*Official* Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 thread - Page 169

Yeah I have to put my ear within a few cm of the tweeters to hear it but not at particularly high volumes. There's nothing from the SkyHD box at all. I've never heard it in normal use though so I'm not bothered. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I get an HDAV back from RMA.

So Splendid affects 1080?



Known Limitation

The ASUS Splendid Video Enhancement Technology applies on the overlay surface only. It can not work on the video that does not use the overlay surface.

The pixel formats of the video which ASUS Splendid Video Enhancement Technology can support are:

YUY2

UYVY

YV12

YVU9

NV12

In PCI-E system, the maximum resolution of the video which ASUS Splendid Video Enhancement Technology can support is 1280x720.

In AGP system, the maximum resolution of the video which ASUS Splendid Video Enhancement Technology can support is 720x480.

The QuickTime player won't have ASUS Splendid effect because it does not use the overlay surface to play video.


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(c) 2005 Copyright ASUSTeK Computer Inc. All rights reserved

In Vista:
Personalization
Display Setting
Properties
ASUS
ASUS Spendid
HELP.

Is this different for those with "9" or updated cards?

Or is this overlooked left overs? Splendid has been on previous cards.

You will have to special order it here (takes 2weeks)
http://www.provantage.com/asus-xonar...3~7ASU90KU.htm

I have 2 HTPC's with these cards. One with 8800 GT and other with 8500GT. As far as bluray quality concerned (not comparing game performance), video is identical between them. If you are not a gamer, just buy 8500 GT for ~ $40 on newegg.com.

Also, build your own HTPC rather than buying from Dell/hP etc., It is lot of fun and you can choose a variety of cases/components to fit all your hard drives you need in future. Let me know if you need help choosing what to buy based on your budget.I wasted lot of money into this habit and hopefully it will pay off by not ever buying bluray discs.

Peter

thanks again peter! man, this non-deluxe version is really hard to find. but i guess i can wait 2 weeks (and hopefully get one from a recent 2009 production with the newest firmware).

i normally would build my own PC as i've always done, but space is a real issue and this is why i'm looking at the slimline versions from HP and Acer. actually now, i'm leaning towards the HP s3710t model since i can customer order it with a core 2 duo processor (as opposed to the factory pentium dual-core 2.5ghz) and an upgraded video card from the factory nvidia 7100gs. although i think the pentium dual-core should have enough muscle to power the HTPC.....hmmmmmmm.

Cool! So the 48xx cards just use the PowerDVD decoded streams and send it out as LPCM?

i actually did away with almost all the analog connections (other than receiver to speakers) and i'm just using all HDMIs.
this is why i'm so interested in the Xonar setup - HD audio pass-through from HTPC to receiver!
space wise, i have about six horizontal inches left on the shelf but enough headroom to fit a slimline desktop pc. and this is why i'm almost sure that i will go the HP way (instead of the Acer). i just have to make sure that the PCI-E x1 slot is actually un-occupied like the HP tech guy told me over the phone (the spec sheets say that this x1 slot is used - for what nobody can tell me). besides, the HP slimline case ain't too bad looking.
my only concern is the the CPU speed - off-the-shelf is a pentiuim dual core @ 2.5ghz. that should be more than enough CPU muscle to play Blu-Ray rips, right? anybody else running their HTPC with 2.5ghz or lower CPU?

Yeah, ground loops are (depending on which mains system you use) always at 50/60Hz, and they have following harmonics at 100/120Hz and 200/240Hz.

If it's 3kHz (with following harmonics) or higher, you are most likely hearing either switching noise from a power supply (PC power supplys are terrible for this), or noise from the inverter in your LCD panel.

If it's power supply noise, upgrading your PSU could help - I have found Antec and FSP power supplies to be the queitest.

You can (but be very careful) lift the ground at one end of your cables from the computer to your amp. I would always lift the ground at the amp's end, so that any noise from the computer is isolated at the computer. You do risk picking up RF frequencies (if the cable is more than 1/8 of a wavelength long) on the ungrounded end of the cable, but for S/PDIF data this isn't a problem. On analog, this noise could actually be worse than the ground loop itself.

