Need help getting the best out of my kit... please?

Buchanan0204

Buchanan0204

Buchanan0204

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I have posted a few threads before, but no one ever replied.

Basically, I have my pc hooked upto my amp and surround 5.1 speakers. I just feel I'm not utilising this properly, I feel the sound could be a lot better.

I always thought the amp did the decoding part... however I had to buy a new soundcard. (asus xonar ds) to hook it upto the optical on my amp to receive 5.1.

I can only select dts interactive, not pcm... I'm sure PCM is better.

The sound also sounds very muddy unless I set it to treble in the xonar control panel.

Am I hooking it up correctly... am I missing something obvious?

My amp is a Sony str-dn1000.

Thanks' for any help offered in advance.

Original posts (more info in these if needed)

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18258745&highlight=xonar+startername_buchanan0204

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18210253&highlight=xonar+startername_buchanan0204
 
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jellybeard999 said:
Are there any settings labelled passthrough or similar?
Click to expand...

passthru.jpg


Is that what you are looking for?
 
Tallywhacker said:
yup...and have you not thought about using your gfx cards hdmi as output to your amp?
Click to expand...

I tried using my 6970 to output the sound... I used an HDMI to connect the gpu to the amps input and then another hdmi from the amps output to my monitor. For some reason, it was really grainy and it didn't want to display the full 1920x1200 for my monitor. I was sure my amp was 1080p capable, however when I went into the amps config settings it only displayed 1080i. Really miffed about that.

I have selected the spdif passthru as the main source. However it only allows for 2 channels, not 6. However when I go into properties, supported formats... next to where it says dolby digital and dts. I select test and it then outputs a sound via all 5 speakers. Rather confused.

Thanks' for all the help so far guys. I really do appreciate it.
 
thought through CCC you can set pic with dvi and sound still output through HDMI via windows sound settings?
ahh just read your 1920x1200 amp might not support that res unless you have a pass through option.

PCM wont output through optical iirc as its 6 channels of sound uncompressed and optical is compressed audio but in 2 channels still(amp then decodes that to 5.1)

the reason you hear sound thru all speakers on test is that it is surround sound but 2 channels of compressed audio...only hdmi will support uncompressed....unless you have 5 more 3.5mm to phono connectors from sound card back to your amp
 
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Tallywhacker said:
thought through CCC you can set pic with dvi and sound still output through HDMI via windows sound settings?
ahh just read your 1920x1200 amp might not support that res unless you have a pass through option.

PCM wont output through optical iirc as its 6 channels of sound uncompressed and optical is compressed audio but in 2 channels still(amp then decodes that to 5.1)

the reason you hear sound thru all speakers on test is that it is surround sound but 2 channels of compressed audio...only hdmi will support uncompressed....unless you have 5 more 3.5mm to phono connectors from sound card back to your amp
Click to expand...

I understood most of that... I'll try again with the HDMI out from my gpu. It's a 6970 if that helps.
 
got a 6950 myself and once i get round to it....ie pc nearer my amp on the otherside of room, I will be doing the same thing but pc being connected to my tv via my amp
Just been spec'ing your amp and it does have a passthru option....so somewhere in your amps settings on whatever hdmi input your connected to you should be able to set it and keep your higher monitor resolution but still have the amp decode any incoming sound.

Hope I've been making some sort of sense...lol, been there myself tbh when setting all my stuff up to my amp and no doubt will be going through it all again once I do what I've mentioned at the start of this post
 
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Tallywhacker said:
got a 6950 myself and once i get round to it....ie pc nearer my amp on the otherside of room, I will be doing the same thing but pc being connected to my tv via my amp
Just been spec'ing your amp and it does have a passthru option....so somewhere in your amps settings on whatever hdmi input your connected to you should be able to set it and keep your higher monitor resolution but still have the amp decode any incoming sound.

Hope I've been making some sort of sense...lol, been there myself tbh when setting all my stuff up to my amp and no doubt will be going through it all again once I do what I've mentioned at the start of this post
Click to expand...

I'll whip out the HDMI cables later on tonight and have a crack at it once again. Thanks' so much for all your help, I appreciate. I'll keep you informed how it goes if that's alright.
 
Ok. A little update. I have hooked my gpu into my amp, back to monitor. When I first turned it on, the monitor was extremely flickery. After looking around in CCC I noticed the refresh rate was set to 20Hz. I changed it too 60Hz and it stopped. All was well.

The sound seems to be naturally falling into 5.1 now, where as before I had to select it in VLC. It does sound pretty amazing aswel... it wasn't bad before, but I can notice a difference... it's louder too.

