*Official* Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 thread - Page 57

Hopefully that will give Asus something to worry about and push there drivers to improve

I think you may be confused, the rumoured 'Audio only' Asus card mentioned by AbMagFab is literally the HDAV without the (unwanted) splendid processing. It is not literally an audio only HDMI card, as such a think cannot exist as HDMI requires a video signal to work at all.


The Auzentech is fundamentally different to the HDAV in that is doesn't try and process the video, it is a 'straight through' operation so theoretically 24p will be a non issue.

IMO if ASUS hadn't tried to add 'value' to the HDAV with this stupid splendid processing this card would have been working perfectly long before now. We saw press photos of it Bitstreaming in XP several months ago and now we seem to have taken a step backwards and I'll bet Splendid is the problem.

Whether the Splendid hardware just won't support 24p as AbMagFab suggests, is a good question and as much as I dislike his somewhat antagonistic posting style (), that is good advice until we know for sure.

The rumour of this new card without splendid only adds to my own feelings that the HDAV could be a permanently flawed product. I certainly hope that is not the case, although I sent mine back last week.

Adam

The splendid is an option
If its not running before the drivers are installed, then its pretty safe to assume the drivers have the ability to turn the function off.
As for the auzentech being straight through, if so why is it restricted to 1080p@60hz and 720p/1080i@120hz?

While it is often not easy to get your money back, and it can be a long drawn out affair, it is certainly possible. I find having a law degree and being able to to litter conversation with legal jargon helps

May I direct you to:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/cons...page38311.html

FAQ no 1:
"Wherever goods are bought they must "conform to contract". This means they must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality (i.e. not inherently faulty at the time of sale)."

This is nothing to do with Asus's warranty, it is a contract for sale of goods with the retailer. Under UK law, the onus is on the retailer for the first 6 months to prove there was no flaw at time of purchase.

Nowhere has Asus claimed to be able to pass 24hz - so such an argument wouldn't wash. But Asus's *other* claims aren't a "mere puff" (if I remember the Carbolic Smoke Ball case correctly), they state TrueHD bitstream is coming "soon" and if it doesn't, your retailer will be obliged to give you a remedy. It won't be operating as described.

Personally I think it's a cracking bit of kit and don't really intend to return it, so I'm literally playing devil's advocate here. I fully expect Asus to sort out the bitstreaming/Vista/brightness problems, and hopefully the 24hz stuff too

also a threat to go to Consumer Affairs (australian version of consumer watchdog etc)
goes a long way if you quote the refund policy, especially when they try to give you credit or exchange. They can have whatever signs and company policies they want, they can oppose rights and regulations imposed on them by the government.
Just find the relevant ligislation and print it out and take it with you and let them swallow their tongue and kiss your ass afterwards.

When I rebooted without the drivers installed I still got the overbright gamma effect which implies that, that at least is hardware dependant and likely an effect of the splendid processor. I can't say with any certainty that 24p is crippled by that same hardware or not but it is worth considering and as I stated, in my opinion.


It actually states 'up to' and is, I expect, in order to conform to the HDMI specification.

Adam

Yeah good point. Still its 1st Gen hardware so I'm guessing most companies will make the same mistakes first time around, they're all dealing with the same issues when it comes to conforming to HDMI standards and secure path audio. One day they'll get it just right.....and then they'll release a new standard for 10.1 audio and 4k res and hdmi will be extinct. *sigh*
Capitalism killed the cat, and they were sad, but then they skinned the cat, made a hat sold the meat to asian resteraunts and had enough money to buy 2 new cats and a shinier gun :P

ok the section in the nvidia control panel that you spoke of had no listing at all for 1080p while going through the xonar, it did have 720p but flicking to that did not make a 1080p appear in that list. I had to bypass the xonar with the hdmi going str8 from the video card to the onkyo this made 1080p re-appear in the nvidia control panel. I then plugged the hdmi back into the xonar and it filicked back to 1080i however this time 1080p stayed in the list and i was able to change to that. Bit of a pain to get it back but it did finally work, thanks for your help, now i can happily go watch Godfather trilogy this weekend.

haha, no worries.
It pissed me off as well. Glad I could help.
I will be watching less cultured by equally pop-cultured days of thunder, top gun, and step brothers this afternoon. heheh

Already watched my top gun, the dogfight scenes look awesome in blu.

The point here mainly is how 'easy' it will be. In most cases the retailer wil NOT be interested and point you to the manufacture.

