htpc questions......

[davestradamus]

i use an htpc and play sound files with winamp. does anyone know what the quality is like using this program? i use VLC media player to watch movies but they are all dvd rips or bootleg so you cant count on sound encoding. but most of my 850ish albums are encoded in 320Kbps so they should sound good right? but what about my sound card? ew.... its an ac '97 on board unit. you think its best to invest in a new one?

 

[Adam]

Hey, David. 320 kbps is really pretty good, and unless you're really critical, you probably won't hear a difference between that and the original.

The true test on whether you should invest in a separate sound card is whether you're happy with what you have now or not. I've been more happy with my Creative soundcards than with built-in audio, but motherboards keep improving, so maybe yours is pretty good. Also, the difference in quality probably depends on whether your using the analog or digital outputs.

 

[davestradamus]

ahh, i hadnt thought of that. i am using that stereo plug like headphones use, right to my reciever. i bet i could get better sound out of a digital card. and i have an optical open....

-david

 

[sparky77]

I have a Soundblaster 5.1 card which is less than capable of HD audio, and to make it work, all the software is available here.

 

[Cthulhu]

320kbps mp3s will be perfect quality, no problem. No other program will offer better quality.

One thing to be careful of with sound cards is almost none of them support surround sound digital formats, but some do. Buying one of those and using the optical out will give you multichannel sound and won't cost very much

Its only worth upgrading to get that though, the AC 97 onboards are not great, but they are okay-ish.

 

[yuki]

an HTPC is one of the most convenient things that you can have for music and video playback ^^. The AC97 sound is usually not that good though, depending on the chip set... however in some cases it is above average. The newer motherboards have HD audio which sounds great. Back to AC 97, usually the internal DAC is not very good in SNR.


I would look into a different audio card, or feed the receiver directly via digital if the audio device has digital out and the receiver or amp has digital in. Other wise an audio card upgrade would help, and you do not need an expensive one at all these days to get great sound. I would recommend anything based on the new asus xonar chip set or the via envy 24 / 24ht.

320kbps is plenty, in most of my listening though I tend not to tell the diffrence between 192kbps and the original using win amp. 192kbps was desgined to be transparent to the original pcm input at 44.1 khz.

 

[davestradamus]

thank you. i think i might do this. it would most likely help the sound of my movies i imagine. i dont think i am getting decent 6.1 sound from this card. but it doesnt sound bad. thanks for the replies.

cheers
-david

 

[jcPanny]

Soundcard.

Depending on your speaker setup, the sound card might be a reasonable upgrade. If you are using a receiver with good speakers, you can get a sound card with optical out for about $20-30 and let the receiver do the D/A conversion. There are USB and other sound card options, but don't expect to hear a difference if you are using cheap PC speakers.