HDMI video card suggestion

daphatgrant

daphatgrant

Fi-yah!
Staff member
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Jun 15, 2003
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Hello all, I'm finally moving to an HD TV and my current video card (7900GT) doesn't support HDMI. I'm looking for a suggestion or two for a cheap PCI Express card that can handle HD video playback and has at least 1 HDMI port.

Other HTPC specs:
Asus A8N SLI Premium
AMD X2-4200
2GB PC3200
320GB HDD
Audigy 2 ZS
620 watt PSU
Win XP


Thanks for the suggestions :)
 
For basic HDMI. HD / BluRay playing... Yes. And a waste of money. I have the HD5450 and I play .MKV HD content with it with no problem at all. Passes HD audio as well as DTS via HDMI
 
Thanks man :). I'm going to throw the "I'm embarrassed to not to know this" card when I ask the next question.

I'm assuming I hook my soundcard to the 5450 somehow? So I can get sound and video out the HDMI cable? With my current setup I know I could run RCA cables along with a DVI cable to get what I need but when both audio and video are in the same cable my knowledge runs a little short and combining them into one cable would make management a lot easier. Thanks again for the help :D.
 
I believe the 5450 itself will show up as a sound card; just use that as the output device.
 
daphatgrant said:
Thanks man :). I'm going to throw the "I'm embarrassed to not to know this" card when I ask the next question.

I'm assuming I hook my soundcard to the 5450 somehow? So I can get sound and video out the HDMI cable? With my current setup I know I could run RCA cables along with a DVI cable to get what I need but when both audio and video are in the same cable my knowledge runs a little short and combining them into one cable would make management a lot easier. Thanks again for the help :D.
Click to expand...

you should be able to right click onthe speaker icon on your taskbar, select playback devices. the ati card should be listed there. right clik on it,select as default device and you should be good to go.
 
Does HDMI audio work in XP? I am pretty sure Bitsreaming HD audio at least does not work.
 
I'm mainly trying to tag along and learn on this topic.

why not this card?
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rade...52HDMI/dp/B001SJLLTQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

If someone could educate me: how does audio get routed first to the card, then over the HDMI link to the HDTV??? I note that in the reviews, I see both success and failure at this. Some say it just worked... like black magic. Others say this was the problem: no audio in the stream. How to make it happen? :confused:
 
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cognus said:
I'm mainly trying to tag along and learn on this topic.

why not this card?
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rade...52HDMI/dp/B001SJLLTQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

If someone could educate me: how does audio get routed first to the card, then over the HDMI link to the HDTV??? I note that in the reviews, I see both success and failure at this. Some say it just worked... like black magic. Others say this was the problem: no audio in the stream. How to make it happen? :confused:
Click to expand...

The card mentioned earlier supports HD audio, the one you linked to does not.

The graphics card has its own built in "sound card" for lack of a better term. The card uses its own audio controller for the sound, you simply need to plug an HDMI cable into the card and the TV (or reciever) then make sure the ATI audio device is set to the default device and it will work.
 
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cooter said:
The card mentioned earlier supports HD audio, the one you linked to does not.

The graphics card has its own built in "sound card" for lack of a better term. The card uses its own audio controller for the sound, you simply need to plug an HDMI cable into the card and the TV (or reciever) then make sure the ATI audio device is set to the default device and it will work.
Click to expand...

Check: http://www1.sapphiretech.com/sf/products/products_overview.php?gpid=285&grp=3
quote: " DVD Upscaling & Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support & Integrated DisplayPort with audio ..."

so all those positive reviews saying that audio was 'there' on the HDTV they used.... they were misguided?
Can the system bios not route audio to a pass-through circuit on the board?
 
Last edited:
cognus said:
gents, is this card the same [electronically] as the one linked above?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...31339&cm_re=ATI_HD5450-_-14-131-339-_-Product
Click to expand...

ATI/AMD 5xxx series cards support DTS-MA and True HD bitstreaming. ATI/AMD 4xxx series cards do not.

The ATI/AMD 4xxx series cards do support 7.1 surround, just not 7.1 surround that uses DTS-MA or True HD bitstream encoding. Those encoding standards were not all that popular at the time the 4xxx series cards were released, but they are more common now.

Whether those standards are supported by the device you are connecting to is a whole other matter. As long as you are wanting to transport anything HDMI 1.3a supports transferring, any ATI/AMD HD 5450 (such as the one listed above) card with an HDMI connector will do it.
 
