Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD HDMI 1.3a Sound Card

Yeah, they've had in Pre-Order a few weeks ago. Awesome!
I REALLY want to see some pictures, and a mini-review once you get yours.
You have a receiver right? Because I have a HDAV1.3 Deluxe, and for the life of me I can't get TrueHD or DTS-HD Master to bit-stream. It's really frustrating.
 
I'll be interested to see how well the work. I want one, but I'm waiting until I see some reviews (professional and user) before I jump. I very much like the idea of this card, however I'm going to make sure it isn't going to be problems first.

Odin: Why bother? Unless your computer is getting overloaded doing the decoding, doesn't really matter if the computer decodes it and streams uncompressed audio, or the receiver does.
 
It's kind of amusing to think that this card was truly 'years in the making'. Or at least a year and change.

That being said, if the HDMI outs on this card are no-fuss, it's going to be a winner -- regardless of the price.
 
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it. Looking at their material it is strongly implied that:

1) You have to have a video signal in to get audio out. That'll make this thing worthless for any setup not using an HDTV, as computer monitors are resolutions not supported by receivers.

2) Only movie sound or DDL/DTSI are transmitted over HDMI. HDMI doesn't send uncompressed 24/96 system sound.

If that is the case, the card is useless to me, and probably to some others. I hope I'm wrong, it isn't that they say this won't work and maybe the manual is just poorly written, but it is implied.
 
Odin: Why bother? Unless your computer is getting overloaded doing the decoding, doesn't really matter if the computer decodes it and streams uncompressed audio, or the receiver does.
Well, that's the problem, even tho' the application says TrueHD, my receiver says Dolby Dogital, so TMT3 is obviously down-sampling it. Same goes for Dolby Digital Plus. So at this point, I don't trust PCM anymore, except when that PCM comes from my PS3.

I mean, I payed $200 for the damn thing to bit-stream, but also do PCM for any other format. I'm only getting DD and DTS bit-streaming, and PCM is only working up to 2.0. Is really a shame that so many people still have problems. Of course, 7.1 PCM works in XP, but I'm not using that anymore. Anyways, True-HD and DTS-HD Master never work in XP either.

1) You have to have a video signal in to get audio out. That'll make this thing worthless for any setup not using an HDTV, as computer monitors are resolutions not supported by receivers.

2) Only movie sound or DDL/DTSI are transmitted over HDMI. HDMI doesn't send uncompressed 24/96 system sound.
Well...
1) The HDAV1.3 works the same way, you have to connect it to the video card. BUT, remember about HDCP. Blu-ray movies have that, and old CRT monitors are not HDCP capable. So why on earth would you get a blu-ray player, a receiver, and then an expensive soundcard with HDMI, to end up hooking it up to a CRT. I don't get it.

Besides, you can set the receiver to HDMI-Passthrough, so it should work for regular Desktop usage as long as the resolution is within the HDMI1.3 limits. Or am I wrong?

Plus, you can still use both of the outputs from the video card in clone mode, so one version gets send to the soundcard, and the other one is only the pure video that you can hook up to whatever monitor you want. That is actually what some folks are doing with their HDAV1.3, because their HDTV doesn't support 24p, and is sometimes hard to disable it. I know my HDTV doesn't, and it shows 1080@24p as 1080i, and it looks horrible. Thank god I can disable it just fine in Windows 7, and get my regular 1080p.

2) Isn't 24/96 a type of DTS, as well as PCM? SPDIF already covers that just fine, so why wouldn't HDMI. I once set my HDAV1.3 to resampled everything to 7.1 192Khz, and my receiver detected it just fine, and played it as 7.1 192khz PCM. So I don't see what's the problem with HDMI, I actually see it as a solution to all out problems. Is just that HDAV1.3 really messed it up, and ATI has it half-working with their 4k video cards.
 
Well as to bitstream out for the HTHD, it specifically says it'll pass it so I'd guess it will.

1) I'm not hooking my computer to a CRT, I'm hooking it to an LCD. An NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi to be specific. That runs at 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz, RGB. That is not supported by the receiver as it is a VESA resolution, not an ATSC one.

The reason I use that is because this is a desktop system, not a home theater system. It is for games and music production by and large. It just happens to have a very high end sound system attached to it. I am not at all interested in doing Blu-Ray playback on my PC at this point, so I don't much care if it causes problems with that. As a practical matter it shouldn't, my system reports my display supports HDCP.

2) There is a 24/96 DTS spec, but I don't know what it requires and more to the point it isn't what the encoder uses. DTS Interactive encodes a 48kHz 1.5mbps stream as per the original DTS Coherent Acoustics spec. While that could in theory use 24-bit encoding (bit size isn't specified in the spec, it's variable) the DTSI encoder uses 16-bit samples, it audibly raises the noise floor over an uncompressed PCM connection.