Therefore, the only way to in most cases is to contact trading standards or pursue legal action (the second of which is most likely going to cost you a lot more than the product you purchased).

I work in customer service, and i know your type, uttering your legal jargon! To be honest, that is just a manor of threatening the company you are speaking to. If you really wanted to pursue legal action, you would contact the companies legal department, not speak to their CS rep (retail) and ask for a refund:P This is off topic i know. I too am in the same possition as you. I actually value this card for what it is already, it sounds fantastic and like you, i do believe the drivers will eventually become available.

I pointed out previously that this is the future for Asus, they arent going to stop making HDMI solutions in the future, therefore, this card isnt going to be disregarded by them. With pressure from Auzentech and future HDMI solutions being released, i see absolutley no reason why this product will not be supported.
We may not see 24p, however i strong suggest everyone to contact Asus about this. Believe it or not, they will have a way of registering customer demand through customer service.

On another topic, does anyone have a dual monitor set up with this card?

When i have both my Receiver and dispaly connected seperatley, TMT fails to play with a HDCP error. I have to then disable on of the displays to get it to work. If i want 24p i have to disable my Receivers video input, but then i have to use Analogue sound as for some reason, HDMI will not work without Video through the Xonar.

ATI 3850 > Display (HDCP Compatible)
ATI 3850 > Xonar > Receiver > Display (All HDCP Compatible)

Also, in update to my Asus CS Experience, here is what i received back when they mention they didnt have an answer yet for 24p, Splendid Brightness and vista driver updates.

Dear Tim,
Thank you for contacting ASUS.

This is Echo and I will be assisting you with the issue you have posted.

As you mentioned, I will pass your case to our RD colleague again, please do not worry, I
will forward any updated news once I get from them.

Sorry for any inconvenience bring to you~
I look forward for your response with all the details to assist you.
Echo

What does RD stand for??

I guess RD stands for Research and Development.

Kenneth

Thats not good then! I very much doubt they will come back with a reply!

Um, yes it does. I have one HDMI cable from the PC to my pre-pro. That's a huge advantage and a necessity for everything but the most crippled of setups. If you have an AVR/pre-pro, video processor, speaker calibration, video calibration, and any number of additional items, having to bypass any of that for a device (audio and/or video) is a significant issue. And it costs 1/4 of the price.

To say that a dual-HDMI cable setup is anything but a hack is misleading at best, and naive at worst. If not, you'd see a lot more devices out there with two HDMI cable outputs - oh yeah, not one exists! I wonder why...

(And for future reference, you introduce immediate dismissal of any information in your post when you talk about OPAMPS and HDMI audio in the same post...)

1). What makes you think other manufacturers hardware failures have anything to do with the potential success or failure of this particular product. Again, do you have inside knowledge of the hardware and firmware it is used with? You cannot logically use irrelevant information as the basis of an argument.

2). 24P requires a 24Hz clock? LOL! ridiculous! Do you think an entire frames worth of video and audio data is all passed in one big word synchronized to this single 24Hz clock or something? Have you used an oscilloscope to see the frequency of the clocks being generated? Are you positive due to inside information not found in the Asus press releases or website info that no combo of multiplier and dividers couldn't be accomplished in existing hardware with current onboard clocks to generate the clock rates necessary for 24P media transmission? What evidence do you have that suggests this is true?

Your statements come across as baseless and ill informed. This leaves me with little confidence in their value.

Firstly, when mentioning OPAMPS i am talking about using the Analogue multi outs, not HDMI. I dont know exactly why you thought the two were related.

I am bypassing the 24p issue by using two seperate leads, thats all. Its not really a big deal, they are just sitting behind my Television cabinet anyway.

I mentioned your system doesnt have an advantage over mine, however the single hdmi is a valid point!

I wouldnt be happy with your solution, simply because i would know in the future it would be compromised compared to that of the Xonar, or any future HDMI cards.

Its cheaper yes, but what are you going to do when a card is released that offers an unaltered Bitdepth/Frequency output? or offers bitstream reliably if you want it?

As yoda may say, AbMagFab , i sense in you, spite

Huh? When a card is offered that works, I'll buy it. And I'll get silky-smooth 24p, unaltered bitstreaming, and everything else (that this card doesn't currently offer). How does that justify buying a card today that doesn't work? So you currently have a non-working card for HDMI, you're using it for analog audio out, and that's somehow better than a working HDMI audio/video card? Wow...

And it's just cooky to buy this card for the analog outs... That makes absolutely no sense. There are other Xonar cards even that have documented better analog out.

