I spent the past few days evaluating Lynx Studio's Take Two-B, AES16, and RME's HDSP AES-32 on my HTPC.

I was looking for an end all solution using the Balanced AES/EBU digital output of these cards into my Surround Processor. My goal was to eliminate digital jitter and use the Professional standard of SPDIF instead of the consumer COAX/Toslink, and see if I could hear a difference.

I ran into a problem with PowerDVD. When you play any media (SD/HD/Blu-ray) the SPDIF option disappears and only offers analog out. I have an old M-Audio Revo 7.1 that works just fine via SPDIF with PowerDVD. So i don't believe it has to do with copyright. I believe it is due to DirectSound (more on this later).

I have been successful getting all 3 cards to work in 2 channel mode (both DirectSound and ASIO) with JR Media Center 12.

I then was able to get TTek 2.5 to work with all 3 cards sending DD & DTS via AES/EBU using SPDIF setting. I could not use DirectSound. I had to choose the audio card's direct "channel" for sending out the digital bitstream.

When I came to PowerDVD, everything went to the pot. I could only get 2 channel with all 3 cards. RME didn't have a clue. Lynx believes they know the problem, but you have to wait for a fix down the road. I also e-mailed CyberLink to see if they could modify their program to allow the user to pick the SPDIF device, instead of using the default DirectSound device.

I ended up with the following solution (for now). Lynx AES-16 provides my 2 channel and TTek digital output to my processor via AES/EBU. My Revo 7.1 outputs PowerDVDs digital output to my processor via Coax SPDIF.

I can honestly say I am enjoying all my 2 channel music all over again. A definite difference for the better was heard. I tried both DirectSound (32 bit stereo) and ASIO. I settled on ASIO at the end of the day for Media Center 12.

I also chose the AES-16 due to it being digital only and superior jitter reduction over the Lynx Two-B. I didn't want an analog section adding additional noise.

The RME card was REAL funky in Vista. Needless to say wasting 4 hours trying a Vista setup and the RME was an exercise in futility. This is another reason I stayed with the Lynx card.

Back on topic: Does anyone know of a way to get one of these cards to work with PowerDVD 7.3 via SPDIF setting? Someone suggested AC3Filter. I tried it. Either it was configured wrong or it doesn't work in this configuration.

I'd love to remove the 2nd audio card and just have one card.

Thanks in advance.

..............The RME card was REAL funky in Vista. Needless to say wasting 4 hours trying a Vista setup and the RME was an exercise in futility. This is another reason I stayed with the Lynx card.

Back on topic: Does anyone know of a way to get one of these cards to work with PowerDVD 7.3 via SPDIF setting? Someone suggested AC3Filter. I tried it. Either it was configured wrong or it doesn't work in this configuration.

I'd love to remove the 2nd audio card and just have one card.

Thanks in advance.

i have the same problem with powerdvd. see here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=979627

i cannot get asio out of powerdvd. same issue trying ac3 filter and spdifer-they dont do what i want them to do. I spoke with rme-they said the xp drivers for the digipad will work in vista32. in fact they do--theatertek plays beautifully through the rme card in vista-just select spdif in the audio options. i dont think that powerdvd does asio. perhaps i'll try asio4all to see if i can get it to work. too bad theatertek doesnt play hddvd/bluray well in vista (or at all sometimes).

It's a Power DVD issue.

WinDVD has the same issue..

I tried both PowerDVD and WinDVD, I could not set the SPDIF too..

I guess the problem is still not yet resolved now?

I spent the past few days evaluating Lynx Studio's Take Two-B, AES16, and RME's HDSP AES-32 on my HTPC.

I was looking for an end all solution using the Balanced AES/EBU digital output of these cards into my Surround Processor. My goal was to eliminate digital jitter and use the Professional standard of SPDIF instead of the consumer COAX/Toslink, and see if I could hear a difference.

I ran into a problem with PowerDVD. When you play any media (SD/HD/Blu-ray) the SPDIF option disappears and only offers analog out. I have an old M-Audio Revo 7.1 that works just fine via SPDIF with PowerDVD. So i don't believe it has to do with copyright. I believe it is due to DirectSound (more on this later).

I have been successful getting all 3 cards to work in 2 channel mode (both DirectSound and ASIO) with JR Media Center 12.

I then was able to get TTek 2.5 to work with all 3 cards sending DD & DTS via AES/EBU using SPDIF setting. I could not use DirectSound. I had to choose the audio card's direct "channel" for sending out the digital bitstream.

When I came to PowerDVD, everything went to the pot. I could only get 2 channel with all 3 cards. RME didn't have a clue. Lynx believes they know the problem, but you have to wait for a fix down the road. I also e-mailed CyberLink to see if they could modify their program to allow the user to pick the SPDIF device, instead of using the default DirectSound device.

I ended up with the following solution (for now). Lynx AES-16 provides my 2 channel and TTek digital output to my processor via AES/EBU. My Revo 7.1 outputs PowerDVDs digital output to my processor via Coax SPDIF.

I can honestly say I am enjoying all my 2 channel music all over again. A definite difference for the better was heard. I tried both DirectSound (32 bit stereo) and ASIO. I settled on ASIO at the end of the day for Media Center 12.

I also chose the AES-16 due to it being digital only and superior jitter reduction over the Lynx Two-B. I didn't want an analog section adding additional noise.

The RME card was REAL funky in Vista. Needless to say wasting 4 hours trying a Vista setup and the RME was an exercise in futility. This is another reason I stayed with the Lynx card.

Back on topic: Does anyone know of a way to get one of these cards to work with PowerDVD 7.3 via SPDIF setting? Someone suggested AC3Filter. I tried it. Either it was configured wrong or it doesn't work in this configuration.

I'd love to remove the 2nd audio card and just have one card.

Thanks in advance.


Hi Jim

I tried to send DD & DTS via AES/EBU using SPDIF setting using Ttek 2.6 and Vista. However, I failed, what I got was still PCM signal. Can you tell me how to set them up? Thanks.

Regards
Benjamin