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churin
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Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound card

Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:38 pm

Presently I have to use onboard sound card to have audio through HDMI out from video card. The external sound card installed is Xonar DG and it comes with SPDIF output header to be interfaced with video card. But I do not see no such header on the video card. I wonder what video card has such an interface header.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:52 pm

Video cards with audio through HDMI don't have such a header as far as I know. Instead, they have their own 'HDMI audio device' which can be selected as the audio output, and I think that's what you're using when you say "I have to use onboard sound card to have audio through HDMI out from video card." What is the name of the audio device you use when you output sound through HDMI?
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:01 pm

It is Realtek sound card. I see Realtek HTMI audio for Playback on Sound settings but no such option for Asus Xonar. My question is based on info on Asus Xonar DG sound card. There is a header on the Xonar DG card that is intended for that purpose.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:16 pm

As MMO already noted, many HDMI-capable video cards have their own audio codec; if there isn't an audio in connector on the video card, then you are supposed to use the card's internal codec. You don't connect your existing soundcard to the video card; you need to select the audio codec on the video card via the audio section of your Control Panel.

If a second audio device isn't showing up in Control Panel, maybe you haven't installed the proper driver? Does your Device Manager report any missing drivers?

What video card do you have?
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:31 pm

Hold on a sec, I am confused about what you're trying to do here.

Is the problem that you want to hook the Xonar up to your video card, or that you can't see the Xonar in your audio Control Panel, or both?

To reiterate:

- If your video card doesn't have an HDMI audio in connector, then you can't use it with a separate sound card; you need to use the sound device built in to the video card if you want audio over HDMI.

- If your video card has a built-in audio device but it isn't showing up in the OS, you need to install the audio drivers for your video card.

- If The Xonar isn't visible to your OS, you probably need to install the Xonar device drivers.
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Airmantharp
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:55 pm

They don't exist; and for good reason. If you have a receiver that can handle HDMI, then you can send lossless 7.1 to it through a video card, which no sound card can do. Just select the HDMI audio device (which may be named after whatever display you have attached to it through a receiver) and then tell Windows that it's a 7.1 output, or whatever you actually have attached, and the audio stack will send that over PCM to the receiver.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:59 pm

Airmantharp wrote:
They don't exist;

Well, they *used* to exist. Some older cards had an audio pass-through connector for the HDMI audio since they didn't have an on-board HDMI audio codec. AFAIK all newer video cards (both ATI and nVidia) do the HDMI audio on the card though.
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churin
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 4:32 pm

I see "ATI HDMI Audio" in 'Sound, video and game controllers" on the Device Manager, but no ATI HDMI Audio is listed in Sound settings. See the attached pictures.
Device Manager
Sound Settings
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 4:49 pm

The Sound Settings screen shot says "ATI HDMI Audio" right underneath "Realtek HDMI Output". That's the audio adapter on your video card.

If you are having trouble getting it to work try installing the driver from Realtek's page: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... wntypeid=3

(And I actually learned something today too. I didn't realize that ATI video cards use a Realtek codec for HDMI output...)
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:39 pm

I have an HD6950 that I need to test, along with an HD5770, to see how these cards handle this setup now that I have my full 7.1 system up. I don't expect any issues, but so far I've only tested Intel and Nvidia, both of which were straightforward.
 
churin
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:52 pm

just brew it! wrote:
The Sound Settings screen shot says "ATI HDMI Audio" right underneath "Realtek HDMI Output". That's the audio adapter on your video card.

I just overlooked this. I was expecting something depicting Xonar DG.
This appears to mean the Asus Xonar DG sound card is not utilized at all. :(

Thank you very much for your help.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:57 pm

churin wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
The Sound Settings screen shot says "ATI HDMI Audio" right underneath "Realtek HDMI Output". That's the audio adapter on your video card.

I just overlooked this. I was expecting something depicting Xonar DG.
This appears to mean the Asus Xonar DG sound card is not utilized at all. :(

Thank you very much for your help.


You really don't want it to be used though- it has nothing to add. What you're getting with HDMI audio is a straight, pure audio stream from whatever application is playing it to the receiver- uncompressed and unmolested.

