help me finally get rid of soundcard, need passthrough/ATMOS to AVR

[slim01]

Hey everyone,

I understand the age of the soundcard is long over. I made a post on an (Audiophile) forum and got berated for still using optical for audio (as Dolby Digital Live sounds "dog***t" and my £2k KEF r500 speakers would think I'm an idiot). Honestly I still think 5.1 sounds great using my Asus Xonar DX, but
a) optical can't do high quality audio (FLACs etc) OR 7.1,
b) I'd appreciate the free space (soon to try to fit a 280mm AIO in this HTPC),
c) PCM only sends 2ch audio.
...so IT IS TIME TO EVICT THE XONAR!


So... how the hell do you guys do audio over HMDI (or DP) to AVR?
2025 is this STILL not possible without caveats? I followed 2 guides but just came across issues and want to know how you guys have done it.

**Note - my main concern is for gaming in 7.1... would be nice to have 7.1 for movies too but meh... rarely watch movies on PC**
-Can we not just get PC to process/send an ATMOS bitstream with the ATMOS app to AVR via HDMI?
-Why does a 2nd HDMI output from GPU HAVE to include a video output?



NOTE:
-Not sure I want display to go via AVR passthrough to TV, as my AVR does not (I think) do 4k 120hz or even 60hz, nor HDR+ or VRR. Maybe life would be easier if I simply had an AVR that does all that...
-I'm not interested in usb DAC's, unless that can help passthrough 7.1 audio?
-Deffo not interested in using headphones or PC speakers instead of a +£5000 Hi-Fi.



Thanks in advance all!!


------------------------------------
Relevant specs:
GPU - Gigabyte rtx3080 OC (DisplayPort 1.4a x3 and HDMI 2.1 x2)
MOBO - Asus x570-p (has HMDI out)
TV - Philips OLED 55OLED706 (has E-ARC)
-
AVR - Onkyo sr6012 (has E-ARC via update)
SPEAKERS - All KEF (r500 floorstanders, iq60c centre, egg rears, +r400b sub)

 

[slim01]

I have the same Asus Xonar DX as you.

The ideal setup would be

Displayport--->Monitor--->Monitor E-ARC out---->AVR

But most monitors don't have E-ARC out. I think the Dell 4K QD-OLED has HDMI E-ARC out. So it should work.

I tried with DP to monitor, and HDMI from PC to AVR but it causes the system to think it's a dual monitor setup, and drops the display output resolution/refresh to what the AVR supports. I wanted HDMI audio to get lossless HD audio from PC to AVR. I was getting HD Audio fine with HDMI to AVR, but the dual display was causing issues, mouse rolling off the first screen onto the "fake AVR screen"

Yes I agree why don't GPU have "HDMI audio out" like my Panasonic BD820, that way use DP for video, and HDMI for audio only.

I'll be using the Asus Xonar DX for a long while, at least until the next build. Using the custom open source drivers.

tbh I'd just get recommend dedicated audio and video streamers, then using the PC for gaming only.

that way you get HD lossless from movies, framerate switching for movies , 24 bit 192khz from a audio streamer via coaxial (or use streamer analogue outputs) Then for games it's just PCM from the Asus Xonar DX.

Also ensure next motherboard upgrade has spdif out...mine doesn't.

Sorry hornet replied to this basically in the other thread, will post here for anyone else to see more info:

----------------
(in Xonar settings) When I use PCM out via optical I only get 2.1 audio for some reason. I often forget to switch over to PCM when listening to music and tbh rarely notice, but can imagine it's a bad compression yeah. It's difficult to do an A-B comparison because on PCM it ups the volume and bass. I've never once had surround sound from PC to AVR unless I use DD Live

The audiophile dudes say optical cant handle much above 320kbps because of limitations of optical and FLACS can be well over 1000kbps. I think my FLACS sound great, but might be inclined to agree with them because I don't think on my setup FLACs sound much better than a good quality MP3. I've also no complaints with audio quality on youtube or downloaded movies etc... Maybe my ears aren't great from all the motorbiking! But yeah, only 5.1.

Yeah I've heard unfortunately you have to have it set to dual display.
If you just duplicate surely you could just set the 2nd feed to AVR as like 800x600 or something? Maybe it wouldn't use too much gpu power?
Myself, I can't even get the audio to go through GPU to my AVR. The AVR gets nothing.
And if try ARC instead: my TV's HDMI source (HDMI 1 for PC) just keeps switching to HDMI 2: my blu ray, fire cube, or whatever is connected to the AVR. Sometimes this kit turns on as soon as I turn easy-link on... which is needed for ARC. Oddly, ARC instead from TV apps (eg netflix) works fine to AVR... I open netflix and AVR switched to "TV audio"... it's like it needs the AVR needs to like automatically switch to "TV audio" which it does when you play something on TV, but with HDMI it doesn't...
My "Nvidia HD audio" does come out of my TV speakers ok though.

This is why my sound card lives on to 2025 haha!

 

[slim01]

Yes I agree why don't GPU have "HDMI audio out" like my Panasonic BD820, that way use DP for video, and HDMI for audio only.

It would be amazingly easy for sure.

As mentioned trying to get rid of optical, as this is mainly for 7.1 and games. Currely using AVR's fake 7.1.

Why on earth would it be 1080p

Mouse won't move off the side when the TV is off and when it's on then you'll be using the TV, not a monitor. This is such a non issue

Ummmmm.... I only have the TV. Does this setup require you to have a separate monitor? Although I get no audio on my AVR when I go:
GPU HDMI OUT1 > TV
GPU HDMI OUT 2 > AVR

Perhaps my AVR has to be switched to the PCs video signal correctly to actually play back it's audio... which means I don't get the 4k signal going from GPU direct to TV.


@Grim, Like hornet, unfortunately my AVR does not support passthrough of VRR, ALLM, or 4k 120 anyway.


I'll try fiddling around with arc again guys, see if i can figure out what this hdmi switching issue is. Unless I can sort that I'll never be able to set the displays (TV) input source to the PC.

 

[slim01]

Posted in the other thread, but additionally test PCM 44 & 48khz first, see what your AVR shows, you want that bit perfect. Once that's working then test DD/DTS movies / TV shows, with MPC DD/DTS ticked your AVR should light up when you play those codecs.

Just means you won't get any HD codecs as SPDIF doesn't support that. But you'll get the DTS core at least.

If priority is video playback and HD codecs just buy a amlogic box and put corelec on it.. That will past DTS HD, Dolby HD, Atmos, DTS X. Output HDR10, HLG, proper framerate switching


Cheap and it'll work better than a noisy PC.

nah priority is gaming and 7.1 (which can't be done with optical). Pretty sure I've seen DTS light up before... not sure how if ive been using DD live though... as you know you can only tick the one box on the Xonar DX...

Noisy PC?!?! Hah, mine is silent for movies my friend, Noctua FTW!

 

[slim01]

Update - got audio out with the 2nd hdmi from gpu (had to adjust amps setup... Im an idiot) and set "turn off audio" in the nvidia app on the TV and turned on audio only (audio out) to the one to AVR... maybe missed that before if it helps anyone else: under sound settings in nvidia CP.

Question - Does having a 2nd display mirrored in the background (looks like its in 4k) use much of the GPU power? Have to mirror it otherwise like hornets said the mouse goes off the screen as it thinks theres two.


Also question... It sounds horrible, likely because no EQ set... any recommendations of a custom EQ app like the asus xonar one?

Will test 7.1 later, must go to work Thanks for help guys