Cogent answer, Nissus!

and the good news is the price ain't bad on the 5 series cards - good ones.
I'm going to hazard a guess also that the power draw is little diff
 
The power draw on a 5450 is going to be about as low as anything you will find. It does pick up a bit if doing 3-D gaming, which it really isn't all that strong at doing.

For HTPC typical use for hardware decoding of h264/vc-1 for Blu-Ray or MKV files and such, it won't ever go above idle power usage anyway.

I'm using a fan-less 5450 in my HTPC. I have the exhaust fan on my case wired to run at 5 volts (APEX DM-387 case with 275 Watt power supply, Athlon II 250, 160 GB notebook drive, Avermedia M780 ATSC/QAM dual tuner I've had for years, 4 GB RAM, Blu-ray reader). I've been very happy with it.
 
nessus said:
Avermedia M780 ATSC/QAM dual tuner I've had for years
Click to expand...


Ahem!
Nessus, magic words..... I am floored by the dumb blank stares I get from Bestbuy etc folks [well-meaning they are] when I have asked them for EITHER an HDTV that will definitely tune QAM/Clear-QAM as well as NTSC etc, ... OR, gimme a TUNER [in any shape] that will definitely tune the same.... they simply don't know, apparently because the mftrs don't bother to list.
This all has to do with a simple theme: I don't want to pay Time-Warner infinite monthly payments on their Scientific Atlanta STBs!! why is this hard?
Does your tuner do everything their tuner does???

I have a fairly recent vintage Sony KDL40Z4100 but when I hooked the cable directly to the set, it accurately tuned some, but not all of the digital channels I'm paying for. Importantly it did not tune the HD ESPN and a few other HD dupes of lower definition channels. why is this ???

Then, back on the thread topic: why would I buy a 5450 card when a 55xx is available for the same price?? :confused: I'm all for low-power consumption 'cause the box I have in mind is my Aopen Xccube, which except for a processor fan is all passive, uses mobile components, etc......
 
nessus said:
ATI/AMD 5xxx series cards support DTS-MA and True HD bitstreaming. ATI/AMD 4xxx series cards do not.

The ATI/AMD 4xxx series cards do support 7.1 surround, just not 7.1 surround that uses DTS-MA or True HD bitstream encoding. Those encoding standards were not all that popular at the time the 4xxx series cards were released, but they are more common now.

Whether those standards are supported by the device you are connecting to is a whole other matter. As long as you are wanting to transport anything HDMI 1.3a supports transferring, any ATI/AMD HD 5450 (such as the one listed above) card with an HDMI connector will do it.
Click to expand...
The 4xxx cards DO support HD- audio, they just do not bit-stream it, the send it as uncompressed PCM, in up to 7.1. It will not light the pretty True HD, or DTS-Master lights on your receiver, but the sound is still uncompressed HD audio.
 
cognus said:
Ahem!
Nessus, magic words..... I am floored by the dumb blank stares I get from Bestbuy etc folks [well-meaning they are] when I have asked them for EITHER an HDTV that will definitely tune QAM/Clear-QAM as well as NTSC etc, ... OR, gimme a TUNER [in any shape] that will definitely tune the same.... they simply don't know, apparently because the mftrs don't bother to list.
This all has to do with a simple theme: I don't want to pay Time-Warner infinite monthly payments on their Scientific Atlanta STBs!! why is this hard?
Does your tuner do everything their tuner does???

I have a fairly recent vintage Sony KDL40Z4100 but when I hooked the cable directly to the set, it accurately tuned some, but not all of the digital channels I'm paying for. Importantly it did not tune the HD ESPN and a few other HD dupes of lower definition channels. why is this ???
Click to expand...

I don't think you can fault the Best Buy folks since your question is a little misguided. There is no reason for the manufacturer to list their tuner because they are all pretty much the same (Generally speaking). I'm sure someone can find an exception to the rule, but pretty much any HDTV can tune Clear QAM and NTSC. That's what makes it an HDTV. Without the tuner, you basically just have a big computer monitor. Your local digital channels are transmitted without encryption, these are your Clear QAM channels. ESPN and your other HD cable channels are transmitted with encryption, requiring your cable provider's box. Nothing you can really do about it except upgrade to a cable card. You won't find a TV with it built in because different cable providers use different boxes.
 
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