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Does DTS-MA HD decode on GPU or CPU to get LPCM 5.1? How is the CPU usage? Rotel 1065

post #1 of 7
5/5/12 at 2:13pm
Thread Starter 
I have already kinda upgraded from my old Rotel 1065 to a Sony HT SF2300 in 2009 and kept the Rotel 1065 in storage till now. While cleaning out my place i found it again and well its alive and kicking i want to hook it up to my common rooms HTPC. Now since the Rotel does not have HDMI i will not be able to bitstream leaving me with the option of LPCM but i have a few questions:

1. The computer hooked up to the common room LCD is a single core 1st gen Atom with 2TB of space will decoding DTS-MA HD be possible on software without a lot of CPU usage?

2. Cant my video card "HD5450" decode the hd audio instead of the software/CPU route and give out LPCM in 5ch via the HDMI so there is a low impact on the CPU?

3. Will getting a Asus Xonar hdav1.3 to decode the DTS-MA HD to LPCM 5ch help my situation?


I want to spend as less as i can to get HD sound, i dont think there is a huge difference between LPCM 5ch "Player decode" and DTS-MA HD 5ch "Receiver decode".
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post #2 of 7
5/6/12 at 2:28am
CPU decoding of DTS HD / True HD 5.1 on a single core Atom is fine AFAIK. It's not that CPU-intensive. I had no major problems on an N270+Ion Acer Revo set-up with multichannel 5.1 PCM decoded output via HDMI using PowerDVD to decode HD audio. However I was replaying from already decrypted ISOs - streamed from a network connection, and haven't tested native BD playback.

Presumably you'll need to feed your Rotel Analogue 5.1 into it's 5.1 multichannel analogue inputs from your PC (or use an external sound card to do so) - as there isn't a standard way of streaming 5.1 PCM digitally other than by using HDMI and you say your Rotel doesn't have HDMI. (It won't go over Toslink or SPDIF Coax - that's limited to 2.0 PCM or legacy DD/DTS DVD-quality compressed 5.1) AFAIK most on-board audio is usually pretty low-grade - so you'd probably want to look at a decent sound card to do the Digital/Analogue conversion?

AFAIK graphics cards don't have HD audio decoding facilities - and I don't think the Xonar HDAV has either. Either the HD audio is decoded in CPU to PCM for PCM output over HDMI, or it is bit streamed directly over HDMI. (The only caveat is that it is presumably theoretically possible to implement audio decoding in code for CUDA or the ATI-equivalent 'GPU-as-CPU' decoding - but I doubt anyone has bothered?)
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post #3 of 7
5/6/12 at 6:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sneals2000 View Post

CPU decoding of DTS HD / T........................................uivalent 'GPU-as-CPU' decoding - but I doubt anyone has bothered?)

Thanks for that huge feedback and i am very happy to know that single Atom can handle decompressing DTSMA HD. I forgot to include that i have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio which will the the bridge between the computer and the Rotel 1065. The audio card supports upto 24-Bit/96kHz 7.1 o it will do fine, my idea i th video will be handled by the 5450 and the audio will be decompressed by software which will output it as PCM via the XFI Xtreme Audio analog channels.

Xtreme Audio has a very bad rep since it uses CA0106 and not the EMU20K1 but its still quite better compared to the on-board solution. I will hook up the Rotel 1065 to the sound card today after getting the 3.5 to rca cables.

BTW do you use MKV as source with HD sound? Can PowerDVD handle MKV files with HD audio?
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post #4 of 7
5/7/12 at 5:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajai_dev View Post

Thanks for that huge feedback and i am very happy to know that single Atom can handle decompressing DTSMA HD. I forgot to include that i have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio which will the the bridge between the computer and the Rotel 1065. The audio card supports upto 24-Bit/96kHz 7.1 o it will do fine, my idea i th video will be handled by the 5450 and the audio will be decompressed by software which will output it as PCM via the XFI Xtreme Audio analog channels.

Xtreme Audio has a very bad rep since it uses CA0106 and not the EMU20K1 but its still quite better compared to the on-board solution. I will hook up the Rotel 1065 to the sound card today after getting the 3.5 to rca cables.

BTW do you use MKV as source with HD sound? Can PowerDVD handle MKV files with HD audio?

I don't use the Revo for day-to-day viewing - it was just a test to see if it worked. I ripped my BDs as ISOs and played them over the network or from USB storage (can't remember which) using Virtual Clone Drive to mount them.

No experience of PowerDVD and MKVs - wouldn't be surprised if that didn't support HD Audio though.
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post #5 of 7
5/7/12 at 7:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajai_dev View Post

Thanks for that huge feedback and i am very happy to know that single Atom can handle decompressing DTSMA HD. I forgot to include that i have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio which will the the bridge between the computer and the Rotel 1065. The audio card supports upto 24-Bit/96kHz 7.1 o it will do fine, my idea i th video will be handled by the 5450 and the audio will be decompressed by software which will output it as PCM via the XFI Xtreme Audio analog channels.

Xtreme Audio has a very bad rep since it uses CA0106 and not the EMU20K1 but its still quite better compared to the on-board solution. I will hook up the Rotel 1065 to the sound card today after getting the 3.5 to rca cables.

BTW do you use MKV as source with HD sound? Can PowerDVD handle MKV files with HD audio?

IIRC the xtreme audio will pass the decoded audio as pcm but it will be downsampled and not full bit rate due to not passing over HDMI.
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post #6 of 7
5/8/12 at 2:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sneals2000 View Post

I don't us.................io though.

Thanks seems i will have to try out the different players with MKV converts of my Blu-Ray full images are very huge my HDD's will get filled in matter of days.I found a converter from Xilisoft that seems to have gotten good reciews and then there is always x264.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kemist1117 View Post

IIRC the xtreme audio will pass the decoded audio as pcm but it will be downsampled and not full bit rate due to not passing over HDMI.

Down sampling will be because of the player "PowerDVD, etc" and not the card rite so that would mean if i can get a player that does not downsample "some say Arcsoft TMT .125 does the trick" i will be in the clear.

If Xtream audio does not workout i can always get Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 that is if there is no downsample problem.
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post #7 of 7
5/8/12 at 6:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajai_dev View Post

Down sampling will be because of the player "PowerDVD, etc" and not the card rite so that would mean if i can get a player that does not downsample "some say Arcsoft TMT .125 does the trick" i will be in the clear.

If Xtream audio does not workout i can always get Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 that is if there is no downsample problem.

I believe that is correct
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AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › Does DTS-MA HD decode on GPU or CPU to get LPCM 5.1? How is the CPU usage? Rotel 1065