hdmi sound

Secret_Window

Secret_Window

Secret_Window

Soldato
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10 Aug 2006
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Is there any way to use hdmi sound on a pc from high-def films?

I'm guessing you need some kind of hdmi sound card or amp, not entirely sure.

If someone can help me out, will be very grateful.

:D
 
Yes. Various newer motherboards soundcards and graphics cards will allow the PC to output HDMI, HDMI is electrically compatible with DVI but has a sound signal sent over the same cable, plus includes High Definition Content Protection (HDCP). To watch HDCP movies it is essential that your graphics card (or onboard graphics) and display are both HDCP certified. HDCP includes a hardware check before it will allow the PC to output a digital video signal at 1080p. If the hardware check fails the video will be downscaled, although you can watch it at 1080p over an analogue connection.

Now bear in mind that you don't strictly need HDMI to hear the audio from a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD film. Decoder software, such as the PowerDVD, can allow you to hear it over PC speakers and some soundcards have decoding built in (the cheapest option).

Essentially you must have a PC with HDCP compatible video hardware and SPDIF passthrough to get full HDMI compatibility (sound and video on one cable).

Probably the best solution available is a videocard with an HDMI port or adapter. The Radeon HD 3xxx series of graphics cards sometimes have HDMI out ports and they also do SPDIF passthrough. This means you can output full HDMI video and sound over a single cable to an HDTV or suitable receiver. Something like this would do the trick: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-083-pc&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=416 edit: it uses a dongle to adapt from dvi with sound signal to hdmi

there's a useful article on playing back hdcp protected content here: http://www.behardware.com/articles/656-1/hdcp-protection-is-now-activated-consequences.html

Further Edit: Just to clarify - it's only worth bothering with HDMI sound if you have a good receiver. You're talking pretty expensive kit by the time you get better Digital to Analogue converters than found in a half decent soundcard.
 
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The 2400/2600/2900 and 3850/3870 all have an audio chip on the graphics card which will allow you to output the audio on one cable HDMI, either to your TV or AV Amplifier. This means you don't have a cable going to graphics card. Though their maybe some benefits of using a standalone Audio card and output its audio into the gfx card.

Or you can just output to your ampflier via the spdif cable.

Remember not to use any old DVI/HDMI dongle. You need one from ATI (or someone else) which is wired to carry the sound portion of the signal. a lot of people just use old DVI/HDMI dongles from old cards. These are not wired for sound ;)

Then go into OS and set the default audio device to the GFX card audio chip. Volia audio over the HMDI cable. HOWEVER -> This will not carry HD Audio, since the chipset on the Audio chip only supports HDMI 1.2. For HD Audio you need to be using HDMI cables and 1.3, since it requires upto 18Mbits and spdif doesn't carry that much. Its abit more complicated than that, but we start getting into PCMs and stuff thats over my head atm.

Note - If I have made a mistake, then my apologies, I am happy to be corrected and improve my understanding.
 
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Skarironfist said:
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HOWEVER -> This will not carry HD Audio, since the chipset on the Audio chip only supports HDMI 1.2. For HD Audio you need to be using HDMI cables and 1.3, since it requires upto 18Mbits and spdif doesn't carry that much. Its abit more complicated than that, but we start getting into PCMs and stuff thats over my head atm.

Note - If I have made a mistake, then my apologies, I am happy to be corrected and improve my understanding.
Click to expand...

AFAIK that is correct, there is currently no solution for outputting HD Audio from a PC (via digital, anyway). But then again, I don't think there are that many sources of HD audio at available at the moment anyway.
 
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