[nirvana_1911]

Which card I should buy, and why?

Auzentech HomeTheater HD or Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe?

I listen to music most of the time, also do a fair bit of gaming.

I don't find myself watching movies that often, although I do watch.

I'm interested in one of the above cards to plug into a Yamaha 7.1 receiver and into a B&W 686 which I'll get shortly.

Thanks.

 

[nirvana_1911]

No one has an opinion on this or what?

 

[jalyst]

does hdav or hometheater hd have dd/dts 5.1 decode for s/pdif-in?

Thanks!

 

[TheManko]

I'm pretty sure neither does. I have the hdav and it doesn't.

 

[jalyst]

Hmm that's what i feared, anyway not a biggy I guess....

I've read that most consumer level cards with s/pdif-in decode suffer from audio/video desync issues anyway.
Whereas devices that specialise at playing back upon input (AVR's, SU-DH1, Mixamp etc) have the necessary internal clock that autosyncs with the external source's clock.
But they themselves can suffer from "jitter"....

 

[genclaymore]

The protection for blu ray audio doesnt alloud High def audio to be played over Spdif. So you will only get it over HDMI or analog with either cards with the movie players which are made for each other cards in mind.

HDAV TMT3 from asus page directly and Powerdvd for Auzentech HDMI for non downsample blu ray audio over analog. I had a HDAV1.3 my self as well this what I used mine for.

 

[jalyst]

Oh I realise PAP is only for HDMI...
And even if it weren't the HD audio formats often available to BD's wouldn't have enough bandwidth via s/pdif.

That's why in my OP I said:
Does hdav or hometheater hd have dd/dts 5.1 decode for s/pdif-in?

I'm not looking for a HD audio capture solution for media content, just standard DD/DTS 5.1.
Thanks for attempting to help though.

 

[jalyst]

Thanks, I'm actually realising my on-board alc889 may be fine for BD playback.
I actually have an Essence ST + H6 which I'll use mostly for BD by 1st decrypting/transcoding.
But for the times I can't be foobared I figured it'd be nice to have a PAP-compliant card.

Another thing I want (but perhaps less critical) is s/pdif-in dd/dts 5.1 decode.
But if the alc889 works for BD, then I think it'll be waste of $ just to buy a card for those abilities.

Especially considering that apparently most consumer level cards with s/pdif-in decode suffer from audio/video desync issues.
As they're typically capture devices that don't have input clocks designed to sync with the the digital audio source.

Whereas any device that accepts audio data from a digital input and plays it back simultaneously...
must synchronize it's own output clock to the input's clock .e.g: AVR's, SU-DH1, Mixamp etc.

I believe there are ways around it, but I'm not too familiar with the methods.....
If there's a cheap card with s/pdif-in decode, ideally with the ability to reroute the DAC stage to my Essence
(prolly not do-able), then I'd buy it.
But not before I bought a SU-DH1 or similar....

Anyone know of such a card, or know for sure that the alc889 works for BD playback?
I'm almost 100% certain of the latter myself, still researching....

And of course my Corei3-530 + Mobo can bit-stream when I decide to get an AVR or "separates".