Your Xonar will still be exemplary for analog devices like headphones and microphones.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:04 pm

churin wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
The Sound Settings screen shot says "ATI HDMI Audio" right underneath "Realtek HDMI Output". That's the audio adapter on your video card.

I just overlooked this. I was expecting something depicting Xonar DG.
This appears to mean the Asus Xonar DG sound card is not utilized at all. :(

As explained above, if the video card has a built-in HDMI audio codec (which appears to be the case here), then there is no way to route the SPDIF from the Xonar through the video card such that it comes out the HDMI port. For HDMI audio, you need to use the audio codec on the video card.

The Xonar can still be used with other (non-HDMI) speakers, headphones, A/V receivers, etc.
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churin
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:52 pm

just brew it wrote:
The Xonar can still be used with other (non-HDMI) speakers, headphones, A/V receivers, etc.

The Xonar DG has SPDIF output but I am using HDMI to interface with A/V receiver. As long as A/V receiver is used to drive speakers there does not seems to be any use of external sound card.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:53 pm

Auzentech makes a version of the X-Fi sound card with a HDMI passthrough where it injects audio stream into the HDMI cable.

Some Nvidia cards have a passthrough which is selectable in the control panel. Some Nvidia cards have a on board sound chip. Most AMD cards have a onboard audio chip. However with my 7870 I can select a stream to inject into the HDMI out (using it as a passhtrough) in the control panel for the video card, not setting it up as a device in sound settings in windows control panel. Effectively that is what you want to do only it doesn't use a cable as nothing leaves the system.

Don't let Airman mislead you. A HDMI out isn't a magical conduit that makes pure sound leave your computer. We went over this in the Titanium HD thread. Muxing takes place and adjustments your sound card may do to the stream unless the sound card has passthrough capabilities. A easy test for this is to see whether or not you can adjust the volume. If you can adjust the volume it's not a pure passthrough to begin with.

What isn't used are the DACs and any sort of analog components on the sound card. Sound cards aren't just DACs though. If they were all chips would be the same and there would be no reason to make new sound chips besides efficiency or making them cheaper (they would all sound the same too, which simply isn't the case). Keep in mind this only applies if you don't have a different audio device selected (such as the audio chip on the video card or onboard) and are using HDMI out on the video card as a passthrough. I'll have to make a screenshot when I get home because I'm pretty sure a couple people in this thread wont believe me unless I do.

Codec != the chip on a sound card as well. JBI is using them interchangeably and they're very different things.

Card I was referring to: http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/ ... ter_hd.php
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:56 pm

churin - you've mentioned your audio card but not your video card...what video card do you have?

As JBI stated more clearly than I, *newer* video cards don't have digital audio input but older ones do. The reason older ones do is because they didn't have built-in audio codecs and needed digital audio passed through to them from an onboard or discrete audio card, however it appears your video card does have a built-in audio codec.

Some quick looking shows that the Xonar DG does have S/PDIF output headers, this would be used for compatability with older video cards. I can also think of one use case where you might want to pass S/PDIF from the Xonar to the video card and that is for games which don't natively have sound settings that work with your receiver. (You could also do this for other audio sources that you want processed through the Xonar.) The Xonar would then be processing any surround effects, or upsampling stereo to surround if it's capable of that, and then sending it to the video card, then to the receiver via HDMI.

Now that we know what you've got for audio, tell us your video card (exact model number would be best.) And tell us your use and entire audio setup so we can try to figure out if you could benefit from passing audio through the Xonar, or maybe if the Xonar isn't even necessary.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:23 pm

Bensam123 wrote:
Don't let Airman mislead you. A HDMI out isn't a magical conduit that makes pure sound leave your computer. We went over this in the Titanium HD thread. Muxing takes place and adjustments your sound card may do to the stream unless the sound card has passthrough capabilities. A easy test for this is to see whether or not you can adjust the volume. If you can adjust the volume it's not a pure passthrough to begin with.


