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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
76 Comments
View All Comments
Mempile - Thursday, September 17, 2009 - link
Thanks, but no thanks, Auzentech and Asus. I'll get a PS3, which is simpler, smarter, and probably better.cubdukat - Friday, September 4, 2009 - link
I've been waiting for this card to come out ever since it was announced, because I had read that Auzen's X-Fi cards were a quantum leap over Creative's as far as general stability and audio quality were concerned. However, this review is giving me pause.Auzen made a point of trumpeting its collaboration with both Nvidia and Cyberlink on the card's design. That it seems to be having such issues with Nvidia chipsets is not a good sign. I am using a GeForce 8200-powered mobo with a 9800GT card, and I have no intention of crossing over to ATI or Intel in order to use this card. I certainly hope that either Nvidia and/or Auzen fixes this problem soon.
The second issue I have is that Auzen has stated that not only will there be no Linux support for DTS Connect and Dolby Digital Live, they will also not even provide rudimentary Linux drivers for the card either. Now, for most people this is a non-issue, but I also dual-boot a Linux multimedia distro called Mythdora, and that's a deal-breaker for me.
As it stands right now, I am torn between getting this card or one of the Creative PCI-e X-Fi cards. On one hand, it's perfect for my HTPC setup because I can bitstream TrueHD and DTS-HD to my receiver or output the uncompressed LPCM without downsampling. On the other, I don't want a card that I am going to have to fiddle with, as I already have too many components in my system that fit that description, not to mention that the Creative card does have Linux support. So I think I'm gonna wait and see how this shakes out...
CDJay - Saturday, September 5, 2009 - link
See, I've been waiting for this card for entirely different reasons....I have a "HTPC", but I don't use it for DVD or Blu-ray, at least atm. No, I use it as an easy way to play music, or games at 1080p. So whilst I could get a PS3 Slim ( I have a normal PS3, I just never use it ) I'd be stuck w/ games that cost more, and run at resolutions that look utterly horrific on my 65" screen.
So in fact the reason I wanted this card, and indeed why it is now sitting in my PC, is so I can play stuff like Race Driver Grid, Street Fighter IV, Pro Evo 2009, Crysis, Bioshock, Call of Duty Modern Warfare yada yada yada at 1080p/60hz and with PCM over HDMI. Some games ( Streetfighter IV and Pro Evo 2009 I am looking at you ) don't make use of my 7.1 setup, but Race Driver Grid and Crysis most certainly do. I had a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty using the multichannel input on my audio processor, but that bypasses the decent Audyssey MultiEQ Pro room correction and bass redicrection and thus sounded fairly crappy. I could use Dolby Digital live, but that's lossy and limited to 5.1.
So to sum up, if I want to listen to lossless stereo, 5.1, 7.1 for music and games this card is the only practical option. Before anyone asks, I have a Xonar HDAV 1.3 sitting in a cupboard upstairs, I didn't enjoy the horrific driver issues and stereo Race Driver Grid etc.
This is a niche product, sure, but if anyone has the money to burn on having a true 1080p/60fps/multichannel audio gaming setup for multiplatform or PC specific titles this is a VERY interesting product indeed. IMO, YMMV.
archer75 - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Just rip your blu-rays to your hard drive, NAS, server, whatever and rip that audio as lossless flac. Stream to receiver as LPCM.You get 100% of that DTS-HD MA or TrueHD with none of the DRM and no need to buy expensive sound cards either. Simple.
DominionSeraph - Saturday, September 5, 2009 - link
Simple... and illegal under the DMCA.medi01 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Is ripping DVDs legal?wonder1980 - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
please do a comparison between x-fi and ATI 4650 if possible, thanks a lot! Do you think the difference worth $200?archer75 - Friday, September 4, 2009 - link
If you are using a digital connection such as HDMI, optical, etc. there is no difference. It just passes the audio straight out. You don't even need a soundcard for this.Either you are bitstreaming it out or your player is decoding it and passing out LPCM. But the sound card is just shipping the audio out.
If you are talking analog audio then yes, the soundcard will make a difference.
chizow - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Anand or anyone else who has this card already,Can you measure the card's dimensions? Particularly the length? Trying to see if it'll fit in a Classified's x1 PCIE slot. Amazingly Auzentech's website documentation and even their manual PDF do not list any dimensions or a detailed schematic drawing.
Thanks for the review, sounds like it'll do what it advertises. One key thing I didn't see mentioned or emphasized though is that this card also retains all of the X-Fi's EAX capability in games and should also be able to encode them as DD Live/DTS Interactive over HDMI. Sound quality will be the same as previous PCIE or PCI X-Fi cards for games, but it'll be the first sound card to offer this all natively over HDMI.
Also curious if passing video through the sound card has any negative aspects, perhaps input lag, decreased quality or framerate limits.
chizow - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Here's the part that concerned me about the HDMI passthrough aspect, as taken from Auztentech's website about the Silicon Image chips used:http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_hometh...">http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_hometh...
The bolded portion being the biggest concern. Will the card be able to pass higher resolutions than 1920x1080p @ 60Hz or 1600x1200 @ unknown refresh? Or will it cap frames due to limited bandwidth, or simply refuse to pass higher resolution signals?