Realtek ALC889a Full loss-less audio

Realtek says that their ALC889a sound solution supports:


I presume this means that given the appropriate software solution, multi-channel analog output will NOT be downsampled from HD audio formats.

My question is: What are the selected versions of windvd/powerdvd that provide full rate loss-less audio?

Anyone know? I have Powerdvd 7.3 ultra (latest patch) and it certainly sounds very nice through my z-5500 speakers.

It is that "perhaps" that worries me

To be honest pdvd 7.3 blu-ray playback sounds great, but could it sound better?

My research seems to show that this is quite a confused issue, but the ALC889 solution seems to provide the necessary protected path for loss-less digital conversion.

Maybe so, but I'd still like to use software which is not purposely nobbled to give the ALC889A+Z-5500 solution its best chance to "sing".

What are the selected versions of windvd/powerdvd that provide full rate loss-less audio with the ALC889? I have asked this question of Cyberlink, and I'll report back what they say.

HD audio analog support is still "soon"? bit-tech.net was reporting the problem solved for the ALC889a back in 2008.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardwar...udio-problem/1

From Cyberlink support.


It is funny with this as I have the strange feeling that I have been misled somewhere along the line. "7.3 does not support True HD output"? So why does Powerdvd display the Dolby True HD logo prominently on the main screen? So why does powerdvd display "Dolby True HD" in the information screen while playing such a blu-ray?

I guess the Gigabyte motherboard spec is similarly vague:


And I suppose the ALC889a sound hardware documentation is (or at least was) just plain wrong:


I suppose at some point one just has to sit back and enjoy the audio experience your software allows, but this does rankle that such misleading advertising can continue to persist.

Well, perhaps PowerDVD 9 supports 96kHz/24bit now for the Realtek hardware, the following comes from the current hardware support list:


http://www.cyberlink.com/products/po...ort_en_US.html

I wonder whether the 96/24 rate applies to Dolby True HD, DTS Master etc. LOL. Irritating that it seems you have to ask.

Possibly Cyberlink Support were referring to non-downsampled lossless audio from a Dolby True HD source, when they replied "not supported on PowerDVD 7.3 OEM".

Thanks for those links.

I scanned the list and the best I have are 48kHz/24bit titles. During playback of a 48/24 title, powerdvd 7.3 info dialog reports sampling 48kHz, the bit rate is variable up to around 3100kbps, with no indicator of 24 or 16 bit processing.

Perhaps the bit-rate itself mathematically indicates 24 or 16 bitness? This 3100kbps value, if being actually converted to analog by the ALC889, would indicate sound of a higher quality than is possible thru SPDIF, for example.

I'm a bit wary of installing the pdvd9 trial as, a) I will have to uninstall pdvd 7 and b) I'm not sure whether the trial's advertised limitations around "dvd-audio" *might* nobble any experiment anyway. I know from experience that the Total Media Theater trial does not support 5.1 sound for instance...


I've downloaded 10 minutes of FLAC music at 96/24 and 48/24. It'll be interesting to see if I can hear any difference. Unfortunately I couldn't find a 48/24 vs 48/16 track to test. What matters most - sampling rate or word length?

Here's how Powerdvd explains the information screen:


Darn porpoises, they show up everywhere

Unfortunately reclock seems to not work so well for me. I installed it on my Vista laptop, but can't get it to engage. It never shows up, even though I have it set to "force reclock to be loaded in place of default renderers"

Certainly looks that way, darn it.

So with a couple of titles PowerDVD7.3 displays a peak audio bit rate of 5500kbps.

This display is clearly in the realm of expectation for 48/24, and beyond that for 48/16. If pdvd7.3 actually is dropping off 8 bits before passing it to the renderer, it seems impossible to tell, unless I can get reclock to work.

Hmmm. All I need is some visibility as to what that ALC889a is actually processing.

Oh well, that powerdvd bit rate is kind of like the speedometer that shows 60 when you are actually going 40.

Here's hoping they fix the downsampling with a free upgrade as they promised back in 2008.

The most complete word from Cyberlink


http://docs.cyberlink.com/multi/supp...nProdVerId=236

PDVD9 has a new option to the onscreen display underneath the input codec and bit-rate, showing Audio Output.

Playing Wall-E blu-ray shows:

Output: LPCM 48Khz, 24-bit 6 channel

This is on my ALC889a hardware.