HD 4xxx Sound

[Fangoria]

I know you can get 7.1 sound and dts HD so on and so fourth from the 4xxx series
However, i was wondering, what sound card does it have on board if any, and if it doesnt have one.. how is it passing sound over hdmi? Is this sound quality any good for Flac, mp3 and other music files, or would it be better to go through toslink for music files? thanks!

Joshua

 

[Crispy002]

Your card can only output sound over HDMI if the card has an HDMI out port on it. Using a DVI --> HDMI adapter/cable will not let you get sound. I felt terribly misled when every ATI card advertises HDMI output and all the drivers are bundled with the sound driver, but without the port you can't hear squat.

 

[ClearM4]

Your card can only output sound over HDMI if the card has an HDMI out port on it. Using a DVI --> HDMI adapter/cable will not let you get sound. I felt terribly misled when every ATI card advertises HDMI output and all the drivers are bundled with the sound driver, but without the port you can't hear squat.

hmm, you are misinformed. The DVI port will carry sound. You must use the included DVI-to-HDMI connector that has extra pins to carry sound, as usually DVI only carries video.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Your card can only output sound over HDMI if the card has an HDMI out port on it. Using a DVI --> HDMI adapter/cable will not let you get sound. I felt terribly misled when every ATI card advertises HDMI output and all the drivers are bundled with the sound driver, but without the port you can't hear squat.

Maybe you just weren't cool enough? I got audio out of my 4850 (with two DVI ports) using an HDMI adapter and it's working just peachy with my 8200 IGP based HTPC (nvidia, I know, but it's also using an adapter an it sends sound out to my reciever).

Anyways, nothing but a certain $250 sound card from Asus will send things like DTS-MA/True HD out of a PC. Anything else on the market does 7.1 HD LPCM audio over HDMI which should also answer your question if you have any idea what "sound quality" means in PC land.

 

[CrimandEvil]

hmm, you are misinformed. The DVI port will carry sound. You must use the included DVI-to-HDMI connector that has extra pins to carry sound, as usually DVI only carries video.

It doesn't have extra pins, all it's doing is using the ones already present in a full DVI port (the analog pins) to send the audio.

 

[evolucion8]

At least my videocard carries sound through the DVI to HDMI adapter, it uses an onboard Realtek High Definition controller which since Cat 9.4, didn't want to work, so I went to Realtek's website, downloaded the latest Realtek High Definition drivers and now works like a champ, it even have some more options, seems that;

Sapphire made bad choices regarding of the good Realtek HD controller

or

ATi can't support properly the Sapphire's choice of Sound codec.

 

[Domingo]

So...I'm actually new to the whole idea of using HDMI for a video card, but am about to put together a new PC in the coming months.
Right now I'm using a DVI to HDMI for video and a 7.1 analog from my X-Fi into my receiver for sound.

How do the HD cards handle sound? Is there onboard sound, or can you use some kind of a pass-thru from a sound card?

 

[Zachstar]

For modern ATI cards they have an included realtek codec. A chip on the board itself that is tied into the DVI system.

Most of the time it is simply turned off or disabled as most people hook up their systems using analog audio (As in my case where I use a bunch of component cables and adapters to carry the sound) or SPDIF (A single RCA cable or optical cable that can send crystal clear 2 channel PCM or DVD style Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 ((And 7.1 on some movies)) )

For some, mostly those wanting to connect their PC or HTPC to a home theater system. The choice is clear.. A single HDMI cable that carries enough bandwidth to carry 8 channels of crystal clear PCM ((And I am talking enough where you can play Blu Rays)) and on top of that it can send the traditional DVD audio codecs mentioned earlier.

HDMI will not solve all issues and codec support has been finiky in the past but for some it is the solution to many headaches.

 

[aubsxc]

For modern ATI cards they have an included realtek codec. A chip on the board itself that is tied into the DVI system.

Most of the time it is simply turned off or disabled as most people hook up their systems using analog audio (As in my case where I use a bunch of component cables and adapters to carry the sound) or SPDIF (A single RCA cable or optical cable that can send crystal clear 2 channel PCM or DVD style Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 ((And 7.1 on some movies)) )

For some, mostly those wanting to connect their PC or HTPC to a home theater system. The choice is clear.. A single HDMI cable that carries enough bandwidth to carry 8 channels of crystal clear PCM ((And I am talking enough where you can play Blu Rays)) and on top of that it can send the traditional DVD audio codecs mentioned earlier.

HDMI will not solve all issues and codec support has been finiky in the past but for some it is the solution to many headaches.

For BD movies which do not include a PCM track - is the 7.1 audio passed over HDMI on the 4xxx cards lossless (i.e. decoded from the DTS-HD or TrueHD tracks), or is downsampled from the lossless track?

 

[Snowknight26]

All audio is decoded to PCM, which then gets sent to your Audio Renderer, which in turn outputs to your device. So if the TrueHD track is decoded by the PC, it will be sent untouched (assuming you don't do anything to it) to the device. Only programs like PowerDVD downsample when a non-PAP compliant device is present. The video card doesn't downsample anything. It's the programs that use it that can.

 

[Zachstar]

The video card will send the max of what you set it in the sound config. I noticed that at first it is set to a rather low level and you need to bump it up.