Improve SQ of HTPC

[jatinmalhotra]

Hi Guys

I think SQ of my HTPC can be improved further.

This is my current Gear

Source - > (AMD A6 3500 + MSI A75 g55 Mobo ) -> HDMI -> Emotiva UMC1-> Emotiva XPA -5 -> Emotiva Sperakers.

I am into Movies mostly but Occasionally Hindi Music Videos.

Will Adding a Asus Xonar card d2X help with Improvement in SQ?

Also how will it work in XBMC, Will it decode all DTS- MA and DD Tru hd and other lower formats to 7.1 in of UMC1.

Any comments welcome.

 

[manniraj]

Hi Guys

I think SQ of my HTPC can be improved further.

This is my current Gear

Source - > (AMD A6 3500 + MSI A75 g55 Mobo ) -> HDMI -> Emotiva UMC1-> Emotiva XPA -5 -> Emotiva Sperakers.

I am into Movies mostly but Occasionally Hindi Music Videos.

Will Adding a Asus Xonar card d2X help with Improvement in SQ?

Also how will it work in XBMC, Will it decode all DTS- MA and DD Tru hd and other lower formats to 7.1 in of UMC1.

Any comments welcome.

I do not think you can improve anything over what you are doing at present atleast for the movies part. Not sure about the music as 2 channel stereo is better of listening over the analog rather than the hdmi route.
Coming to the second part of the xbmc, yes the xbmc version with the hd audio patch will decode all types of audio/video codecs without any issues. I am using the same since 3 months and works flawlessly.

Thanks

 

[iaudio]

jatinmalhotra,

Seems like you have all bases covered. The Xonar DX will not really help imho, as you already have the umc1.

 

[jatinmalhotra]

I do not think you can improve anything over what you are doing at present atleast for the movies part. Not sure about the music as 2 channel stereo is better of listening over the analog rather than the hdmi route.
Coming to the second part of the xbmc, yes the xbmc version with the hd audio patch will decode all types of audio/video codecs without any issues. I am using the same since 3 months and works flawlessly.

Thanks

Already using this patched version, What I meant was the XBMC bitstreames the same not decodes.

Any way I am dropping the idea for Xonar.

 

[manniraj]

Already using this patched version, What I meant was the XBMC bitstreames the same not decodes.

Any way I am dropping the idea for Xonar.

Yes when you use the hd audio patch it actually bitstreams the hd audio to the receiver and the receiver decodes it. In the settings you need to specify that you have the DTS-HD and Dolby Tru-HD receiver thats it and it will bitstreams it untouched.

Thanks

 

[marsilians]

Hi Guys

I think SQ of my HTPC can be improved further.

This is my current Gear

Source - > (AMD A6 3500 + MSI A75 g55 Mobo ) -> HDMI -> Emotiva UMC1-> Emotiva XPA -5 -> Emotiva Sperakers.

I am into Movies mostly but Occasionally Hindi Music Videos.

Will Adding a Asus Xonar card d2X help with Improvement in SQ?

have you tried room treatment, speaker placement and using high quality audio?

 

[rishi.s]

Yes when you use the hd audio patch it actually bitstreams the hd audio to the receiver and the receiver decodes it. In the settings you need to specify that you have the DTS-HD and Dolby Tru-HD receiver thats it and it will bitstreams it untouched.

Thanks

Does this also mean that I can pass through FLAC files from my HTPC on to my AV receiver for decoding? Currently XBMC resamples and converts everything (96KHz 24bit, 192 KHz 24bit, 44.1 Khz 16bit FLAC files) to 48 Khz 16bit PCM. Even if original file is 5.1, it will down-mix to 2 channels only.

Also, am on OpenElec. So I suppose no audio patch out yet for it. :sad:

 

[manniraj]

Does this also mean that I can pass through FLAC files from my HTPC on to my AV receiver for decoding? Currently XBMC resamples and converts everything (96KHz 24bit, 192 KHz 24bit, 44.1 Khz 16bit FLAC files) to 48 Khz 16bit PCM. Even if original file is 5.1, it will down-mix to 2 channels only.

Also, am on OpenElec. So I suppose no audio patch out yet for it. :sad:

I am not sure about the down mixing of the audio files in xbmc never tried it out. Did you try any other software to pass thru the original 5.1 for FLAC, if yes then you can use the playercorefactory.xml file to edit and launch that program for FLAC files only from xbmc which will pass thru to your receiver.

Yes hd audio patch is only for windows and not for OpenElec, and also I doubt whether Linux supports hd audio.

Thanks