I'm not misleading- you're still confused. It's not a 'magical conduit', it's an audio path, and I'm really not understanding why that's hard to grasp. Sound is played through the OS audio stack and then sent to an output device- if it's HDMI, it's then forwarded to the receiver, where it's converted to analog using the receiver's DACs. The receiver may do some processing on the signal, which should be user adjustable.

Bensam123 wrote:
What isn't used are the DACs and any sort of analog components on the sound card. Sound cards aren't just DACs though.


Actually, they are. There is no more 'hardware' sound, outside of the corner case of OpenAL- all 'mixing' is done in software. The sound card really is just a DAC (and ADC for mic and line-in). Everything else on sound cards is either unused (Creative's XRAM, for example) or is part of the analog path- which is everything on a non-Creative card like a Xonar aside from the DAC/ADC.

I'm not trying to offend you, but you are wrong here; there is literally no use for a 'sound card' when you're only using HDMI. Hell, even if you used that Auzentech card with HDMI pass-through, the only thing you're gaining is the ability to use Creative's software! That's it!
 
churin
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:48 pm

I have just upgraded 35 years old stereo sysem with 2.1 speakers to Yamaha RX-V473BL with 5.1 speaker system.

The video card is Diamond Radeon HD 5770.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:33 pm

churin wrote:
I have just upgraded 35 years old stereo sysem with 2.1 speakers to Yamaha RX-V473BL with 5.1 speaker system.

The video card is Diamond Radeon HD 5770.


Ok, so I assume you got the Xonar in order to have good analog outputs to your old amplifier.

With the new receiver you don't need analog inputs. So are you using the computer solely for content that already has 5.1 soundtracks, like pure HTPC use? Games that can output 5.1 through HDMI? You only need to keep the Xonar for analog output (probably not needed any more) or for its special processing advantages versus the video card codec with content that isn't already surround, if there are any. (You can do some work and check this out, see what the Xonar has for options versus the video card codec. :)) I am leaning toward concluding that you don't need the Xonar any more now that you've got an HDMI capable receiver.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:41 pm

MadManOriginal wrote:
You only need to keep the Xonar for analog output (probably not needed any more) or for its special processing advantages versus the video card codec with content that isn't already surround.


Receivers can do this for you, if you'd like- it's as simple as 'copying' the stereo stream across all other outputs on that 'side'. FL goes to SL, FR goes to SR, both go to Center, in this case. If you had 7.1, RL and RR would follow SL and SR, respectively.

Most likely, you'll be able to cut the sound card out completely.
Last edited by Airmantharp on Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:02 pm

I split out the sound card tangent to this thread...
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churin
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:58 pm

MadManOriginal wrote:
churin wrote:
I have just upgraded 35 years old stereo sysem with 2.1 speakers to Yamaha RX-V473BL with 5.1 speaker system.

The video card is Diamond Radeon HD 5770.


Ok, so I assume you got the Xonar in order to have good analog outputs to your old amplifier.

With the new receiver you don't need analog inputs. So are you using the computer solely for content that already has 5.1 soundtracks, like pure HTPC use? Games that can output 5.1 through HDMI? You only need to keep the Xonar for analog output (probably not needed any more) or for its special processing advantages versus the video card codec with content that isn't already surround, if there are any. (You can do some work and check this out, see what the Xonar has for options versus the video card codec. :)) I am leaning toward concluding that you don't need the Xonar any more now that you've got an HDMI capable receiver.

I have been using this HTPC for three years with the old stereo system. I got interested in multi-channel audio system to play movies but not games, and thus upgraded the A/V systems. At this time I added a Blu-Ray Player/Writer and HD TV capture card to the HTPC. I managed to make the capture card working. Then I came to wonder how come the sound card no longer is used.
 
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Re: Video card with header to accept HDMI audio from sound c

Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:11 pm

Well then, if you plan on using it for HTPC media duties and routing all audio through HDMI you shouldn't need the Xonar. As Airmantharp said, there may be some options on the receiver to do things like convert stereo sources to surround if you really need to, or perhaps the video card audio control panel has some options. Something else to check out instead! :)

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