[A/Vspec]

I am told that the ASUS "A7N8X-E Deluxe" can output the WMVHD audio via the SPDIF and that you then get the 5.1 sound without having to use a sound card and the 6 analog connections.


My question is, would this be the only MB out there that does this and if not is there a Athlon 64 Bit MB that also can do this and if more then one which is the best one and would this make for a better HTPC system then the ASUS "A7N8X-E Deluxe"?


Thanks,

 

[dguns]

Abit NF7-S (NF7 doesn't), DFI's NFII Ultra can as well, just to name a couple.


At the moment only Athlon XP w/ Nforce2 with MCP-T has soundstorm to do that with WMVHD. Not all Nforce2 boards have soundstorm, so you must see that it has MCP-T.


I myself use an NF7-S and can vouch for it being a solid board.


Check out newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.a...alog=22&DEPA=0

 

[Igthorn]

AC3Filter v1.01a will do on-the-fly DD encoding. It's a directshow filter that can encode multichannel PCM audio to DD. Basically it goes after the audio is decoded by the WMA decoder and before the audio renderer. Once everything is working properly any sound card with spdif out should be able to encode wmvhd to dd. Search for AC3filter and you should find the thread about it with download links to the beta versions.

 

[A/Vspec]

The Abit NF7-S does not seem to support 64 bit processors??? Or does it?

 

[dguns]

"The Abit NF7-S does not seem to support 64 bit processors??? Or does it?"


It doesn't. Only Athlon XP 32bit Socket A.


No Athlon64 boards have soundstorm yet.

 

[A/Vspec]

Thanks dguns. I guess I will try and make a pick between the Abit and Asus board at NewEgg.