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multichannel analogue capture card ?

703 Views 9 Replies 4 Participants Last post by stanger89, Feb 17, 2005

pyro2003

Discussion Starter · Feb 17, 2005

anyone knows of a PCI multichannel audio capture card to recommend me ? The inputs are analogue 5.1, SACD or DVD-Audio signals, maybe 7.1 ... I want to capture these and put it back into a SPDIF format to send to my preamp for play out

Not sure Lynx, RME or what others can do this -

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Sherbona

· #2 · Feb 17, 2005

I use a MAudio 1010LT for recording my multichannel hi-res (I record/encode into 96/24 wma lossless with Audition). This has been out for a few years, so there's probably newer options to consider.

As far as sending out the S/PDIF - keep in mind that the S/PDIF can only carry either 2ch PCM audio or 'data' that's (usually) DD or DTS. This means if you are going to use a S/PDIF you'll need to either use only 2 channels or for multichannel you'll need to lossy-encode into DD - and lossy encoding defeats the purpose of hi-res.

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pyro2003

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 17, 2005

Sherbona

So after you capture them hi-res, how do you play it back to the Amplifier/audio system ? Just trying to picture if this is a real time playback system.... I understand your point about compression, is firewire a possible way out ?

thanks

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pyro2003

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 17, 2005

I can use such a card with a Dolby Digital Live card or mobo like 915p to encode things back into SPDIF and pass to preamp for live playback

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Scotty L

· #5 · Feb 17, 2005

but you're encoding to Dolby Digital 5.1, a lossy format. Plus it's only 16/48kHz.

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pyro2003

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 17, 2005

Quote:

Originally posted by Scotty L
but you're encoding to Dolby Digital 5.1, a lossy format. Plus it's only 16/48kHz.

scotty - but how would you suggest me play the multichannel stream from the HTPC into the AV system ? How can I connect ?

=> seems best thing is to have the preamp supporting multichannel audio directly afterall. The reason I want to encode DD or DTS is only because currently my AV Preamp (Proceed AVP2) does not have multichannel analogue audio in (5.1 or more) so encoding to DD or DTS allows me to use SPDIF to connect painlessly

Now if I have a high quality analogue multichannel stream, I should just feed it into preamp and forget about the HTPC.

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Sherbona

· #7 · Feb 17, 2005

Hi pyro2003,

For playback I have the soundcard's analog outputs (6) connected to my receiver's analog inputs. The thing about encoding into DD in real time for sending out the S/PDIF is that, as Scotty L says, it is 'lossy' encoding - similar to mp3 file (lossy compressed) vs wav file (not compressed). It can still sound good, but not 'wow' good like you'd have otherwise.

BTW, if DD/DTS quality is good enough you could consider regular music DVDs and just pass the DD/DTS out, there's probably more of them anyways. Also I just remembered that most DVD-As already have a DD or DTS track (for compatability with normal DVD players) which can be used with the S/PDIF as well.

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stanger89

· #8 · Feb 17, 2005

Quote:

Originally posted by pyro2003
=> seems best thing is to have the preamp supporting multichannel audio directly afterall. The reason I want to encode DD or DTS is only because currently my AV Preamp (Proceed AVP2) does not have multichannel analogue audio in (5.1 or more) so encoding to DD or DTS allows me to use SPDIF to connect painlessly

With that setup, your best bet (by far) would be to just plop the DVD-A or SACD into a standard player and listen to the DVD-V layer or CD layer over S/PDIF directly from the player.

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pyro2003

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 17, 2005

It seems 5.1 analogue in (or more) is more important than I realise - I have started looking at preamps with this feature e.g. Sun Grand Cinema. All along people just recommend a digital connection from HTPC to preamp...

I'm trying to figure out the requirement on the sound card, for me multichannel contents include :

5.1 AAC from DVHS materials (BS Hi Vision Japan)

DVD-A from DVD player (would be nice)

regular DD / DTS from DVDs/movies on HTPC (but low res)

currently I have no way to get these into my amp; so I am trying to get a sound + capture solution that can acccommodate these. Maybe the 1010lt can do this for me: but for the Proceed AVP2, it has to skip over to the amp directly; for Sunfire, HTPC analog out goes in directly to Sunfire preamp, for example

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stanger89

· #10 · Feb 17, 2005

Personally, I wouldn't buy a pre-amp now, if it's just to get multichannel input. Firewire is the standard for digital transmition of DVD-A/SACD (see the Pioneer Ai players and TXi recievers), and HDMI is comming. I'd wait for a pre-pro with FW and/or HDMI inputs. I believe Anthem is planning a FW/HDMI upgrade for the AVM-20/AVM-30/Statement D1.

Theoretically, a pre-pro with FW input could act as a "virtual sound card" if connected to a PC with FW.

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