Auzentech anounces new HDMI 1.3, PCIe X-Fi coming in September

RavenZero

Limp Gawd
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http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php

It should be interesting to see how far off the deadline date they are this time... :D

These guys have penned an exclusive deal with Nvidia for the internal HDMI graphics connection. No word yet on how it will work with external HDMI graphics input or how it will work with non-HDCP supporting graphics cards using a DVI-HDMI adapter. Also, no word on pricing...

Have at it!
 
hrmm, hopefully it wont cost too much, this would be great to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio out of my BR movies :)
 
Okay...so where the fuck is the X-Tension HDMI? I already have an X-Fi on my Prelude -- I don't need nor want another for the sole sake of having the HDMI port. There were two reasons I bought a Prelude in the first place, and one of them was the promise of HDMI 1.3 via the X-Tension daughter card. Now it's the promise of an entirely new card I don't want nor need.

Fuckin' Auzentech. Demo the X-Tension HDMI five months ago at CES and decide to do a complete 180 and instead paper launch an entirely new card. Unreal.
 
So this is going to go up against the new Xonar that was on display (the PCIe, HDMI one) and the new X-Fi Titanium. Hmm..Too bad its all the way until september. Due to the recent driver FUBARness, I still don't have too much faith in Auzentech at the moment.
 
From what ROBSCIX is saying on the AVSforum.com, this card was developed alongside the X-Tension DIN. Don't be surprised if they come out around the same time--whenever that may be...
 
I think this will be a great reason for them to never add DTS Connect to the Prelude's drivers... I wonder if they'll just discontinue it and start pushing this new card?

I liked Auzentech better before they partnered with Creative.
 
I was waiting for the X-Tension HDMI, but after all the delays and driver problems and now their stupid restrictions on how many times you can install the drivers for your own hardware :eek:, I just don't care anymore. Looks like this card needs external power too.

They can cram this new product where it belongs. I've already got a Radeon HD 4850 on pre-order and that will handle my needs, and it's an all-in-one solution that will hopefully be less problematic and result in a cleaner, less expensive build.
 
Why couldn't they do this with a CMI8788 based product!??!?! Bring back the X-Meridian!!! It would have solved the driver problems and removed Creative from the picture! I blame Creative for everything sucky that has happened with Auzentech recently.
 
They can cram this new product where it belongs. I've already got a Radeon HD 4850 on pre-order and that will handle my needs, and it's an all-in-one solution that will hopefully be less problematic and result in a cleaner, less expensive build.

I'm not sure what your needs are, but the 4850 differs from the new Asus and Auzentech cards in that it does not support bitstream output. It's also unclear as to whether or not it can output protected content without downsampling to 16/48.

Regardless, such functionality in a video card isn't very useful to me, as I would need a new video card a year later, at most. Sound cards tend to last much longer.
 
but the 4850 differs from the new Asus and Auzentech cards in that it does not support bitstream output.

And how would you know this?

It's also unclear as to whether or not it can output protected content without downsampling to 16/48.

If what I have heard is right (which I'm not saying it is), no downsampling.
 
Sounds like a panicked response to the new Xonar card. Sorry, but no dice; were I to buy a new sound card this year, I'd get the Xonar.
 
And how would you know this?



If what I have heard is right (which I'm not saying it is), no downsampling.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1029603

To be fair, it's not confirmed, but I imagine if the 4850 did support PAP, ATI would be noting it in the advertising as Asus and Auzentech have done. In any case, we'll probably know within a week, once Cyberlink updates PowerDVD with their new proprietary PAP.
 
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1029603

To be fair, it's not confirmed, but I imagine if the 4850 did support PAP, ATI would be noting it in the advertising as Asus and Auzentech have done. In any case, we'll probably know within a week, once Cyberlink updates PowerDVD with their new proprietary PAP.

But that's speculation on your part. You can't pass off "but the 4850 differs from the new Asus and Auzentech cards in that it does not support bitstream output" as a fact.
 
But that's speculation on your part. You can't pass off "but the 4850 differs from the new Asus and Auzentech cards in that it does not support bitstream output" as a fact.

No, it's speculation on the part of the denizens of the AVS forum, but educated speculation. If you read the post, it goes rather in-depth as to why most HDMI PC hardware does not have this capability. In order to get TrueHD/DTS-HD bitstream output, the card itself must support PAP and there also must be a compatible software player with its own audio API that bypasses Windows. CyberLink and ArcSoft are both adding this functionality to their players in cooperation with Auzentech and Asus, but we've heard nothing from ATI.

