The Future of PC Based Audio?

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Audioguy

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 22, 2006
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Given the current state of PC based audio, then introduction of Windows Vista and current trends in the market what do you guys see for the future of PC based audio?
 
I see high quality onboard audio solutions (they're close already to high quality pci cards) with OpenAL support. That is all.
 
Audioguy said:
Given the current state of PC based audio, then introduction of Windows Vista and current trends in the market what do you guys see for the future of PC based audio?
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Hopefully motherboard manufacturers start working with companies like creative to make better onboard solutions or it could go the road amd wants it to go and the SPU, GPU, and CPU are all removable/upgradable.
 
I think we will start to see better and better onboard solution. I don't think the add-in card market will be going anywhere anytime soon. There is just too much money to be made from people who want quality cards that offer more then a top quality onboard solution can offer. I also think we will see better card being released that are similar to HT audio receivers, offering the latest in audio technologies from Dolby and DTS. Atleast this is what I hope will start to happen. ;)
 
I don't think PC audio solutions (HDMI products like R600) will even have to support pass through of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD as programs like PowerDVD can already decode those lossless codecs into 7.1 PCM. This would be preferable because then you can still have simultaneous playback of other audio sources on your computer instead of having them blocked out by the pass through of TrueHD/DTS-HD material (like you know how when you watch a movie while passing through ac3 or DTS you can't hear any other sounds going on your computer, this can be avoided by HDMI). But I guess though there are some who would still rather have their receivers do the decoding, to each to his own. ;)
 
If HDMI is the future and PC audio will be integrated with GPU, I think that maybe next generation GPUs will have a hardware accelerator for audio as well. nVidia already has an experience with audio with their soundstorm before and maybe AMD would come out with something that can take advantage from the combination of their CPU, GPU and chipset. Btw does it matter which equipment do the decoding? As long as there is no DSP involved, I think that it will still sound the same because the compression is used due to the bandwidth limitation of the optical drive in the first place.
 
Btw does it matter which equipment do the decoding? As long as there is no DSP involved, I think that it will still sound the same because the compression is used due to the bandwidth limitation of the optical drive in the first place.
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Yep. :p

This would be preferable because then you can still have simultaneous playback of other audio sources on your computer instead of having them blocked out by the pass through of TrueHD/DTS-HD material (like you know how when you watch a movie while passing through ac3 or DTS you can't hear any other sounds going on your computer, this can be avoided by HDMI).
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While HDMI will certianly be a option down the road I don't think companies will do away with good ol' Analog for HDMI. If a card was released that had both this would be a good product. The fact is everybody can deal with analog to some extent. HDMI will be bought up by a certain # of people who can properly use it. You see the same thing with just digital in the audio forums. Most people are still using analog but you get a few guys every now and then that want to go digital. You need the gear to go digital. Companies bringing out pure HDMI cards will be limiting themselves to a certain market.;)
 
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