Basically, if I have to use DTSI encoding to get multi-channel output for games, then the HTHD doesn't do me any good. I can already do that with my Elite Pro. What I want to do is multi channel LPCM. HDMI can handle that, however it doesn't look like the HTHD will do it with system sound, only stuff coming from movies.
 
1) I'm not hooking my computer to a CRT, I'm hooking it to an LCD. An NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi to be specific. That runs at 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz, RGB. That is not supported by the receiver as it is a VESA resolution, not an ATSC one.
No, I didn't say you were doing that, I was just making an example. Sorry for the confusion.
However, now that you talk about LCD monitors, there are a few that will actually take the 1080p resolution, and use letter-box to fill the gap. I'm not saying your monitor has that feature, but I know there are some that do.

Basically, if I have to use DTSI encoding to get multi-channel output for games, then the HTHD doesn't do me any good. I can already do that with my Elite Pro. What I want to do is multi channel LPCM. HDMI can handle that, however it doesn't look like the HTHD will do it with system sound, only stuff coming from movies.
Well, I have the HDAV1.3, and before I got it I had questions like that too. Here's how it works, because I suspect this is how all HDMI cards work. While you are using Windows normally, your receiver gets PCM. This also applies to all games, or music, it all comes as PCM. The thing is, since everything has difference sampling rates, and you want to play several sounds at the same time, you have to set a master sampling rate. Anything that is NOT within what you set, gets resampled. Meaning, if you set it to 48khz for your movies, all your 44.1khz music will get resampled to meet that 48khz master you set as the default.
However, when you decide to enable bit-streaming in a specific player, and play a movie, Windows will ignore everything, and will not play any sound at all as long as you keep bit-streaming. Bit-streaming doesn't require to set a sampling rate, since the stream itself carries all the information the receiver needs. You can STOP the movie at any time, and that's when you can hear again all the Windows sounds, music, or whatever. If you decide to play the movie as LPCM instead of TrueHD, then it has to obey the master sample rate.
 
My monitor will take 1080p, it can then letter box it, stretch it, or scale it to any arbitrary factor. The NEC monitors have powerful scalers built in. Thing is, I don't want 1080p, I want 1920x1200.

As for PCM, does it do multi-channel PCM? That's the real question. Right now I can do 2 channel PCM or 6 channel DTS. I want 6 channel PCM.
 
My monitor will take 1080p, it can then letter box it, stretch it, or scale it to any arbitrary factor. The NEC monitors have powerful scalers built in. Thing is, I don't want 1080p, I want 1920x1200.
Again, I'm not trying to attack you here. I know you prefer 1920x1200 over 1080p. I mean, who wouldn't.

As for PCM, does it do multi-channel PCM? That's the real question. Right now I can do 2 channel PCM or 6 channel DTS. I want 6 channel PCM.
My HDAV1.3 does multi-channel PCM, all the way to 7.1 (8 channel). Sampling rates are 44.1khz, 48khz, 96khz, and 192khz.
That's how the HDAV1.3 works, that's how the PS3 works, and as far as I'm know how the ATi/AMD 4k cards work too. I'm 99% sure that's how the X-Fi HTHD will work as well. The only difference, is that it will use PDVD9 instead of TMT3, will use CMSS-3D HeadPhone instead of Dolby HeadPhone, will use EAX 5.0 instead of EAX 2.0, and will NEO:pC instead of ProLogic IIx. In short words, is the gamers version of the HDAV1.3.
 
Well that's what I'm hoping. There's just implication in the manual that isn't the case. We'll see what Dragon has to say when he gets it. If it does multichannel LPCM, I'll be getting one.
 
If the audio part refuses to work on my reciever without the video component then my review will be pushed back a few days until my new TV gets here, which will hopefully be late next week or early the week after next.
 
The Prelude has only come down like $25 in price since it was released almost 2 years ago so I wouldn't hold my breath on a price drop any time soon on this one. I have been quite pleased with the Prelude and the only reason I'm upgrading are the HDMI features. But honestly when was the last time an Auzen product had a bad review.
 
The Prelude has only come down like $25 in price since it was released almost 2 years ago so I wouldn't hold my breath on a price drop any time soon on this one. I have been quite pleased with the Prelude and the only reason I'm upgrading are the HDMI features. But honestly when was the last time an Auzen product had a bad review.

hell I waiting this long.. :D
 
Again, I'm not trying to attack you here. I know you prefer 1920x1200 over 1080p. I mean, who wouldn't.

this is the reason i decided to sell my 20" 1680x1050 and get a 23" 1080p monitor instead of a 1920x1200 simplicity and ill get the exact same image on both my 23" monitor and my 46" Sharp LCD.. am i losing a little vertical space on my monitor yeah, but id honestly rather not have that space than look at the blackbars from letterbox or have a slightly stretched image and then my games will also run 100% exactly the same on either screen even tho the diff between 1920x1080/1920x1200 might be slight in resolution its possible it could make some games dip a frame or 2 below my acceptable frame rate for the game so it was another ease of use type of thing where i could setup my games for my pc monitor and know it will run exactly the same on my tv without having to read adjust the games resolution every time.
 
