Video card & Sound card combination for an HTPC

[Orbs]

Hi. I'm looking to build an HTPC to hook up to a receiver that is certified to do both Dolby TruHD and Blu-ray 3D. I haven't decided if I'm buying a 3D TV yet or not but I want my HTPC to be ready for whenever I do.

I'm considering the following video card and sound card...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-138-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829132012

The problem is, I don't know if the soundcard will support Blu-ray 3D. It's HDMI 1.3a and I don't know if it's high speed or standard speed HDMI 1.3a. The Asus tech support person didn't know either and knew nothing about Blu-ray 3D.

Does anyone know if the above combination will work? If it won't work or if you aren't sure, are there other options that support both Blu-ray 3D and Dolby TruHD losless bitstreaming?

Thanks!
Jared

 

[Campy]

Am I the only one who doesnt understand what the soundcard has to do with this? :S The way i understand it the blu ray 3d standard has nothing to do with sound.

 

[Orbs]

To get lossless bitstreaming, the video output is combined with the soundcard's audio output. The soundcard takes HDMI video in and adds sound and outputs it on HDMI out.

This is because the audio has to be protected path and most video cards don't have HDMI in.

Since the video ultimimately goes out via the soundcard, the HDMI out of the soundcard must be sufficient for Blu-ray 3D or that part of it won't work.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

No need to buy a video card and a separate sound card. The Radeon 5xxx series has PAP built in so it supports lossless bitstreaming. Allegedly the 4xx series of NVIDIA cards also support lossless bitstreaming with the new 260.xx drivers although reviews on that have been mixed so far.

Also you will need PowerDVD 10 Ultra, or TotalMedia Theater 3 with the blu-ray 3D plugin, for 3D playback. Fortunately for HTPCs there's no need to buy any special 3D blu-ray drive. It will work with any BD-ROM or BD-RW that has greater than 1X read speed.

 

[Attic]

No need to buy a video card and a separate sound card. The Radeon 5xxx series has PAP built in so it supports lossless bitstreaming. Allegedly the 4xx series of NVIDIA cards also support lossless bitstreaming with the new 260.xx drivers although reviews on that have been mixed so far.

Also you will need PowerDVD 10 Ultra, or TotalMedia Theater 3 with the blu-ray 3D plugin, for 3D playback. Fortunately for HTPCs there's no need to buy any special 3D blu-ray drive. It will work with any BD-ROM or BD-RW that has greater than 1X read speed.

Mmmm goooood.

The 460 is suppose to do it, but it sounds like the software players need updates. Only confirmed working bitstreaming I've read for this card is when the user uses FFDShow for audio.

Stick with the 5000 series or a 460gtx and you should be fine in the future.

The asus sound card would be a waste unless you want better DAC's for analog output, but sounds like you won't be using that since your going with HDMI for audio+video.


Sounds like you are going to have a nice setup, enjoy.

 

[Campy]

i've heard of gfx cards bitstreaming audio but never heard of a sound card outputing video. guess i learned something new today.

gl with your htpc

 

[Ultra411]

Well if you want 3D for the future go with Nvidia 4xx series since they are the only ones supporting it so far...

 

[nenforcer]

If you are looking to bitstream both DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD then you will want to skip both that video card and sound card. The video card definitely doesn't support it via HDMI and the audio card may or may not but is an unneccesary addition.

What you need to buy is either an nVidia Geforce GTX 460 or a Radeon HD 58XX (5XXX?) video card both of which support bitsreaming the HD audio formats.

Now one of these cards may be overkill for a HTPC you are building.

In this case if you build a HTPC from an Intel Core i3 Clarkdale based CPU it will support bitstreaming as long as there is an HDMI out and you install the latest Intel drivers.

That is probably the best / cheapest / most power efficient solution currently as long as you don't intend to game on it.

 

[Orbs]

Thanks all. Due to the physical constraints of my home theater A/V cabinet, I am forced to use a low profile case and a Micro ATX motherboard. That pretty much rules out any large cards.

I am not using this for gaming, so I really only care about protected path for lossless Blu-ray audio and sufficient bandwidth (and driver support) for Blu-ray 3D.

Given that, does anyone know if the soundcard I originally listed work for Blu-ray 3D? If not, are there other, low-profile, slim & short video or sound cards that will?

Thanks again,
Jared

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Don't know if the Xonar supports blu-ray 3d but this does, is low profile, and meets your requirements for both audio (PAP) and video (3D support).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102874

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The original card you chose is not low profile. If you need a low profile card then I think the best video option is the Radeon HD 5570. If you don't, then then Radeon HD 5670. AMD should be supporting 3D later this year.

 

[Orbs]

The original card you chose is not low profile. If you need a low profile card then I think the best video option is the Radeon HD 5570. If you don't, then then Radeon HD 5670. AMD should be supporting 3D later this year.

Thanks, Tastes. Perhaps I misspoke. It doesn't have to meet the official "low profile" standard, but it needs to be reasonable (ie: taking up two slots and being 4 inches longer than a standard video card won't work).

Here's the case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129054

It should accomodate the video card and soundcard above, though I don't know if those will work together for Blu-ray 3D because the soundcard's HDMI is listed as 1.3a with no mention of standard vs. high speed.

 

[nenforcer]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Bluray 3D refer strictly to the video while the audio is still just Dolby TrueHD or DTS-MA?

This new link on the PS3 seems to indicate this and why its not a full 3D Bluray player

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5172

I believe for a HTPC build all you need is the ability to bitstream the audio and let you receiver do all of the sound processing. Surround sound has been 3D since it came out!

 

[Orbs]

nenforcer, the only reason the sound card impacts Blu-ray 3D in my setup is because the video card doesn't do lossless bitstreaming of Dolby TruHD (or the DTS equivalent) so I need a soundcard that can do that. The only two soundcards I know of that do so take the video HDMI out from the video card as an input and combines it with the lossless audio from the soundcard.

It's in this combination process, and the final output, that I believe Blu-ray 3D may be impacted.

 

[Campy]

I don't think there would be any difference as the sound card is just doing a passthrough of the video information and 3d bluray is compatible with all other existing hardware(capable of normal bluray) isnt it? I've even heard the PS3 will get bluray 3d support with a firmware upgrade too.

 

[Orbs]

Campy, I hope so . I read somewhere that only HDMI 1.3a "high speed" (not standard speed) will support Blu-ray 3D. I can't find any information about which speed HDMI 1.3a the Xonar card supports.

Perhaps I just need to buy the components and see what happens. I don't plan on getting a 3D display immediately though.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The HD 5670 will do Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...view/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5670-overview.aspx#2
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2841/10

It's probably the video card you're looking for. If you decide to go 3D then you can get (add) sound card, as I don't think the 5670 will do 3D and bitstream at the same time.

 

[Orbs]

Abe, I think that card is too large. Also, I can do bitstreaming without Blu-ray 3D with the cards I mentioned in the start of the thread (and perhaps Blu-ray 3D as well, but I'm not sure).

I'm looking for a way to do both. Thanks for the suggestion though!