I have HTPCs that work like CES devices (or close to it). I'll upgrade them as appropriate when hardware comes out that works. That seems like a pretty simple concept, doesn't it?

You have an interesting decision process...

Dodge you talk about going dual DVI out from your video card, one to your xonar then to the receiver. The other directly to your TV. Then turn around and talk about opamps. It's not a very complete description, because you never mention that you are also hooked up via analog.

So let me see if I can get this straight.

Using a dual HDMI setup it doesn't work because of HDCP errors (only one HDCP display is supported at a time, lovely copy protection isn't it).

So because you actually can't use the card that way, which would be the only way to bypass the splendid video goodness (cough crap cough) with digiatl audio. You've then resorted to hooking up via analog.

So while the card sounds good, you are not taking advantage of bit streaming and you are either using the card a preset output rate in vista (where you must define your output setting) or you are in XP where you don't have an OS level display for your audio bit depth/sampling rate, and may not actually know what you are outputting (probably is a fixed setting in the xonar panel).

You could theoretically find out what bit depth/sampling rate each disc is and change the mixer per disc to get near bit perfect audio via analog (everything goes through the mixer in vista). But you are then bypassing any kind of DSP options your reciever has (gerneally audessy EQ is the important one).

I don't doubt that it sounds good, but so do earlier analog only xonars and alternative HDMI solutions (nvidia IGP, ATI 4xx0 cards).

With the way you describe your setup you'll have to forgive us for being unconviced of the cards ease of use or it's ability to provide it's #1 feature bitstreaming. You've basically been on here saying oh yeah card is great does everything it's suppose to do, you just have to use 10 cables to hook it up and only run in analog.

A card that doesnt work? Everything about this card works just as well as the nvidia 8300 apart from 24p.

On top of that, you gain EAX emulation for games, DTS interactive, Dolby Digital Live and some nice OPAMPS as well. I live being able to switch between my AVR and soundcard doing the decoding.

Let alone future support for bitstreaming...imo, yes your solution is the best at the moment as documented in the other thread, but that literally is only because of 24p!

You buy this now, spend xxx and then you also buy another sound card in the future, that doesnt really make financial sense (unless prices come down).

If the Xonar didnt have any future bitsreaming, or didnt integrated all the gaming features, of course it makes more sense to purchase a 8300, but personally i like to look to the future and wouldnt like the idea of using a PC that will be succeeded by better solutions very soon

If there is one thing I've learned about software and hardware, it's never buy based on future promises.

Asus is just as likely to downgrade the specs and EOL the card and replace it with a new model as they are to fix it.

Exactly what is giving people the impression that i think using the OPAMPS is involved when hdmi is concerned? I simply like the option of having analogue as well. HDCP is only a problem in clone mode (as i later found out) switching my AVR input in CCC to Extended works just fine. So yes, thats HDMI sound processed by my AVR + 24p directly to my TV!

Im using vista, and yes i dont have bitstreaming yet! The Xonar drivers let you specifiy the frequency that you output, so you can control it fine. However all audio is downsampled in TMT due to AACS at the moment anyway, so i am unsure of your point here...

IF you need EAX and DTS interactive or DDLive, any of the older xonars or the Auzentech Prelude will do this at half the price with comprable OPAMPs for analog out.

THere are only 2 reasons to buy this card
HDMI audio bitstreaming.
Adding multichannel HDMI audio to a highend video card.

Everything else can be accomplished with a different card at half the price, so those are the only two features that mean anything.

Both of those features are hindered by the constant on splendid engine, The HDMI bitstreaming is still broken in vista. So really the two things this card can do that nothing else can do, aren't fully functional. Adding full discrete multichannel HDMI audio for EAX games actually is something that also only works in XP and EAX is dead in vista and can only be emulated with the ALchemy software from creative, who of course doesn't support asus's implementation of EAX.

Yes,this is true, there are cheaper solutions, but there arent that dont offer a HDMI Connection.

Bistreaming in vista will be released soon, as for Splendid, this will also be fixed soon (it already has with the new XP beta driver).

There is an advantage and thats why i purchased this card.

When you say fixed in xp, do you mean you don't get the brightness issue when using the desktop?

I use vista and I do get the brightness problem, however, I have found a near perfect work around: use NVIDIA's control panel to set the contrast and brightness to correct levels. This works well for me. I had to turn contrast close to 0% and brightness to near 30%. If you can't set this through your video card you'd be out of luck I guess.

