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HDMI Audio/Bitstreaming via Graphics Card

famasfilms

famasfilms

famasfilms

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Joined
11 Sep 2013
Posts
48
I want to upgrade my eight year old Sony receiver to one that supports the HD Audio (Dolby Digital True HD and DTS-HD).

I currently have a Geforce 8800 DVI-HDMI and an Auzentech x-plosion, the x-plosion is connected to my current receiver via digital coaxial.

My understanding is that I will need a new graphics card with HDMI out that will carry the video and audio signal to the new receiver. When I watch films with HD audio soundtracks the card should bitstream the digital signal to the receiver for decoding.

My question is what Nvidia/Radeon cards support HD audio bitstreaming? Most of the online literature on this topic is from 2-3 years ago and I keep reading that back then not every card supported HD audio bitstreaming, e.g the high end gaming Nvidia cards. It's also really hard to find any info on this topic on the Nvidia website.

Also, what is the sound quality via HDMI graphics like when I'm not watching movies, e.g listening to stereo MP3s or playing games? My current card encodes all audio on my PC as 5.1 dolby/dts and carries this to the receiver which is a nice feature.
 
I only really play DOTA2 at the moment.

My GF 8800 is enough to run Dota fine at 1080p. The GF8800 was also good enough to run most games (eg the new GRID) at 1360*768 on my 32" TV. I've recently changed to a 42" and 1080p resolution so it would be nice to have a card which can run games at the resolution.

In all honesty though I get bored with most games after a few minutes, I guess if the ability is there to run games that would be a nice option to have.
 
I was considering a HD 6770 as this is relatively cheap and looks like it would be a modest performance boost over my 8800.

I was also thinking about a £100-£150 Nvidia card

But all this is redundant if they don't support HD audio bitstreaming
 
AMD cards you'll be fine for as they support bitstreaming throughout their range (5 series and up i think). Never used Nvidia in a HTPC situation so best left for someone more knowledgeable to answer that one :)
 
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