Auzentech HomeTheater HD Preview: Bitstreaming True HD/DTS-HD MA
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 2, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
If you ignore the initial driver issues with NVIDIA GPUs, I was shocked by one thing about the Auzentech card: it worked without giving me any HDCP errors. I’m used to any new HT product breaking HDCP and generally not letting me watch the movies that it’s designed to play back. Auzentech was the first that didn’t do that. I had these problems with nearly every IGP chipset on the market upon their initial release, even with the ASUS Xonar HDAV when it first came out, but the Auzentech? Nope. Then again, I couldn’t get video output when I used a graphics card from one of the largest GPU makers in the world.
My personal experience with the Auzentech is mixed. It didn’t work well with my NVIDIA setups but worked flawlessly with AMD. If you feel you need a card like this and have a configuration that you know works, the X-Fi HTHD seems good enough.
That brings me to the major issue with the Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD: I’m not sure these cards make sense anymore. They add another level of complexity to an already ridiculously complex set of hardware, software and security requirements needed to simply play a movie off a disc.
You need to use PowerDVD to get the real benefit from the X-Fi HTHD. Although the latest version of the player is far better than it used to be, it’s still not my preferred way to watch movies; the UI is clumsy and is easily outclassed by open source projects, which is just ridiculous given that this is an app you have to pay for.
Then we have the price. The Auzentech X-Fi HTHD will set you back around $250. For that price you’re $50 away from a PS3 Slim, which can bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in full 48kHz/24-bit fashion without ever having to worry about drivers or incompatibilities. I get that the content owners were worried about enabling Blu-ray playback on PCs, but I feel that they’ve almost killed it.
It’s less painful to rip the movies and play them unencrypted or even pirate them than it is to play a legitimate Blu-ray disc on your PC. That is a problem. At least when you pirate them you get direct-to-drive service, something you can’t get legitimately for a high-bitrate movie. Those responsible for the encryption and stipulation need to pay attention here: What would you do when it’s not only cheaper, but also more user friendly to steal movies than pay for them?
Piracy shouldn’t be easier, it should just be cheaper.
9 feet of Windows 7 is admittedly nice
I do believe there are a number of reasons to opt for a HTPC over a PS3 or set-top Blu-ray player, but I’m just not convinced that there’s value in these cards. I’ve seen the roadmaps, we’ll start getting chipset support for bitstreaming these codecs next year. That’ll mean a sub-$100 investment in a motherboard for the same sort of support you get from a $250 sound card.
In the interim, we’ve got some very good options. All modern ATI GPUs, Intel IGPs and NVIDIA IGPs support decoding these lossless audio codecs in software and can send the decoded audio over HDMI. It’s called 8-channel LPCM over HDMI and it is supported all over the place now. You need a video card for your HTPC anyway, it seems the sensible route would be to rely on 8-channel LPCM support for now and upgrade to a motherboard/video card that supports bitstreaming True HD/DTS-HD MA later.
It would be different if we didn’t have to rely on Cyberlink, or if there were open source True HD/DTS-HD MA alternatives so we had playback support in things like Media Player Classic - Home Cinema or XBMC. The nature of what we’re trying to enable is also at fault for diminishing the value of these sorts of cards. Appreciating the advantage 24Mbps of audio can give you is a potentially impossible feat for most un-jaded human ears.
ASUS and Auzentech have at least made sure that PCs can at least play these audio tracks, and for that they should be commended. I’m just not sure the rest of the industry is ready to support it yet. We need better software, we need simplicity, we need integration. Deliver those things and then we can talk price.
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hu24ebr - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
I already have a slim ps3, and a home theater receiver that can bit stream, i tried to compare between the compressed and the pure audio, and I have failed to listen to any difference.cmdrdredd - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
[quote]I already have a slim ps3, and a home theater receiver that can bit stream, i tried to compare between the compressed and the pure audio, and I have failed to listen to any difference.[/quote]That's because there is no difference.
Golgatha - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
Yeah, I thought about getting all excited about HD audio, but my ears just can't tell the difference. I have a 5.1 Klipsch setup too, so my speakers aren't super high end, but they aren't crap either.I figured an upgrade to PowerDVD 9 was $50, a sound card that can pass the HDMI HD audio signals would be $200+, and then I get to pray to God it all works when I get it together...or, I could just keep what I have and live with HD audio sources downsampled to DD5.1 and live with it. This and the fact that later versions of the PowerDVD 8 software don't support playing HD audio/video back from a virtual drive pretty much killed any and all desire to upgrade my hardware.
Frankly, they have only succeeded making me not want to purchase hardware and software to playback Blu-ray discs with all this DRM in the mix. If things like AnyDVD HD weren't available, I wouldn't have purchased the BD reader and PowerDVD 8 software I currently use, so thank the "pirates" out there for your sales. Make the DRM any "better" at securing premium content and I'll make sure to give any new hardware supporting said DRM the middle finger.
CrimsonFury - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
"For that price you’re $50 away from a PS3 Slim, which can bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in full 48kHz/24-bit fashion"The PS3 does NOT bitstream Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA. It decodes them using the PS3's software and outputs them in 8 channel LPCM.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
While I haven't tested it myself, the word on the street is that the PS3 Slim can bitstream the hd audio codecs:http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/ps3-slim-bitsre...">http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/ps3-...by-trueh...
Take care,
Anand
Golgatha - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
The PS3 can pass the audio stream to the receiver uncompressed, which makes the receiver pick it up as a LCPM stream. This is bit for bit equivalent to the HD audio formats, it's just that your little light indicating that's what your getting won't light up at the receiver.andy o - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
Yeah, that's right, I just got my PS3 slim and many others also have confirmed. But the thing is that bitstreaming itself is not the big deal with this card, it's that software players have been screwing the audio in different ways with bugs (channel mapping, improper decoding, etc.). Bitstreaming is just a practical solution. The upcoming Slyplayer will NOT downsample audio so it'll be a good solution, it'll stream bit-perfect LPCM the same way as ReClock can do now with WASAPI exclusive-compatible HDMI devices like the ATI 4000 series with Realtek drivers.asdasd246246 - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
The 48xx series already has HDMI output, with audio, so what's the point of this expensive and apparently, (as usual with Creative) unstable card?A Bluray disc contains digital data, that is generally just sent along it's way to the receiver? There's nothing that needs a codec.
George Powell - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
The 48xx cards do not allow the raw bitstream data to be sent across HDMI. The data is first decoded and then sent as LPCM. There are advantages to both systems in my view.1. Bitstream allows for the highest quality possible. The decode is done by the amplifier which will use specialist hardware to perform the decode. Given high end enough equipment this will offer a better sound than LPCM.
2. LPCM can be fed into just about any amplifier with an HDMI in port. The amplifier doesn't need to do any decoding work. This is a good option for those who have older high end equipment, and I count myself as one of them.
archer75 - Friday, September 4, 2009 - link
It does'nt matter what does the decoding. Decoding is pretty much just like unzipping a file. You get the same thing if you do it on this computer or that one.LPCM works on receivers that support HDMI 1.3. and SOME older ones.
The problem with LPCM is your software player can mess with the audio. PowerDVD or TMT will downsample the audio when they decode it and then pass it out as LPCM.
The only way around that is to do your own Blu-Ray rips to your hard drive in a MKV container with lossless flac.