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benareeno
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1614
Location: ottawa, canada
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:34 pm Post subject: It's been one year...another HTPC update, if you please... |
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Ok...
ATI vs Nvidia for a crt user....which is preferred?
I would say that I want to use custom resolutions, if possible...for this reason, I'm assuming ATI and powerstrip? I also want to use 48Hz refresh...again, ati/ps? Is Nvidia a no for these 2 options?
I also want LPCM over HDMI if possible. I understand that reclock works well with this configuration, correct??
One last question...is there an AM3 motherboard with ATI that does LPCM over hdmi?? Man..that's a lot of acronyms!
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:36 pm Post subject: Re: It's been one year...another HTPC update, if you please. |
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| benareeno wrote: | Ok...
ATI vs Nvidia for a crt user....which is preferred?
I would say that I want to use custom resolutions, if possible...for this reason, I'm assuming ATI and powerstrip? I also want to use 48Hz refresh...again, ati/ps? Is Nvidia a no for these 2 options?
I also want LPCM over HDMI if possible. I understand that reclock works well with this configuration, correct??
One last question...is there an AM3 motherboard with ATI that does LPCM over hdmi?? Man..that's a lot of acronyms! |
I just picked up an Ati card that supposedly supports LPCM 8 channel and haven't been that impressed with the drivers. It definitely isn't plug and play for me yet and I am going from an Onkyo Receiver to a Vizio LCD at 1366x768 and it is all sorts of wonky. I think it is the HD4350/fanless??
I got it to "work" and haven't messed with it since but it is not correct yet.
VGA was definitely easier.
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nuttall_chris
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 832
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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LOTREE
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 401
Location: Paradise, Newfoundland
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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With a quick search I found that AMD's 785G chipset does not support LPCM. Personally I never read much into it before purchasing the following board: ASUS M4A785T-M/CSM mATX AM3
I have no plans to use HDMI right now as the receiver I have does not support it and neither does the bank account to upgrade. Instead I'm just using an optical toslink from PC to receiver. As much as I hate the HDMI connector interface just with a quick read it is actually better. Crazy how fast S/PDIF was pushed aside, I feel so out of the loop.
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AnalogRocks
Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26706
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:11 am Post subject: |
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| LOTREE wrote: | With a quick search I found that AMD's 785G chipset does not support LPCM. Personally I never read much into it before purchasing the following board: ASUS M4A785T-M/CSM mATX AM3
I have no plans to use HDMI right now as the receiver I have does not support it and neither does the bank account to upgrade. Instead I'm just using an optical toslink from PC to receiver. As much as I hate the HDMI connector interface just with a quick read it is actually better. Crazy how fast S/PDIF was pushed aside, I feel so out of the loop. |
In what way? HDMI has been the biggest pain in the ass thrown down the throat of consumers thus far.
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LOTREE
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 401
Location: Paradise, Newfoundland
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:19 am Post subject: |
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Larger signal bandwidth for HD sound. S/PDIF cannot carry the higher signal required.
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/1064
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AnalogRocks
Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26706
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:23 am Post subject: |
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Ahhh I see your angle on this. Too bad the connector is so fragile. ( That's Italian for easy to break  )
I was talking to the local HT shop. They had a couple of HT receivers in where people have connected the HDMI cable, pushed the receiver back into the cabinet and had the HDMI jack snap.
Personally I liked the DVI connection. It's large and has two thumb screws on it.
I also prefer the analog audio outputs.
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LOTREE
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 401
Location: Paradise, Newfoundland
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:30 am Post subject: |
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| AnalogRocks wrote: |
Personally I liked the DVI connection. It's large and has two thumb screws on it.
I also prefer the analog audio outputs. |
I would agree, I hate the simple USB type HDMI connector. I've heard of people having to wedge something between it and the connector just so the pins make contact. DVI was robust and secure, peace of mind that it would stay in place . I was even looking for a motherboard that had Digital Coax as the optical cable doesn't stay in place on the current computer that well. No luck in my price range.
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benareeno
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1614
Location: ottawa, canada
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:42 am Post subject: |
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agreed on hdmi...it's crap.
Is anyone doing custom res's with Nvidia these days??
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:46 am Post subject: Re: It's been one year...another HTPC update, if you please. |
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| benareeno wrote: | | One last question...is there an AM3 motherboard with ATI that does LPCM over hdmi?? Man..that's a lot of acronyms! |
Sadly I knew exactly what you said. All the rage seems to be bitstreaming. Where the PC simple outputs the raw audio stream and AVR does all decoding of the HD audio tracks, I'm not sure if it's worth it or not, people on AVS seem to be obsessed with it. Currently the only video card that supports this is the ATI 5XXX cards. This would be for TrueHD and DTS-MA Blu-ray, or ISO rips made from them.