PS: How the HDAV1.3 sounds with an onkyo x05 receiver:
The HDAV1.3 handshakes much better with my Onkyo 905 than the PC directly. I can now use the OSD feature of the receiver as well as the 1080p option. Before if I used either of these selected, I would get "mode not supported" on my tv and the HDAV1.3 works perfectly. The HDAV1.3 seems to fix all of my onkyo HTPC worries! Now I am no longer constrained to an HDMI "through" setting on the 905 with no immediate OSD.

I can also set the LPCM samping rate to 96khz in windows with 7.1 channels and still use most of Onkyo's DSP options (see manual for details)! However, as on any receiver, setting the HDAV1.3 to 192k disables all DSP options (and maybe even bypasses audyssey, not sure). 96khz sounds great though, and I promise you, you cannot use analog outs from the computer and still use the DSP options on any receiver you can buy in the store so LPCM over HDMI is a must have for me.

I can now play a stereo mp3 on my PC and the onkyo also allows me to use all channel stereo and matrix the sound to all speakers and I don't have to change any options in windows. My set up finally does my thinking for me. Before I'd have to switch to 2 channel spdif via remote or manually in windows spdif wasn't set up correctly for 2 channels. Also, I did have a small amount of static before using 7.1 analog cables, now I hear no static at all even at high volume levels.

You won't miss TrueHD or DTS-MA as I have 30 bluray movies and non of them have higher than 48khz audio (I have verified the blurays on my standalone player connected directly to the 905). Let arcsoft do the decoding for now. It should sound the same (over HDMI with 7.1 LPCM at 96khz) as long as the movie track is sampled at 48khz. I'm going to play with the included arcsoft version and see, but I just hope the version that comes with the card decodes TrueHD and DTS-MA...

Using Vista 32 for the time being.

All downloaded files from ASUS cause desktop flickering. Don't work.

Using disk utilities, have Xonar installed but can't find control panel.

Have tried to install Splendid but would not install.

Did not bother with Gamer OSD

ArcSoft TMT works but no hdmi setting.

Video, but no sound, even in windows configuration.

ASUS forum has increased from yesterday.

Is Splendid required for Xonar control panel? Thanks.

Installed Gamer then Splendid. Can't find Splendid.

Disk same as on ASUS site for Vista.

XP tomorrow.

Dave, ive had a simular problem, none of the Asus TMT seem to work with the HDAV in vista.

Do you own a copy of the retail TMT on its own? I am using the latest release and selecting SPDIF- this works fine.

The release on the HDAV CD gives my PC a BSOD
The latest TMT on Asus downloads loads but wont even send any sound to the driver, even when HDMI is selected (i under belief this version is meant to work only with the windows xp driver).

All in all dave, just select SPDIF. You will still get mutli channel HD audio.

Did you also check your program files for the Asus Control Panel? Vista does strange things with all programs sometimes.

Yes, they fix the Splendid issue, you can now disable Splendid in XP and use the demo etc.
They also fix the following. Still no true HD. But now theres unmolested Audio via PAPs! Finally!

1. Supports DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Plus bitstream pass-through via HDMI under PAPS (with the latest Arcsoft Total Media Theatre evaluation version " ASUS_GM V2.1.13.123")
2. Supports DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Digital Plus lossless LPCM playback via HDMI or analog output under PAPS (with the latest Arcsoft Total Media Theatre evaluation version " ASUS_GM V2.1.13.123")

In regards to setting your Onkyo to 96khz, i would switch the sample rate in the Asus driver between 44.1 (Mp3s), 48khz (Movies), basically adjust it for your source. Unless you are not bothered, or do not notice the upscaling of sample rate by the Asus driver.

Right on Adam, I really would wish posters here would be able to read first, think second and post then, instead of polluting the discussion with unsupported statements!
Same applies to repeated posting of already mentioned links (i.e. "news on the Auzen card").
This thread is already hard enough to keep up with, as it is.

Finally available in Hong kong today.

As expected, no luck for me this time again (PC stuff always play me, not the other way round), there is no sound coming out from the 6.1 analogue channels connecting to my Yamaha 1400 AV amp(no HDMI and hence the Xonar Deluxe card for me to try on).

Connecting via HDMI to my Sony LCD has sound, but only 2 channels. BTW, TMT cannot play same BD files from HDD that can be played by PDVD.

In the Xonar HDAV center, under analogue sound output, there is only 2 channels and headphone choices, no 5.1 speakers, Any help/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.