Updates at end of post
I am rather surprised no one has started this thread yet so I thought I would give it a go.
The Card
A low profile, PCI interface version of the Xonar HDAV 1.3 with no analog support. It has a set of HDMI ports and a coax/Toslink SPDIF port. TMT OEM version with support for Bistreaming and full-res LPCM is included.
http://www.asus.com/News.aspx?N_ID=5KqyuL93cmEFZF0w
My Thoughts
I am awaiting this card in the hope that it will be a reasonably priced option with just the features I need, an OEM copy of TMT (Hopefully TMT 3) and nothing more. I assume it will have the complete set of HDMI related features that the HDAV 1.3 has and perhaps will eventually be offered in PCIe as well as PCI flavors.
I am hoping also that myAV will participate in this thread as I have seen how valuable his input has been to the original HDAV thread.
Once this version of the card comes out we can all share our experiences with it; unless I hear that the card is a disaster I am hoping to be one of those that enjoys full resolution output with this card.
With the imminent arrival of TMT 3 I sincerely hope we do not have much longer to wait for this card to be released.
Enjoy!
Edit: Here is a link to the original HDAV 1.3 thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1065232
And thanks to renethx who found this image:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post15764129
4/4/09:
myAV has had an opportunity to work with an actual card and reports on it later in the thread. He has been told that it will be available at the end of April for an estimated price of $140 to $150 and it will include an OEM version of TMT which can be upgraded to TMT3. TMT3 will support this card.
7/22/09
Newegg has carried the cards for several weeks now and they are widely available. The card works very much like the standard HDAV, so different people have different results. I am writing this as I install the card so will document my experience.
System:
Windows Vista 32 SP1
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H Nvidia 9400 MB
Integra DTC-9.8 Pre/Pro
Panasonic PT-AE500U Projector
My Experience:
First, I decided to just put the card in and install without reinstalling Windows Vista 32 SP1. I want to see what happens when I install the card into a system that has had many codecs installed, both TMT3 and PDVD9 trials as well as a broken installation of WinDVD that I own and which has no sound. I have FFDShow tryout on the system and some other codecs. Things have been messed up for some time now; for instance, VMC has no audio and has video issues so I have been using various other players for some time now. If all goes well the magical HDAV 1.3 Slim card will no doubt fix all my woes and in the process will replace the hair on my head that seems to have gone missing...
Drivers installed from the CD without a hitch and I rebooted. At this time the CD is up to date so it is simple to install drivers. Now I will install TMT2...
While I am waiting I am looking at the box. It has all sorts of good stuff on it much like you see in the image above. It definitely was designed well before release as it refers to the need for an update to get Dolby TrueHD decoding/bitstreaming which as we all know has long been included. Has some nice examples of bad English: "You may not know that generic PC can output BD audio at DVD quality (48K/16bit) for the most, because none of them have built up the Protected Audio Path System (PAPS) compliant with AACS (Advanced Access Control System)."
Ah! Finished installing TMT2 and rebooting...
One thing I notice is that my Integra DTC-9.8 still says No Signal just as it always has with my Gigabyte 9400 based motherboard HDMI output. Hmm.. this must have been due to my swapping the HDMI cables around without rebooting as it cleared up once I rebooted. Nice! The 9400 always had issues with this even though it really was no big deal.
Without touching a thing I figured I would try a movie (Hey, gotta act like a typical ignorant non-AVSForum member type user to see what they would experience...)
Imagine that.
I put in Street Fighter - The Legend of Chun Li and it just worked.
Well, almost. For my initial run I could not figure out how to enable bitstreaming but I was able, with a small amount of fiddling, to get multichannel sound via LPCM. We watched the movie this way as I did not want to fiddle any more at the moment and it sounded great - although it is not much of a showcase movie as the soundtrack is 5.1. Once the movie was over I figured out that all I needed to do for bitstreaming joy was choose HDMI as the output in TMT2 - this option had not been visible at some earlier point.
So my overall experience was very smooth.