However, my display is stuck on 1920x1080 and it also looks terrible. It just isn't crisp the way it was directly linked to the graphics card. In the amps video settings I have the options of 720p and 1080i... aswel as "direct" and "auto" I have no idea what these will do.

I just can't get it too look right. Even if I could get it too display black bars at the top and bottom, I could live with the 1920x1080... but it doesn't look right at all.

I've fiddled around with nearly every setting in CCC too no avail.

Any more tips or tricks too try?

Cheers once again.
 
try the "direct" option if ones shown in video settings

In CCC down the left hand side theres an option called 'my digital flat panels' open that and you should see another option called 'Scaling options(digital flat panel) from in there you can scale your screensize ;)

does your amp use a GUI?..on screen display for the uninitiated...if so makes it so much easier to setup. I'm going by the Denon I have so trying to figure the terminolgy will be same on the Sony, unfortunately that model amp only upscales to 1080i...but were trying to bypass that:D
 
Tallywhacker said:
try the "direct" option if ones shown in video settings

In CCC down the left hand side theres an option called 'my digital flat panels' open that and you should see another option called 'Scaling options(digital flat panel) from in there you can scale your screensize ;)

does your amp use a GUI?..on screen display for the uninitiated...if so makes it so much easier to setup. I'm going by the Denon I have so trying to figure the terminolgy will be same on the Sony, unfortunately that model amp only upscales to 1080i...but were trying to bypass that:D
Click to expand...

I have scaled it upto full screen. However it really does look terrible. It doesn't seem to make much difference with it being on direct/auto or 1080i.

Do you think buying a new amp would solve my problem? Or even getting yet another soundcard this time one with hdmi out on it?
 
Woo! Ok another update. I reset my monitor settings via it's OSD. Now the picture looks a lot better. It's still on 1080, but it is scaled out to fill the whole monitor.

Is this only outputting in 1080i though? Surely that will detract from my bluray experience. It seems I can't have my cake and eat it. I either have to choose between my sound being good or my video. Surely it's not too much to ask for both :( ahwel, such is life.
 
strange as passthrough disables any upscaling/downscaling and should give the same composition as the source......have you tried swapping around which input the pc is connected to the amp?

can i ask you to try something?.....can you adjust you ccc settings to monitor and change that to 1080p output and try pass thru again and see if display still looks dire
 
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right been doing a bit of digging around for you, might want to look here...its not much but may alleaviate your concerns http://www.boarddigger.com/forum/pz21YpHbbiG

not all amps are HTPC compatible so are limited to a maximum screen resolution of 1080
also try putting your pc through HDMI 3 on your amp...apparently gives better sound and should at least give you 1080/24p

but looks like a sound card with HDMI connection is only other viable option...sorry I can't fathom out another way for you
 
Another update for yourself.

After using the other forum as suggested above I got told to use my graphics cards hdmi for the sound and stick to the dvi for the picture to avoid the terrible picture.

Initially I didn't bother connecting the amps hdmi out to my monitor as I wasn't using it anyway. However without doing this the sound wouldn't work which is really annoying.

So it's all hooked up and I am using the dvi straight to the monitor and just select the source on my monitor.

However it is still stuck on 1080p which is really annoying considering I'm bypassing the amp for the video feed.

So I have black bars at the top and bottom, but at least it looks in proportion, no overscan etc. Which is good. The sound is also pretty sweet.

I still can't tell the difference between a .flac and .mp3 though :( Must be my ears.




That is how I have to have it setup.
 
yeah that was the first way i was suggesting, but guess its the edid thats being detected over hdmi to your amp thats still keeping it at 1080...regardless of also using dvi direct to monitor, I dont know if there are any splitters around that you can put inline before it gets to your amp?

I used to use a program called ultramon a few years back and was great at giving you the option if 2 seperate resolutions on 2 displays so wondering if thats also worth looking into(at least you could up the res back up over dvi)can you not do that through CCC? only ask as everything i have is no higher than 1080 so cant test that theory for you here.
 
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Tallywhacker said:
yeah that was the first way i was suggesting, but guess its the edid thats being detected over hdmi to your amp thats still keeping it at 1080...regardless of also using dvi direct to monitor, I dont know if there are any splitters around that you can put inline before it gets to your amp?

I used to use a program called ultramon a few years back and was great at giving you the option if 2 seperate resolutions on 2 displays so wondering if thats also worth looking into(at least you could up the res back up over dvi)can you not do that through CCC? only ask as everything i have is no higher than 1080 so cant test that theory for you here.
Click to expand...

I'm currently on the DVI source at the moment and the highest it's letting me go is 1080 unfortunately. I'll look into that software. However it seems hardware related.

Cheers again
 
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