I haven't had time to do more than plug it in and install drivers, hell I haven't even connected it to anything yet, I'm overhauling my system a bit this weekend (mounting a 50" plasma above my workstation to act as a 3rd monitor via HDMI thru the sound card and reciever) but hopefully I'll be able to get a test setup soon either tonight or tomorow night and see how it works.

If you have any specific questions for me to check that would be super otherwise I'll probably just hook it up, verify sound out of all 8 speakers, verify it does the whole bluray passthru thing with P-DVD9 and if that all works give it a big ole thumbs up.
 
Yeah (assuming you have Vista/7) can you goto the properties panel for HDMI (under playback devices), then the advanced tab, then take a screen shot of all the formats the card supports?
 
My specific questions would be:

1) If multi-channel PCM works from Windows sources. By that I mean can a game do surround sound over HDMI using PCM, not DDL or DTSI? You could also probably test it with just the speaker test in the control panel. If the receiver is getting multi-channel PCM and you can get sound out of all the speakers in the test, it probably work.

2) Does it send audio without having a video input?
 
I finally got around to playing with it some last night and my initial impressions are it's a bit... quirky. First to the questions so far as they address some of the quirkiness.

Yeah (assuming you have Vista/7) can you goto the properties panel for HDMI (under playback devices), then the advanced tab, then take a screen shot of all the formats the card supports?

I can later tonight when I get home but the truth is you don't use the HDMI output as default out, you use the regular analog audio output, the reason for this will be answered below (again).

My specific questions would be:

1) If multi-channel PCM works from Windows sources. By that I mean can a game do surround sound over HDMI using PCM, not DDL or DTSI? You could also probably test it with just the speaker test in the control panel. If the receiver is getting multi-channel PCM and you can get sound out of all the speakers in the test, it probably work.

2) Does it send audio without having a video input?

1) Yes, but with some caviats. Guess what, see below again.

2) I don't know yet as I installed the video cable as I will be connecting a TV via HDMI this weekend but I do know that there doesn't have to be a TV beyond the reciever for audio to work. I just told windows there was a 1920x1080 monitor on the port I hooked into the sound card then hooked it into my reciever and audio works fine. I can try disconnecting the video tonight tho just to see.

On to the quirks! Again this isn't a full list of quirks just a small list compiled in a few hours of usage.

It WILL in fact output all sounds via the HDMI cable but you have to enable this first. You go to that creative mode select window thing and there's a settings button, in that screen you go to the HDMI tab then an advanced button then check a box to send all audio out thru HDMI. Additionally as I stated before you don't select HDMI output as your default sound device, instead the Auzen HomeTheaterHD 7.1 device as default sound. Using the configure speaker wizard in Vista/7 you can select 7.1 and click the desired speaker and it will make noise with the odd side effect of your surround and back surround speakers being swapped (i.e. click the left side speaker and left back plays and vice versa). This could obviously be easily fixed by swapping speaker wires on the back of the reciever which would have the obvious side effect of screwing up OTHER audio sources that are trying to play 7.1. I intend to contact Auzen support on this issue.

The other main quirk I've found is enabling PCM Multi-channel HDMI can be problematic at times, but I'm not sure if it's the sound card or my reciever, but I'm leaning toward either reciever or some oversight in the HDMI multi-chan audio spec that doesn't initialize multi-chan properly if the recieving end is turned on after the sending end. Here's what I'm seeing: if I turn my reciever on and then turn my PC on, multi-chan PCM initializes just fine and everything works just dandy; if I sleep my PC for a bit then wake it up while leaving my reciever on, multi-chan PCM initializes just fine and everything works just dandy; if I turn my reciever off and leave my PC on then turn my reciever on, it just goes to PCM HDMI mode and my THX/dts lights on my reciever stay lit (they turn off in multi-chan mode) and only front left/right/center and surround back left/right (which are still coming out of surround left/right) work, surround left/right and sub stop working until I reboot the PC. I MAY be able to sleep the PC and wake it back up to fix it but I haven't had time to test. I'm hoping that by sleeping the PC, turning the reciever off, then turning reciever on before waking the PC up I can bypass this particular quirk.
 
So if anyone who as this, can you see which dvd players can play True HD and DTS HD through HDMI pass-through? I think it's only the latest PowerDVD, but if you can try it out on the other competing players such as WinDVD and/or Total Media Theater, if you own it of course.