Having read all the postings from people having trouble I was expecting much more hassle especially given that I did not reinstall Windows or anything. While I have yet to experiment with other audio sources I can say that BR playback was the simplest I have seen yet and worked very well right out of the box with a minimum of hassle. I feel very much (at this point) that the board was well worth the investment. We shall see if that stands up to time...
However, for all that audio joy, the hair on my head is still nowhere in sight. I guess you can't have it all...
I am rather surprised no one has started this thread yet so I thought I would give it a go.
The Card
A low profile, PCI interface version of the Xonar HDAV 1.3 with no analog support. It has a set of HDMI ports and a coax/Toslink SPDIF port. TMT OEM version with support for Bistreaming and full-res LPCM is included.
http://www.asus.com/News.aspx?N_ID=5KqyuL93cmEFZF0w
My Thoughts
I am awaiting this card in the hope that it will be a reasonably priced option with just the features I need, an OEM copy of TMT (Hopefully TMT 3) and nothing more. I assume it will have the complete set of HDMI related features that the HDAV 1.3 has and perhaps will eventually be offered in PCIe as well as PCI flavors.
I am hoping also that myAV will participate in this thread as I have seen how valuable his input has been to the original HDAV thread.
Once this version of the card comes out we can all share our experiences with it; unless I hear that the card is a disaster I am hoping to be one of those that enjoys full resolution output with this card.
With the imminent arrival of TMT 3 I sincerely hope we do not have much longer to wait for this card to be released.
Enjoy!
Edit: Here is a link to the original HDAV 1.3 thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1065232
And thanks to renethx who found this image:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post15764129
4/4/09:
myAV has had an opportunity to work with an actual card and reports on it later in the thread. He has been told that it will be available at the end of April for an estimated price of $140 to $150 and it will include an OEM version of TMT which can be upgraded to TMT3. TMT3 will support this card.
7/22/09
Newegg has carried the cards for several weeks now and they are widely available. The card works very much like the standard HDAV, so different people have different results. I am writing this as I install the card so will document my experience.
System:
Windows Vista 32 SP1
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H Nvidia 9400 MB
Integra DTC-9.8 Pre/Pro
Panasonic PT-AE500U Projector
My Experience:
First, I decided to just put the card in and install without reinstalling Windows Vista 32 SP1. I want to see what happens when I install the card into a system that has had many codecs installed, both TMT3 and PDVD9 trials as well as a broken installation of WinDVD that I own and which has no sound. I have FFDShow tryout on the system and some other codecs. Things have been messed up for some time now; for instance, VMC has no audio and has video issues so I have been using various other players for some time now. If all goes well the magical HDAV 1.3 Slim card will no doubt fix all my woes and in the process will replace the hair on my head that seems to have gone missing...
Drivers installed from the CD without a hitch and I rebooted. At this time the CD is up to date so it is simple to install drivers. Now I will install TMT2...
While I am waiting I am looking at the box. It has all sorts of good stuff on it much like you see in the image above. It definitely was designed well before release as it refers to the need for an update to get Dolby TrueHD decoding/bitstreaming which as we all know has long been included. Has some nice examples of bad English: "You may not know that generic PC can output BD audio at DVD quality (48K/16bit) for the most, because none of them have built up the Protected Audio Path System (PAPS) compliant with AACS (Advanced Access Control System)."
Ah! Finished installing TMT2 and rebooting...
One thing I notice is that my Integra DTC-9.8 still says No Signal just as it always has with my Gigabyte 9400 based motherboard HDMI output. Hmm.. this must have been due to my swapping the HDMI cables around without rebooting as it cleared up once I rebooted. Nice! The 9400 always had issues with this even though it really was no big deal.
Without touching a thing I figured I would try a movie (Hey, gotta act like a typical ignorant non-AVSForum member type user to see what they would experience...)
Imagine that.
So my overall experience was very smooth.
However, for all that audio joy, the hair on my head is still nowhere in sight. I guess you can't have it all...