense that is it's bandwith limited, meaning limited frequency range and poor seperation. it's nothing at all like the real thing.

DDLive does no seperating or mixing. it simple takes an audio input and turns it in to a dolby digital stream. 2.0 channel audio becomes 2.0 channel audio wrapped up in a 5.1 container - no extra info is added. at the other end, 7.1 becomes 5.1 and the two rear channels are discarded. no additional processing is done as far as im aware - i do not know of any consumer encoders such as DDLive that are capable of encoding a matrixed 6th surround channel (ie, Dolby digital EX).

for reference, i do exactly this with my 5850 - 7.1 96khz LPCM surround sound. 96khz because audyssey doesn't work at anything above that on my onkyo. and it works wonderfully

 

[kylew]

I have options in my soundcard control panel to chose what type of surround sound to upmix things to with DDL. This is exactly the point in dolby digital live, it's all in the name "live". Stereo sound can be "upmixed" (guessed separation essentially) to 5.1 so that different parts of an mp3 come out of different speakers. Setting my output to 5.1 without DDL encoding, I get "5.1" sound going to my amp, but only the stereo speakers produce any sound.

My amp still registers it as 5.1, but the other speakers are left unused, turn DDL on and all speakers are used with different sounds coming from different speakers. I'm not saying new info is added, but rather the track is split up and different parts of played through different speakers. Using the "digital input" and the "dolby digital surround" settings on my amp, I can only get 5.1 out of content that is already being output as 5.1 by itself, like a movie's audio track.

 

[james.miller]

I have options in my soundcard control panel to chose what type of surround sound to upmix things to with DDL.

that isn't a feature of Dolby digital live, its the soundcard that does the processing prior to DDLIVe getting hold of the audio.

see here for example: http://www.elitebastards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=696&Itemid=27&limitstart=3

DPL-II upmixing is not a sub-feature of DDLive, its a discrete feature in its own right.

for information, the word 'live' has nothing to do with creating surround information from stereo audio, it literally means 'live', or to do it in real time. Before they renamed it to DDLive, it was called DICE, or Dolby Interactive Content Encoder.....which was a rubbish name.

Dolby® Digital Live is a real-time technology that converts any audio signal into Dolby Digital for easy connection to home theater systems through a single digital cable.

* Converts PC or game audio signals to a Dolby Digital signal in real time
* Maintains compatibility with the millions of consumer systems that support Dolby Digital
* Provides an easy single-cable connection to A/V receivers, HTIB systems, and integrated 5.1-channel speaker systems

Dolby Digital is an advanced audio coding technology that efficiently delivers up to 5.1 discrete channels of surround sound. Dolby Digital is widely used throughout the world for cinema, home theater, and broadcasting. Most home theater A/V receivers incorporate Dolby Digital technology.

Dolby Digital Live is an implementation of Dolby Digital encoding that enables a PC to serve as a source component for a home theater system. Dolby Digital Live converts any PC audio signal—from a CD, a DVD, streamed content, and games—to a Dolby Digital signal.
Dolby Digital Live encodes the signal into a compact Dolby Digital bitstream in real time.

The signal is sent from the PC to the home theater system via a single digital cable (S/PDIF), eliminating the confusion and hassle of multiple cables. The connection also ensures the quality of the audio signal.

Why Dolby

As PCs become multimedia hubs, consumers increasingly rely on them for entertainment. However, native PC audio does not reach the levels of quality that can be attained by a full home theater system.

Dolby Digital Live provides a practical, cost-effective solution for delivering discrete multichannel audio from a PC to a home theater system.
Dolby Digital Live adds to the versatility and functionality of a PC as a multimedia source component.

Dolby Digital Live ensures playback compatibility with nearly all multichannel playback systems, from elaborate home theaters to compact, integrated 5.1-channel speaker systems.

From a hardware standpoint, the single S/PDIF digital connection is easier and less expensive to implement than multiple analog connectors.
Dolby Digital Live is part of Dolby Home Theater® v3. It is also available for license as an individual technology.

all of which is obsolete if you are using hdmi and have a hdmi amp capability of accepting multi-channel LPCM audio which should be....all of them, since it's mandatory in every version of the HDMI spec released. the same applies for DTS Connect btw, which is a superior alternative to DDLive.

incidentally, whilst i dont have any advanced options in the sound drivers to create surround sound from stereo sources (no DPL-II or DTS:neo), i do have a prologic plug-in for foobar that does exactly the same thing over LPCM if i so desire.

 

[pallys]

Multi Channel Audio on HDMI graphics cards

setting 5-7.1 lpcm output achieves the same result . no encoding (or decoding) needed, just straight multi-channel pcm output.

prologic is a completely different kettle of fish. PL is a surround sound processor encoder/decoder, enabling limited surround sound info to be encoded in to stereo audio steams and in the case of decoding, to either decode that surround info or pseudo-generate it from regular stereo audio. It's limited in the sense that is it's bandwith limited, meaning limited frequency range and poor seperation. it's nothing at all like the real thing.

DDLive does no seperating or mixing. it simple takes an audio input and turns it in to a dolby digital stream. 2.0 channel audio becomes 2.0 channel audio wrapped up in a 5.1 container - no extra info is added. at the other end, 7.1 becomes 5.1 and the two rear channels are discarded. no additional processing is done as far as im aware - i do not know of any consumer encoders such as DDLive that are capable of encoding a matrixed 6th surround channel (ie, Dolby digital EX).

for reference, i do exactly this with my 5850 - 7.1 96khz LPCM surround sound. 96khz because audyssey doesn't work at anything above that on my onkyo. and it works wonderfully

Hmm interesting, can you confirm that means a sound card is no longer required for gaming if you have these new graphics cards e.g. ATI 5xxx series because the LPCM stream is enough to output discrete multi channel audio?

If the above is true, then how does these HDMI audio chips (realtek for ATI afaik) process surround sound game audio via an AV Receiver? I take it EAX tech is not supported but Direct Sound 3D is?

I suppose the thread title should be renamed to Multi Channel Audio on HDMI graphics cards when gaming.

 

[malachi]

On my ATI 4870 I was able to do DD through my HDMI by enabling an option in the ATI HDMI sound option. But I noticed last week they removed the option so my reciever no longer picks up DD

 

[james.miller]

Hmm interesting, can you confirm that means a sound card is no longer required for gaming if you have these new graphics cards e.g. ATI 5xxx series because the LPCM stream is enough to output discrete multi channel audio?

If the above is true, then how does these HDMI audio chips (realtek for ATI afaik) process surround sound game audio via an AV Receiver? I take it EAX tech is not supported but Direct Sound 3D is?

I suppose the thread title should be renamed to Multi Channel Audio on HDMI graphics cards when gaming.

yeah you dont need a soundcard. there is no escaping the fact that a proper sound card would be better for gaming though, EAX support isnt a top priority for these realtek hdmi audio chipsets.