*Official* Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H Thread (NVIDIA 9400 mATX HDMI 8 channel LPCM) - Page 2

The supported formats by S/PDIF are

- Stereo LPCM
- Dolby Digital 5.1
- DTS

There is no notion of "content protection" for the low-quality S/PDIF audio. And look at the block diagram I posted (or download the datasheet of ALC889). The decryption module is connected to only DAC (digital-to-analog conveter), not to the S/PDIF transmitter.

BTW Realtek ALC889 and NVIDIA HDMI audio have nothing to do with each other. The motherboard (and any other GeForce 9300/9400/8200/8300 motherboard) has two independent HD audio devices:

- HD audio controller in the chipset with ALC889 chip (called "Realtek Digital Output/Speakers")
- HD audio controller in the chipset with HDMI transmitter in the chipset (called "NVIDIA HDMI Output")

I am not sure if these HD audio controllers are shared or not.

In my case, things are slightly different! Low temp are obtained in an overclocked rig (e8500@4Ghz).


the ZM-NB47J is to small to outperform the stock heatsink (the zalman is good for 865 or 945g chipset, i 'got one...)
On the contrary, the Zalman ZM-NBF47 could be a good alternative...

Hello

Is this true that LPCM over HDMI works only for 2 channels?
This will be very bad news.

Thanks.

No, LPCM works for multi channels as well.

Is there somewhere that explains all the different source formats and how they get decoded and where? I would like to build a htpc and this board seems to be a good fit. I am confused as to what I can feed into it and what I end up with via HDMI. This would go to an Onkyo 705 and then to a HDTV via HDMI. Thanks.

There appears to be some confusion between the analogue, SPDIF (Coax or Toslink) and HDMI audio capabilities of this motherboard.

AIUI the following is the case.

7.1 LPCM via HDMI - which will support decoded Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio / High Resolution and Multichannel PCM tracks. This may be limited to 48kHz/16 bit. This may be coupled with DD5.1 and DTS5.1 bitstreaming via HDMI - but True HD and Master Audio are decoded not bitstreamed - possible for PAP support reasons?

7.1 Analogue - same support as HDMI LPCM (i.e. True HD and Master Audio decoded to multichannel PCM and then D/A converted)

2.0 PCM, DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 via SPDIF (Toslink or Coax?) (Dolby True HD is likely to be output as PCM2.0, DTS Master Audio stuff as a DTS 5.1 core?)

Is this actually the case?

OK.. that cleared it up for me...I was confused between the audio decoder on the Video card / HDMI and the on board sound... My impession was that the on-board sound (RealTek) is what decoded the audio... but what your telling me is that these are separate.

If I am using HDMI it uses the HD Audio decoder that is part of the Geforce 9400. But if I am using anything other HDMI, like the SPDIF, it will use the RealTek audio decoder (on-board sound).. Correct? So any limitations that I might have using HDMI, i.e. content protection is due to the fact the 9400 does not have that capability (ie not content protection aware = down mixed)

I can confirm this to be working because this is exactly my setup I am using.

Quick question...

If i were to get this board, would I be able to get 7.1 LPCM via HDMI (Have a Onkyo HT-S6100 w/ HT-R667 Receiver)? I currently have a G45 (Asus) board, and it isn't what I wanted (Pulled the trigger abit early). Anyway, will this work?

I just want to use what is offered by my receiver (True-HD/DTS-HD) ...

forgot to mention, running on vista x64

Decoding to multi-channel PCM from Dolby True HD or DTS HD is possible - limited to 48k/16bit sampling (which covers most of the sound tracks anyway) but delivering lossless quality with 48k/16bit tracks

Streaming Dolby True HD or DTS HD to an amp for external decoding is more tricky and not possible with the 9300/9400 chipset AIUI currently (ever?) However this would allow 24bit and 96/192kHz sampling tracks to be carried without downsampling to 16bit / 48kHz.

I'm rather impressed by the ocing potential of this gigabyte!
fsb@1760

Guys,

This looks like the right m/board for me. I've been waiting for reliable LPCM over HDMI AND accurate 24p for blu-ray playback. However, I've got some questions.

1. Most of my blu-rays are stored on my server as mkv files. With my current HTPC I use Theatertek to play back the files with the help of a Graphedit .grf file so I can choose which codecs are used. However, how can I take advantage of the HD hardware acceleration nvidia have built into the chipset, and still use TT (or zoom if it's easier) to play back my media?

2. If this can be done, what CPU would I need to ensure smooth playback. If I can't take advantage of the HA what CPU would I need then?

By the way, I'm using XP, but would there be any advantage to using Vista? This is a HTPC only.

Any advice is appreciated!

Bit the bullet and ordered from the egg. The Holidays will give me some time to finish up the HTPC. Will see how it goes. I'll be using it with my Q9550 processor and the new Hauppauge 2250 dual HD tuner (no plans of moving away from the generous OTA airways of Chicago). Though I've a copy of Vista 64 bit too, I'll stick with the 32bit for this one. Really want to keep it simple and highly usable. Would not want to go through hoops for installing utilities like Google Desktop.

Also ordered a DVI-D input board for my EDTV panasonic plasma ... not sure how the text/picture will look on my HD ready but 852x480 display.

don't know how you mean it, but i don't get DD 5.1 or stadard DTS out of the HDMI!?
Using SPDIF output on Mediaplayer Classic Homecinema with the HDMI but i'm only getting 2 channel output, no native DD or DTS.

any hint what i've to do?

thx
sash

I'll have one tomorrow from Newegg. I purchased the
EVGA but received a dud. No video whatsoever. BIOS never comes up. It's on the way back to them. I really wanted to use my holiday time this weekend getting the HTPC up and going and I know it will be a week or two until I get the replacement EVGA. So I couldn't wait that long! n I ordered the Gigabyte and an E8400 for it. I'll use the EVGA for another system.