Thanks.
 
if I turn my reciever off and leave my PC on then turn my reciever on, it just goes to PCM HDMI mode and my THX/dts lights on my reciever stay lit (they turn off in multi-chan mode) and only front left/right/center and surround back left/right (which are still coming out of surround left/right) work, surround left/right and sub stop working until I reboot the PC.
Are you using an Onkyo receiver? If you are, the DTS light is normal. They mention in the manuals that the receiver defaults to DTS when there is no signal being sent at times, supposedly to prevent damage. This happens to me too with my HDAV1.3 and Onkyo TX-SR606. But yeah, not playing sound from the surrounds channels after that, looks strange. Do you have any other HDMI device, like a PS3, to see if you can recreate the problem.

Like other said, I'll be interested in bit-streaming as well. And if you get it to work, do you have any HD-DVDs to test, or only Blu-Rays?

Thanks.
 
The DTS and THX light goes off when the PCM goes multi-channel, I don't have a PS3, I do have a cable box with HDMI and an old HD-DVD player but I'm not sure if any of them use multi-channel PCM
 
-Dragon-, does the card have any decoding? For example, could you input video and audio stream using a Dolby Digital 5.1 into HDMI in, then on HDMI out have it output the video and decode the Dolby Digital 5.1 to LPCM 5.1?
 
I'm not really sure on that one, not even sure how to test not even sure I want to :p I'm guessing you're refering to passing a PS3/360/BR/HD-DVD player thru the connection and combining it with PC sounds, I wouldn't buy it with that assumption tho, I could be wrong tho, it doesn't appear to send DD5.1 encoded audio out via HDMI tho.
 
What I mean is just taking DD 5.1 from HDMI input and on HDMI output, decoding to LPCM 5.1.
I tried contacting Auzentech about decoding any they just said something about having to use PowerDVD.
But I think they were talking about when playing a DVD/blu-ray on PC and not from HDMI input.
 
That would require a DD 5.1 source which I don't know if I have

And for quirk #2 from above I have verified that if I turn the receiver on before waking the PC it does enable multi-channel correctly
 
I was wondering if you could try getting the hdmi port to do audio only, that is, no video?

Like Sycraft, my reciever doesn't do anything but 1920x1080 (which my screen stretched to 1920x1200 because it doesn't do blackbars, much to my displeasure and frustration), so I can't route video through soundcard and reciever, and I need all my video outputs...

So, it would be just super if you could check to see that the soundcard can spit audio out through hdmi without anything related to video connected (...even after a reboot or two) that would be just super :D
 
i see this has hdmi and this may be a stupid question, but instead of going dvi to hdmi to my sony lcd, can i just go hdmi from the soundcard to the lcd?
 
i see this has hdmi and this may be a stupid question, but instead of going dvi to hdmi to my sony lcd, can i just go hdmi from the soundcard to the lcd?
If you are going to connect it directly to your HDTV, you don't need this sound card. This is for people with receivers. But yes, you can, but you might have to manually set it to send 2.0 PCM sound, since that's probably the only sound format it will understand. Of course, that's assuming your HDTV can get audio using HDMI. Most actually use an Optical cable for audio.

However, if what you mean is using a single HDMI cable from the soundcard to the HDTV, ignoring the video card, then no. You will need to use that DVI-HDMI cable, since the soundcard nor your HDTV will know video even exists until you plug that video card cable somewhere. So no, you won't be getting rid of it.

Whichever of the 2 above is, it sounds like this is not the soundcard for you. There's tons of soundcards out there that do what you need, and for WAY less money.
 
-Dragon-:
Not to seem impatient, but in case it wasn't clear, my prior question was addressed to you....I really hope you could help me out =]
 
The HDMI is being a bit screwy, it seems fairly easy for it to swap from multi-chan mode to dts and when it does sound volume drops a lot and you lose sound on some speakers. I'm still waiting on a response from their tech support as to the speaker swap issue
 
:(

That's bad...the only reason for this card to exist is the hdmi port, and since it's been under development for yeeears, I really hope it's actually worthwhile!
 
Wait...the swapping problem is BACK? I remember when I had my Prelude hooked up to a Gigaworks S750 that I had to change around a few of the cables to correct the channels being output on the wrong lines (center/sub was rear left/right)...tech support never did look into it.

Well, I've already got the HTHD, using the headphone jack primarily, so I guess I haven't tested the problem that much to see if it's just an isolated incident.
 
The problem now is that it's over HDMI which is impossible to switch a few wires on unless you like hack appart the connector, which I don't really want to do. That or swap speaker wires but that screws up everything else. I never had this problem on my prelude, maybe I got a bum HD.

Past the speaker swap I'm not really sure where the real issue lies in the Multi-Channel PCM thing as it could be a problem with my reciever too I just don't have any way to check as I don't have any other HDMI sources past a cable box which doesn't use multi-chan it uses DD. Maybe I need to break down and buy a 360 elite or PS3 and see how they behave.
 
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