ATI 4### line and HD-Audio Formats

[Aquila76]

I'm looking to jump into the HTPC realm, and I have not been able to find a definitive answer on this. Do ATI's cards pass the actual HD-Audio bitstream (TrueHD, DTS-MA, etc.) via HDMI, or do they recode it into PCM? I think I'd prefer that my Denon AVR translate the TrueHD/DTS-MA bitstream than the videocard.

 

[s44]

No video cards bitstream yet.

 

[PurdueRy]

doesn't matter who decodes a lossless format...the result is the same

 

[Stoneburner]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1111291

Ask the OP there, he responds quickly and has a frighteningly high level of knowledge. In fact, the answer might be on that format or in his hd 4xxx series thread.

 

[Aquila76]

Reading a ginormous thread at AVSforum that I somehow missed, it appears that Microsoft has no Protected Audio Path in any OS, including Win7. If I'm reading it right, until MS gets PAP working or ATI/nVidia create a PAP solution on their cards there won't be a single card solution for bitstreaming BD audio via HDMI. Right now, the only solution is the ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 or the Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD.

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
doesn't matter who decodes a lossless format...the result is the same

I thought the ATI cards downsampled to 16-bit audio (due to PAP license requirements), as opposed to 24-bit on the BD?

 

[BoboKatt]

A good article:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3411&p=1

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: BoboKatt
A good article:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3411&p=1

Well, that confirms it some more. No bitstreaming of HD-Audio, only downsampling re-encode. Hopefully the new GT300/5800 GPUs will be able to do this correctly.