I also noticed on the Gigabyte site this line about using PowerDVD. "Content Protection for Full Rate loss-less DVD Audio, Blue-Ray DVD and HD-DVD audio content playback (with selected versions of WinDVD/PowerDVD)". I know that TMT has a new version coming out in a couple of weeks to make the Asus HDAV 1.3 work. I thought I heard something about a PDVD ver. 9 coming out soon. Is that correct? I wonder if the new new version will make this work...why would they mention PDVD and WINDVD specifically unless something was going on?

Hopefully I'll be enjoying the new build this weekend! And if they get the Asus HDAV 1.3 working soon I'll be grabbing one of those. I'd really just like the new slim HDMI card there supposedly coming out with soon as I'll do external decoding.

You might want to consider the Thermalright HR-05/IFX as I believe that's considered by many as the best chipset cooler currently out now.
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Hi everyone,

Did someone check whether Dolby Digital Live / DTS Connect works in this board?

Kind regards.

over hdmi i cant get ist to work. But perhaps its pnly a configuration issue?!

What benefit does using Dolby Digital Live / DTS Connect have when using HDMI? Surely you'd want to stay uncompressed multichannel PCM rather than compressing the multichannel PCM to DD/DTS when using HDMI for carriage, only for your amp to decompress again? Any amp that can cope with DD/DTS via HDMI can presumably cope with multichannel PCM via HDMI?

Or do Dolby Digital Live / DTS Connect do something cleverer than just compress multichannel audio to DD/DTS to feed older amps (via Toslink/SPDIF)?

Anyway DDL does not work with NVIDIA HDMI. It is supported only by S/PDIF from ALC889A. NVIDIA HDMI Audio and ALC889A have nothing to do with each other.

perhaps there is a big misunderstanding on my side.
i just want to use the hdmi connector instead of a spdif. Isn't it a possiblity? Must i use the ALC889A instead of the hdmi sound to get DD 5.1 / DTS / DDL to work?

sorry for my bad english.

This board has a good o'cing potential!
fsb@1800 (450)

Thanks for the recommendation. Wonder if it will fit well on this board and in my slim HTPC case. Looks great. Is worth a shot.

UPS just showed up with my Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H MB! Looking forward to assembling it this weekend. Will start on it Friday. Hopefully it's an easy build even though this is my second HTPC, it's my first "from scratch" HTPC build. I'll let you know how things go.

Here's the new build:
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H
Intel E8400 3.00 GHz Processor
CORSAIR TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 DDR2 800
Thermaltake Bach Media Lab Case - VB8000BNS
nMEDIAPC PRO-LCD Media Center Programmable LCD/IR Recv. (custom install)
LG GGW-H20LK Duo Blu-ray/HD-DVD-ROM Blu-ray Burner
250GB Hard Drive Western Digital Drive - Initial Program Drive
(2) Seagate 1TB Hard Drives ST31000340AS (Possible RAID1?)
COOLMAX CUG-700B 700W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V Power Supply
Adesso WKB-3000UB Wireless Mini Keyboard
Logitech Harmony 720 Universal Remote Control
ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink
Thermaltake CL-C0034 Copper Heatsink & Fan (Northbridge Cooling)
MS Vista Home Ultimate SP1 64-bit. If problems w/64 then will use 32.

This is how it works in my case.
I have my HTPC connected only via HDMI to my receiver, Speaker configuration in Vista is set to 5.1, using WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray (audio output set to Waveout, 6 speakers). This way I get DD/DTS bitstream and DTS-MA/True-HD LPCM with no need of switching anything e.g. if I play DD/DTS audio I see "Dolby Digital" / "DTS" on my receiver and once I switch to DTS-MA/True HD I see "Mutli Ch" on my receiver and sound comes properly in surround mode from all speakers.

My understanding is that DD/DTS can be bitstreamed via HDMI (same as SPDIF) for receiver decoding, but Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio will be decoded to bitstream and fed out multichannel PCM via HDMI (as will PCM multichannel tracks from earlier Blu-rays)

Configuring it to do so may be a challenge though. Select Bitstream or Wave output - this will let DD/DTS 5.1 be output as a bitstream - but as there is no official PAP path True HD and Master Audio will need to be decoded to PCM (no major quality issue)

Well - this is what others say - I haven't bought the board yet - am waiting to hear about SD black levels.

SD Blacklevel issues will be a result of the nVidia drivers and will apply to ALL nVidia solutions.... buy the baord if that's the only thing holding you back !!!

Can people confirm then that the nVidia drivers handle SD and HD black levels consistently in Vista Media Center (using EVR?) so that SD MPEG2 and HD H264/VC-1 content in Media Center (with the TV Pack and H264 mod for H264 HD TV and in TMT or PDVD for H264/VC-1/MPEG2 Blu-ray) - or if there is a hack (as with the BT601CSC hack required for ATI drivers) to make it so?

The lack of consistent black level handling with my ATI setup (prior to discovering the BT601CSC hack) was a major issue for me - and I can't go back to that...

throwing in the TVPack hack, the H264 beta decoder hack and whatever other hacks you've got, I'm not surprised you have problems !!

Anybody try this with a 1600 FSB chip? I know, not really HTPC, but if this puppy will let me overclock a bit it is ont eh compare list to the p5Q-em board. I'll probably throw in a 4850 card that I have sitting around.