Fact? Maybe not, but I wouldn't put any money on it.
 
Yeah you're right, if we haven't heard anything from AMD then it clearly won't support PAP, ever. Great logic. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah you're right, if we haven't heard anything from AMD then it clearly won't support PAP, ever. Great logic. :rolleyes:

I also haven't heard that the 4850 can make chili and fries, but since ATI/AMD have not mentioned chili nor fries in their marketing materials, I'm going to assume the 4850 cannot make them.

The Asus Xonar HDAV isn't due out until next month, but they've been making a big deal out of its bitstream support since the day it was announced. The new Auzentech card isn't due until September, and they're already making a big deal over its bitstream support.

The 4850 is due next week, and we've heard nothing about bitstream support.

Note: PAP support must be included in the hardware. It can't be added later in a driver update.
 
AMD never made a big deal about S/PDIF-over-HDMI on R6xx, either. Nor did NVIDIA about GT2xx. These are just things graphics cards companies don't seem inclined to promote, and it means absolutely nothing.
 
AMD never made a big deal about S/PDIF-over-HDMI on R6xx, either. Nor did NVIDIA about GT2xx. These are just things graphics cards companies don't seem inclined to promote, and it means absolutely nothing.

It was known before release that the R600 series supported S/PDIF over HDMI.
 
Why couldn't they do this with a CMI8788 based product!??!?! Bring back the X-Meridian!!! It would have solved the driver problems and removed Creative from the picture! I blame Creative for everything sucky that has happened with Auzentech recently.

Asus is taking care of that with the new HDMI Xonar... Asus' AV200 is, by many accounts, just the CMI8788 under a different name. Whether there's anything differentiating the two is anyone's guess.
 
Asus is taking care of that with the new HDMI Xonar... Asus' AV200 is, by many accounts, just the CMI8788 under a different name. Whether there's anything differentiating the two is anyone's guess.

Exactly. In fact the Xonar HDAV1 is going to be even better than the X-Meridian because it will be HDMI 1.3 out of the box and the Deluxe version of the card will also have the analog daughter board with socketed, user replaceable OpAmps on all channels. The excellent component choices are also there (DACs, ADCs, capacitors, OpAmps, etc.). Asus has stepped it up by even doing their best to emulate EAX 5 and go beyond--though it's still in the rough stages.

The best part is that they have usually been on time with their promised hardware releases or pretty close to it--unlike Auzentech...
 
The HD 48xx-series does indeed support up to eight channels of LPCM over HDMI. Link.
 
The HD 48xx-series does indeed support up to eight channels of LPCM over HDMI. Link.

The question was never whether or not it supports 8-channel LPCM; this has been known for some time. LPCM is uncompressed audio, meaning the software player is doing the decoding. On the other hand, the Asus and Auzentech cards can output the compressed TrueHD or DTS-HD signal and let the receiver do the decoding. That is what is meant when someone refers to bitstream output: outputting the sound as-is with no changes whatsoever.

Of course, LPCM may work just fine for your purposes. Unfortunately, without a Protected Audio Path (PAP) between the card and the software player, Blu-ray audio will still be downsampled to 16-bit/48kHz.
 
On the other hand, the Asus and Auzentech cards can output the compressed TrueHD or DTS-HD signal and let the receiver do the decoding.

I could care less if the card or receiver did the decoding, both results will be the same.

Unfortunately, without a Protected Audio Path (PAP) between the card and the software player, Blu-ray audio will still be downsampled to 16-bit/48kHz.

Fortunately we have AnyDVD HD for that.
 
LPCM is uncompressed audio, meaning the software player is doing the decoding.
Please, save the lectures for someone who doesn't do this kind of thing for a living, because it's just entirely wasted on me.

My primary concern isn't outputting non-resampled audio on protected Blu-rays or HD-DVDs but un-encoded output of multichannel streams via HDMI (for gaming, primarily), so, no, the PMP issue does not affect me (and I'm not a Vista user anyway). I just don't want to be wasting any compute power on lossy encoding.

Regardless, odds are quite good that whatever resampler used by PowerDVD (perhaps it even uses Vista's internal resampler, which is quite excellent for a real-time resampler) is transparent to the majority of users, but confirmation of that would entail ABX testing. I frankly wouldn't concern myself too much about it. We're still getting un-encoded output here, so this is a big step.
 
I could care less if the card or receiver did the decoding, both results will be the same.

Not the card, the software, so it will have higher CPU overhead. However, if your CPU is fast enough to play Blu-ray movies, I doubt it will be an issue. Decoding on the receiver side has its advantages, but for many users it's a non-issue.