You could also try using S/PDIF to TOSLink adapters, which would eliminate the ground altogether. Doesn't really help for HDMI, though.

Do not disconnect the grounds on any of your mains plugs though, this is very dangerous - you could damage your equipment, or injure yourself.

My HTPC only has a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo chip in it, but the Core 2 architecture is very efficient - if it's a Pentium Dual Core, it's an older architecture, that is a lot less efficient, and runs a lot hotter.

I would try to make sure it's a Core 2 chip. If it is, it should be alright as long as you have a half decent graphics card in there too - it needs to support MPEG-2, H264 and VC1 decoding in hardware, for the best BD performance.

If you're going down the PC route, and you don't want to build it yourself, go with the HP. They are much better value for money, and if something goes wrong you actually have a chance of getting it fixed. ACER's systems are cheaper, but their aftersales is terrible and the bundled software on the system will probably make you want to format the box on arrival.

Might be worth going to a PC store and asking them to take the lid off the model you want to buy, to make sure it has the expansion slots free that you need.

I think this is a leftover from ASUS made graphics cards - the Xonar will have no way of knowing if the signal coming in is overlay mode or not.

It just gets a signal from the graphics card, and then works it's 'magic' on it.

Yep, sometimes in a lower bitrate too.

Crikey you guys really know your stuff, thanks. It is a 'fuzz' kind of noise from the tweeters.

Sounds like it'll be the Enermax PSU then as I'm getting it with TOSlink so there's no ground. It's not the amp as it was there with the Pioneer one I had before.

I'm surprised that an expensive PSU like the Enermax can produce something like this at all really, especially as the SkyHD doesn't. I'm as equally surprised that an expensive sound card like the HDAV can't 'clean up' this kind of thing although as my understanding of it is poor I may be talking utter tosh!

It could be some other bit of equipment, or another physical connection between the computer and the amp (HDMI, maybe?). My turntable is the worst offender in my setup.
You often don't have to select the offending input to hear the noise, sometimes if the signal is strong enough it will leak through to other channels on the amp - most amps have a common ground for all inputs, audio or video.

If I crank the volume high enough on my system I can always get a bit of noise, but it's less if I disconnect my computer and turntable from the amp.

Like somebody said before, though, the volume setting that I can hear this noise at would probably damage my hearing if I actually started something playing.

With all equipment there is a natural noise floor, even with no signal present - it used to be a lot higher than it is now, though. Older equipment (we're talking 70s analog) suffered from terrible noise even with nothing connected to any inputs, if you turned the volume up high enough.

EDIT: Thinking about it, are all your components connected to the same mains circuits, or are they spread accross several sockets in the room?

HDMI is the only other possible offender then. Maybe I'll have a look at that some time.

Thanks for your input. I fear we've dragged the thread a bit off topic though now.

Sssh!

Yes, I feel we have. Just for information, I have attached a zip that contains digital silence encoded to LPCM, MPEG, AC3 and DTS for testing. I know it's small, but it unzips to about 150MB.

 

1 min silence.zip 266.271484375k . file

I highly agree. Building your own unit will give "YOU" the opportunity for future expansion. I've seen DELL and HP to name a few HTPC's and most literally have the CPU soldered to the motherboard which eliminates any opportunity for a new processor upgrade.

I've built one in the past with Dual TV-Tuners, Dual Core and 4GB of DDR ram along with large expandable storage all for less than $1000. Something equivalent by DELL and HP would ring a tab of at least $1,500+.

Still no Windows 7 support?

i really thought about putting one together myself, and i was seriously considering the slimline from HP. but now that i've shopped around some more i found an HP with the Q6600 CPU, 4GB RAM, 640GB drive with the Nvidia 9300GS video card for under $550!!! (no TV Tuner card though, which i don't have any use for anyway). this box should last me a few years without needing to upgrade any component. unless somebody comes out with a new technology....

