Are there any Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD decoders for PC?

None of you have answered the OP's question, which was pertaining to HD "audio" formats.

I'm certain that there are no options for hardware decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD at this time, as there is no hardware to pass these formats from a PC to an external reciever...SPDIF does not have the bandwidth required. It may take a while before we see hardware for the PC that can pass these formats digitally. I'm not even sure if there are recievers on the market yet that are capable of decoding these formats, but I'm sure we'll be seeing them crop up in the coming months. For now, software decoding and analogue output of these formats is the only option. If there's anyone out there fortunate enough to have an HDDVD or BR drive and the necessary software, we need that person to tell us if the software is currently decoding these formats. Unfortunately, I'm not that person

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Incorrect.... He asked for "decoders" IE software. Nvidia's purevideo HD is one of them as well as WinDVD8. Both have the software to decode the audio streams and then send them out via Analog from pretty much any 7.1 sound card.


Now granted yes there are not any sound cards that can do digital passthrough yet, hell there aren't any receivers yet that I've seen readily available on the market yet that will support the decoding hardware side yet.


But yes there are "decoders" already available to do what he's looking for, not all audio needs to be digitally connected to audio equipment.


- Josh

Well you came in here saying we were wrong in the first place.

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I don't want this to get into a pissing match, I think you should re-read the first post, the OP asked if there were any "software or hardware" decoders out there.

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I posted a Software solution. and another user posted up WinDVD8 as another solution. So I guess I am missing the point where we were wrong?



- Josh

HD disks actually can use four sound formats which are DD+, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, amd L-PCM.


Available standalone players like the Toshiba HD-A1 (HD-DVD only) are capable of decoding the new formats and outputting multichannel PCM over HDMI outputs. There are a few digital receivers capable of accepting 5.1 channel PCM over HDMI 1.1 inputs and outputting 5.1 sound. This is the best solution right now as it allows the surround receivers to have the usual selection of features:


1)Speaker setup for channel level and distance to listener. This is critical for the cues that precisely locate sounds in a surround field.


2)Bass management, including speaker size and sub/no sub and sub crossover frequencies.


3) Surround field processing - most audiophiles don't use these surround modes, except for the popular "Late Night" listening mode, and possibly Dolby Headphone mode.


Unfortunately, a newer version than HDMI 1.1 is required for 7.1 channel PCM support. This might be version 1.3 but it's a controversial topic.


===> If you choose the analog 5.1 or 7.1 channel output from a sound card or a standalone player, although you will get multichannel sound you will not get the features above (speaker setup, bass management, and surround mode processing) because they depend upon the DSP (digital signal processor) in the surround receiver. A scant few receivers will allow these features for analog multichannel inputs, but this is actually not a good thing - they first do A/D conversion, then DSP processing, then D/A conversion. (In other words, forget any possible quality improvement from HD media.)


The answer is that if you wish to use the analog outputs from a HTPC with HD media, then speaker setup, bass management, and surround processing must be implemented in the player itself today. (The Toshiba HD-A1 mentioned above has such features and needs them for the same reason.) I'm not aware that the software player WinDVD8 or the nVidia PureVideo HD software (although that has an amazing set of video enhancements) have such audio features. After the release of the full Vista software, these audio features (and more) are available from the Vista audio subsystem.


In particular, the only available workaround for the lack of speaker setup today is a "circle surround" setup, where the listener occupies the center of a circle and the 5.1 or 7.1 speakers are arranged in a circle at identical distances from his ears - thus preserving the critical phase relationships that locate the sounds within the surround field.


I actually know a fanatical gamer who has such a speaker arrangement around his gaming chair. In my own home theater, it's not gonnal happen. I get to wait for Vista.


Gary

I had read in another forum that if your receiver can accept 7.1 uncompressed audio over HDMI 1.1, then as long as your source player can decode the TrueHD format (and send it uncompressed) you will be o.k.


I think he difference is not necessarily HDMI 1.1 on older receivers, it's that HDMI 1.3 mandates you be able to decode TrueHD. But that might not be necessary for HDMI 1.1 devices as long as someone (your PC or player) can decode and send along the uncompressed (undecoded?) audio over HDMI 1.1.


Did anyone else read this? I think I read it in a Denon AVR-4806 thread, which I believe is an older HDMI 1.1 receiver that can handle uncompressed 7.1 audio, hence you would just need a player to decode the TrueHD first.


Now if someone could just release a Firewire A&M protocol driver, then we could all just output that nice high fidelity audio to a variety of firewire enabled receivers.


-James

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It all depends on the exact HDCP chip used. The Silicon Image Sil1930 transmitter is in fact specified to support 8 channels of audio at 192Khz/channel, and does implement HDMI 1.1. However earlier HDCP chips had a lesser bandwidth. Here's a reference if you can find out what chip is on the hardware you are considering:

http://www.siliconimage.com/products...y.aspx?id=1#27


Gary

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Well fortunate for us AVR-4806 owners, all indications are that it is HDMI 1.1 compliant.


So what you are saying, let me verify, that if you are HDMI 1.1 compliant you "should" be o.k. with an external decoder, such as a player that would implement TrueHD decoding and pass it uncompressed along the HDMI 1.1 interface.


To bad there doesn't seem to be any of those (that I know of).


-James

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Long term, the plan is for the software player (WinDVD or PowerDVD) to either spit out compressed TrueHD or DTS MA over HDMI 1.3, or to decompress and send it out as 6-(or channel PCM over HDMI 1.1. Perhaps there will also be an option available which downconverts to DTS or DD over SPDIF.


However, short term, since there is not currently a >2 channel PCM audio solution of any sort for the PC, right now analog is the only way to enjoy TrueHD or DTS MA on a PC. Set-top boxes currently decompress the stream and send it out as PCM over HDMI.


I tried to get the gurus here to answer about sending this stuff out over the HD Audio link, and they started getting mysterious. Which either means they're working on it, or they don't want to admit they don't know. Either way, I wouldn't expect a solution until next year at the earliest.