Fortunately we have AnyDVD HD for that.

I'm afraid it's not that simple. In it's current state, PowerDVD downsamples all HD audio to 16/48 -- regardless of the removal of AACS encryption by AnyDVD -- simply because there is no hardware currently on the market that supports PAP. However, Auzentech has been working with CyberLink to add support for their upcoming hardware, so perhaps once that is patched in, AnyDVD will work as well on cards without PAP support. That is wishful thinking, though.

Please, save the lectures for someone who doesn't do this kind of thing for a living, because it's just entirely wasted on me.

I apologize, it was not my intention to insult your intelligence. It seemed, however, that you confused bitstream support with LPCM output, unless you were just changing topics entirely. In any case, perhaps the 'lecture' proved informative to the other readers of this thread, so I doubt it was entirely wasted.

My primary concern isn't outputting non-resampled audio on protected Blu-rays or HD-DVDs but un-encoded output of multichannel streams via HDMI (for gaming, primarily), so, no, the PMP issue does not affect me (and I'm not a Vista user anyway). I just don't want to be wasting any compute power on lossy encoding.

Fair enough, though Vista is irrelevant to the issue, since they never completed PAP support for it anyway. I'm looking forward to LPCM support on my next sound card as well, as I've been using a DTS-610 up to this point in order to avoid using the sound card's meager bass management. It will be nice to get rid of one more device crowding up my desk.

Regardless, odds are quite good that whatever resampler used by PowerDVD (perhaps it even uses Vista's internal resampler, which is quite excellent for a real-time resampler) is transparent to the majority of users, but confirmation of that would entail ABX testing. I frankly wouldn't concern myself too much about it. We're still getting un-encoded output here, so this is a big step.

Without getting into a debate on the merits of 24/96 audio, resampling a HD stream somewhat defeats the point. Granted, it's still lossless (if it's TrueHD or DTS-HD MA), but if you're going to go to the trouble of setting up your system for HD audio in the first place, you probably want to be getting it at it's true bit-depth and sampling rate.

Of course, games are all still 16/48, so it's a moot point there.
 
Auric said:
Decoding on the receiver side has its advantages

Like...? (not having to use a few extra CPU cycles isn't an advantage)

Auric said:
I'm afraid it's not that simple

From the link you provided earlier:

Do you want to get full resolution audio without being bothered with PAP?

Then you can remove AACS encryption by AnyDVD HD and create your own mkv files with full-resolution audio track (FLAC) with eac3to and then play them with any of the multichannel LPCM solutions.

Auric said:
that you confused bitstream support with LPCM output

No he's not; he knows the difference.

Auric said:
you probably want to be getting it at it's true bit-depth and sampling rate.

If dithered correctly 24->16 will be transparent. Most users probably can't tell the difference between 48kHz and 96kHz.
 
In any case, perhaps the 'lecture' proved informative to the other readers of this thread, so I doubt it was entirely wasted.
I suppose :)

Without getting into a debate on the merits of 24/96 audio, resampling a HD stream somewhat defeats the point. Granted, it's still lossless (if it's TrueHD or DTS-HD MA), but if you're going to go to the trouble of setting up your system for HD audio in the first place, you probably want to be getting it at it's true bit-depth and sampling rate.
Ideally, sure, but informed users (or anyone else, really) needn't worry too much about listening to a resampled stream unless there's an appreciable latency or if the resampler is insufficient and yields audible artifacts, and nothing like that has been documented yet. I'm pretty damn sure the processing chain isn't POWr->a real-time implementation of r8brain, but I assume it's at least adequate.
 
Like...? (not having to use a few extra CPU cycles isn't an advantage)

DSP effects, mostly. LPCM requires more processing power for a receiver, and lower-end models can't apply processing (such as matrixing 5.1 to 7.1) that they can do on a bitstream signal.



From the link you provided earlier:

Ahh, I thought you meant running the movie off the disc while AnyDVD is in the background. I haven't tried that method yet.

No he's not; he knows the difference.

Well, he posted about LPCM support as if it were a refutation to the debate, when in fact it was unrelated. Perhaps I read it wrong, but that seemed to be the obvious implication.

If dithered correctly 24->16 will be transparent. Most users probably can't tell the difference between 48kHz and 96kHz.

As I alluded to in my previous post, that could easily be its own discussion thread, so I don't want to get into it. But you're right, most users probably can't tell the difference. Most users also don't care about HD audio formats. ;)
 
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