As far as I know the at present only software player that supports bitstreaming with the video card is PowerDVD (uck) and that can be hit or miss depending on whether you have an AVR that will handshake properly with the ATI driver. There are guys at AVS that have been overriding their EDID and getting it to work, but it doesn't sound like its plug and play at all yet. The current 5XXX cards are only available with fans making them a little noisy and this series cards are also considered ‘Gamming Cards’ which also makes them a little pricey. A new batch of 5000 cards with passive heat sinks should be available later in the year and are expected to be more affordable.
FLAC audio tracks can be streamed to an AVR over HDMI on ATI 4000 series cards except for the 4200 IGC that is present on the AMD 785 chipset motherboard, it does NOT support any lossless mulit-channel formats over HDMI only lossy DD and DTS core audio can be bitstreamed over HDMI with the AMD785.
Mike
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Last edited by MikeEby on Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:06 am; edited 1 time in total
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benareeno
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1614
Location: ottawa, canada
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:05 am Post subject: |
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I could care less about bitstreaming...but nerds probably like to see the DTS-HDma light go on their receivers....
Nvidia custom res anyone??
Nvidia and powerstrip?
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:12 am Post subject: |
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| benareeno wrote: | I could care less about bitstreaming...but nerds probably like to see the DTS-HDma light go on their receivers....
Nvidia custom res anyone??
Nvidia and powerstrip? |
My feeling too...Hell I'm still using analog audio.
The built in tool for custom res in the NVidia control panel looks pretty good with the current driver. I used it when I was playing around with the software blend. It seemed to support 48Hz. In some repects I like it better then powerstrip. Powerstrip will only kick in to the custom timing after PowerStrip loads, where Nvidia simply comes up in the custom resolutions.
Mike
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benareeno
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1614
Location: ottawa, canada
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:59 am Post subject: |
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I guess I'll check into getting an Nvidia solution then...lcpm and custom res's/refresh rates is what I need.
Mike, are you using reclock?
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:14 am Post subject: |
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| benareeno wrote: | I guess I'll check into getting an Nvidia solution then...lcpm and custom res's/refresh rates is what I need.
Mike, are you using reclock? |
Yes I use ReClock....Be careful on what Nvidia you buy for LCPM.... It can be tricky I understand with their cards. I'm pretty sure the IGP 9300/9400 supports mult-channel LCPM with FLAC, I'm not sure about others.
Mike
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benareeno
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1614
Location: ottawa, canada
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:35 am Post subject: |
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and is it only the latest driver that has custom resolutions?
WHat res/refresh are you using? ANd do you ever see stutters?
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:50 am Post subject: |
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| benareeno wrote: | and is it only the latest driver that has custom resolutions?
WHat res/refresh are you using? ANd do you ever see stutters? |
The 9500 NVidia card is installed on my ripper box with a CRT computer monitor, currently running only 1280x1024 @ 71.928 Hz...my processor is a 3.4 GHZ AMD Quad core.
On my main HTPC I have an ATI card w/PowerStrip connected to the XG. It's running 1600X900 @ 71.928Hz it's process is a Core 2 Quad Q6600.
Very smooth glich free playback on both...Since I dumped PowerDVD.
Mike
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Last edited by MikeEby on Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:53 am; edited 1 time in total
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VideoGrabber
Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 933
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:53 am Post subject: |
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Re: "I could care less about bitstreaming", MikeEby commented:
> My feeling too...Hell I'm still using analog audio. <
It might be worthwhile pointing out here that the analog output you speak of is still full multi-channel, with the high-bitrate HD audio. So you can still get the uncompressed quality audio, over 5.1 or 7.1 channels, if you go analog-out from the PC to analog-in on your receiver.
It's not necessary (or even possible) to keep the audio in digital form, all the way out to the speaker cones. Bitstreaming is just one means to an end.
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- Tim
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:07 am Post subject: |
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| VideoGrabber wrote: | Re: "I could care less about bitstreaming", MikeEby commented:
> My feeling too...Hell I'm still using analog audio. <
It might be worthwhile pointing out here that the analog output you speak of is still full multi-channel, with the high-bitrate HD audio. So you can still get the uncompressed quality audio, over 5.1 or 7.1 channels, if you go analog-out from the PC to analog-in on your receiver.
It's not necessary (or even possible) to keep the audio in digital form, all the way out to the speaker cones. Bitstreaming is just one means to an end. |
Absolutely Tim! I’m in no rush to replace my Atlantic Technology Pre/Pro…I figure if it was ever good enough for Art S. it can stay in my modest theater for a few years longer.
I hate the way digital pro/processor are always hunting around for the right mode, analog NEVER does that.
Mike
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benareeno
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1614
Location: ottawa, canada
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:23 am Post subject: |
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analog is the bee's knee's....we all know that!
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AnalogRocks
Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26706
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:34 am Post subject: |
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| benareeno wrote: | | analog is the bee's knee's....we all know that! |
Thanks guys! 
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