TrueHD on an HTPC caught in action

Next-gen audio on a HTPC was starting to seem like a dream, but tonight at the Digital Experience we got a chance to witness first hand Dolby TrueHD pass through on an HTPC thanks to ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater and the Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 HDMI Deluxe sound card. Although the Xonar HDAV has been available for some time, it was just recently that ArcSoft and Asus were able to finally get their act together. As cool as this is, we can't help but think this solution is still a bit too complicated for most, but no one ever said being the first was easy.

[S4Rs Posted Jan 8th 2009 7:05PM]

This needs to be built into ASUS motherboards. This with AMD chipsets that have the built in video processing would be killer. I would pay 300 bucks for a mobo that can handle HD video and audio out of the box through a single HDMI cable. Its getting software to support it now.

[Zefram Posted Jan 8th 2009 8:34PM]

LPCM is pretty much the same right? All the info is there?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 9th 2009 12:51PM]

It sounds the only solution to pass lossless, non-downsampled 24bit/192KHz LPCM or bit-stream of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio from the computer. Many Blu-ray and HTPC users are looking for this kind of solution. Graphics and chipset makers may be still lack of audio expertise to fulfill the Full-HD audio solution.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2009 2:30PM]

cant the HDMI versions of Nvidia 9400GT and AMD 4350 do this? I'm looking at getting a hdmi cheap graphics card, was hoping these 2 could pass the audio to an onkyo 606 receiver and let that decode DTS-HD MA or TrueHD etc.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2009 4:19PM]

get the ATI because it can pass audio. i'm not sure that nvidia can do it
and 4350 is too low. get something better from newegg

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2009 4:26PM]

what do you mean by the 4350 is too low? I wont be playing games, just want it to send 1080p video and HD audio to my onkyo 606 amplifier. Will the 4350 send DD5.1 and DTS to my amp too? As i'd rather not use my onboard realtek 882 as it isn't very good.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2009 9:27PM]

nope the video adaptor's HDMI will only output video.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 11th 2009 3:55AM]

you can do audio with the ati card pop to their site its a pain to set up but you can send the audio via the hdmi on the card

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 11:25AM]

ATi graphics card could only do LPCM audio output but no direct bitstream to AVR for decoding. Moreover, most software Blu-ray players such as PowerDVD, WinDVD, will downsample the LPCM to below 16bit/48KHz audio quality (usually as MP3 bitrate) on general audio/HDMI devices unless it supports AACS compliant protected audio playback as Xonar HDAV did with Arcsoft TMT player. So, you could not get the real uncompromising HD audio inside the Blu-ray disc.