HDMI Audio and Gefore 560/570

[meauounji]

Guys,

Does anyone know how the HDMI out on the Geforce 560/570 work? As in, does it carry sound and if so, does it carry sound from the dedicated soundcard and not just the on-board audio? I'm asking because the cards (at least the 560 as far as I've researched) no longer have the SPDIF header to take in the audio signal.

Thanks!

 

[SirMaster]

Yes, any NVIDIA 4xx or 5xx series card or AMD 5xxx or 6xxx series card is capable of sending up to 8 channels of 24bit 96khz lossless LPCM audio out of the HDMI and DVI ports (with DVI to HDMI converter) as well.

It does not pass through the on-board or dedicated sound card's audio. It's a pure digital signal so it just outputs it's own sound straight from the Windows audio API.

It will provide a better quality signal than either the on-board or the dedicated card because it wont be modifying the audio at all. It just sends the raw sound output from your video games or movies or music right to your receiver which will end up doing both the the digital to analog conversion and amplification.

 

[alamone]

Yes, as SirMaster said. Just keep in mind that you need to have a video signal going out of that HDMI signal for the receiver to lock onto the audio signal. If you're running SLI, you may only have 2 outputs, or 3 outputs as a spanning desktop.

Additionally, the beginning of sounds will typically be cut off because the receiver initializes when the sound starts, and loses signal when the sound stops. To avoid these cut offs, you can have something in the background playing silence to prevent the receiver from losing signal lock such as SPDIF Keepalive.