HDMI

[efmpr55]

I am curious about the issue of streaming hi-rez music through the USB output and its limitations. Is it possible to use the HDMI output from a PC laptop to an HDMI input of an A/V receiver to stream hi-rez music files?

 

[Mr.C]

I don't really know, not having a pc with HDMI, but if you can direct your playback software to output via (presumably) your video card where the HDMI port lies then it should work. I don't know if this would be any better, but it's worth having fun with

 

[Audio_ELF]

Do many HDMI ports on Laptops support full bitrate audio ...

 

I've not looked into this a lot ... but my brief searches have come up with only the ASUS XONAR (think thats right name) card as supporting full bit rate audio ... most card (at least in multi-channel) downsample to 24/48 IIRC.

 

[One and a half]

HDMI has it's own set of standards and they are very high.

From Wiki

"HDMI supports up to 8 channels of audio at sample sizes of 16-bit, 20-bit, and 24-bit with sample rates of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, and 192 kHz. HDMI also supports any IEC61937-compliant compressed audio stream such as Dolby Digital and DTS and up to 8 channels of one-bit DSD audio, which is used on Super Audio CDs, at rates up to 4 times that of Super Audio CD. With version 1.3, HDMI supports lossless compressed audio streams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio."

 

So if you wish to transmit audio down HDMI, the receiver would need to understand all the above to decode the sequence that makes sense. Add to this the equation of copy protection and for Blu-Ray so far it's tight, and you would then a licensed decoder to get the audio from that eg for DTS-HD or Dolby True.

 

Currently some new Sony notebooks offer HDMI so BD & DVD audio and vision can be decoded by a receiver or direct to a (HD)TV. It is the intent to assume that the data in that stream is compliant to one of the standards above. Our Audio software would have to "Write" the stream correctly so that the receiver the other end of the HDMI undertood the correct protocls that it's expecting, otherwise we get nothing.

 

If anybody has a new Sony notebook like the vgn-fw27gu, could they enlighten us if Foobar or iTunes has the ability to send the data down the HDMI pipe on this machine.

 

Maybe the conversion to say DTS and then decoded from a 16bit/44.1 signal is not worth the bother. Ahh, but a copy protected piece of DTS-HD or Dolby True music would be a very serious consideration. Have a listen to "Legends of Jazz" BD, "The Panther" and the possibilities are becoming very real.

 

Given that the CD is so easily ripped now and distributed, the method using a BD may be one way to protect the rights of the artist and give us loonies in audiophilia something to think about seriously. It also opens up another choice of which receiver can decode the best sound!

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

[Tonto]

HDMI should support the full gamut of 2 channel and multi channel audio codecs - however - the problem lies at the other end. The DAC in order to control jitter must support HATS which is a clock matching technology used in the reproduction of SACDs. HDMI interfaces supporting this are few and far between only on a few high end AV recievers at this point in time.

How this effects anything other than DSD I don't know but I feel a digital stream is a digital stream if we talk DSD vs PCM.

This is a very general explanation which I'm sure more knowledgable types can elaborate on ;p Bring it on!

 

[[email protected]]

Using Windows Media Center and Media Monkey I'm getting 96000/24 stereo (with accompanying computer video output) through my Toshiba Satellite laptop's HDMI output going to one of my NAD T175's HDMI inputs.

 

FLAC (mostly from HD Tracks), WAV, and WMA files all sound like SACDs.

 

Very happy indeed!

 

[vortecjr]

I ran some tests for you as follows:

In xp: I set sounds to nvidia hdmi output. Then in j river I set its output to direct sound and nvidia hdmi output. I player some 24/96 content and I was able to run my processor in pcm mode. However, no matter what I tried I got 48khz display on the processor. In this set up that seems to be a limitation or I dont know how to fix it. I think its sounds fine and is worth trying out assuming you don't care about the who bit perfect argument as windows appears to be resampling the music. PS also played 44.1 content and it upsampled it to 48khz.

 

In vista: I set sounds to nvidia hdmi output. Then in j river I set its output to direct sound and nvidia hdmi output. I player some 24/96 content and I was able to run my processor in pcm mode. This time I got 192khz display on the processor. In vista the sample rate follows the setting in sounds to the letter. It was set to 192 and it displays 192. I changed it to 96 and it displays 96. It sounds fine and I think its worth trying out assuming again you don't care about the who bit perfect argument as windows appears to be resampling the music. I guess if you set the sample rate to match the sample rate of the music it will not resample, but who knows.....

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

 

[vortecjr]

I don't know about laptops. The asus zonar looks like a good option! With my desktop pc with hi-def asus mother board and onboard hdmi output, I can play up to 24/192 on the music side as tested above and bluray side with hd-audio 24/192 pcm in surround. PS I had to update "all" drivers from the asus website to get the bluray side with hd-audio working with hdmi. Then the playback software (cyberlink) also needed an updated and required vista to work.

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[Petisuis]

Have you tried it with an Asus Xonar card? I think this is the one that supports full bit rate audio.

 

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