Hi all,

Just received my HDAV 1.3 Deluxe. Have 5.1 analog speakers connected. Setting the HDAV's latest Vista 32bit drivers to 5.1 mode, and disabling all the fancy game modes etc, the Windows control panel was still set to Stereo...... please God don't tell me these guys are as bad as Creative.....

Running 5.1 channel tests in media player classic indicates I have speakers connected fine BUT on rear right test, I can hear slight audio from rear left, and on rear left test, I can hear slight audio from rear right.... like its being upmixed to 7.1......

Is this a known thing, I see one or two guys mentioning it earlier in this thread.... I guess my question is, is there a fix for this.... kinda disappointed already as I am spending time looking for fixes for problems..... ah well thats part of the fun eh Wheres this beta vista driver you guys talk about?

Also can confirm I don't have any smart stereo x 2 mode, or per channel delay settings.... professional card?

You did the setup in windows? You checked allow application to take control. You have ASUS speakers or digital output selected in playback devices. How is the speaker test in Xonar? You have 6 speakers in Audio Channel selected? You have 5.1 selected in Analog out?

Please tell me where that deal is. I'm in the exact situation as you, except that I have a lot of space so I don't need the slim form factor of the case. Like you, I don't want or need analog, so I'm looking for the standard Xonar card. I just built a PC last year for HD video editing purpose, so I'm not averse to doing another one, but if the off-the-shelf rig is cheap then I'll go that route. I only want to play ripped iso files of Blu Ray movies, bitstreaming out to my AVR.

Thanks,

Yeah installed drivers from asus website, they are from december. I thought there was newer beta ones? Its really weird, but after enabling/disabling "spdif output - > pcm", (which to me, using analog speakers...... makes no sense), I am getting 5.1 perfectly now in DVD's. I notice I can set my speakers to a much much much lower volume level and still get pretty loud sound from this card.... I wasn't expecting that

Speaker test within xonar seems to crash for me... freezes up. All working ok now I think, just can't figure out how to get output from rear when listening to stereo content without using special plugins for each piece of software I use that can output stereo, any ideas? I am off to read about these DSP modes to see if they are anything but gimmicks.

Anyone know how to set these drivers up to auto get stereo mirrored to rear and anyone know what is the best sample rate to use in drivers, and sample rate / bit rate to use in other places like windows control panel... software that can output different modes. Does it depend on the content or can the driver switch between modes itself?

^ @ 5043

Dalat

At the moment, it's like driving a standard verses an automatic. I set windows to 48/24 and generally 48/24 for Xonar. I change it if the disk is higher like Police Certifiable 96/24. If the Xonar is truly taking control, you should find a difference when playing stereo material and setting the Xonar to 5/7.1 before the music starts. Changing while play may cause a crash. The pdf instructions do help and reading them more than once adds clarity. I would set the Xonar to stereo for stereo material and let your AVR do the plexing.

Cheers.

I just read through the pdf guide. Seems using Hi-Fi mode keeps the audio in its original form also... no effects are added..... This wasn't on by default so i guess I recommend you guys try it out.

I also find that using "GX" I get some sort of stereo expansion automatically... and it doesn't seem to effect games so for the moment I think Hi-Fi + GX are the only options I will be leaving enabled. I will use 48khz.

Thanks, but I was referring to the prebuilt PC for $550 that bigthys mentioned. Anyways, I think that I can build one or get a prebuilt PC for way less than $550 what will still work for my application (bitstream HD audio from iso of BD movies).

I have a Panasonic bd55 connected to an A/V receiver using analog inputs. Plays blue ray wonderfully. I now bought a HDAV1.3 Deluxe with the daughter card with the idea of connecting to my A/V receiver through the analog outputs using a HTPC. My question is will the sound be that much better than what I have now. Also I bought a motherboard from ASUS that has a video card built in. (M4A78Pro) and ASUS said that I don't need another video card. Price is only $109.00 What do you think?

You'll have more options with an htpc and the sound should be equal or better. MB has good reviews. Follow driver install instructions. Not Familiar with 3200's.

here you go dalat.....

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0304019

however, i noticed (after my earlier post) that these are factory refurbished units. but they should be just as good.