DTS-HD MA & TrueHD Bitstream via ATI HD 5870 Video Card

[GlocksRock]

I didn't first play an actual disc, I just mounted one of my rips that contains only the movie and hd audio and pdvd 9 remembered it, it also bitstreams standard dd/dts from regular dvds automatically too. You just can't select non decoded hd output until you actually start playing the disc/.iso

 

[GlocksRock]

Sweet. I just bought one for my 2nd HTPC.

It will be the best $35 you ever spent Once you get it up and running, let me know how the video quality compares to your 5750 when playing back blu rays.

 

[fightinkraut]

Almost there...

I installed the Gigabyte 5450 and have been having a heck of a time trying to get it to work properly. If anyone's having trouble I recommend checking out this, which is about bitstreaming and the aforementioned EDID fix, which I had to do with my Olevia 237T TV and the Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver.

As of last night, with the latest catalyst (10.2) installed and the realtek HDMI audio driver (the red link), I finally got 5.1/7.1 working. Now on to the issue of bitstreaming HD codecs, which I hope to tackle again tonight following something like this.

Just wanted to make sure anyone having trouble found these resources.

Glad you all have the bitstreaming working!

 

[GlocksRock]

The Onkyo and Denon receivers seem to all need the EDID override as mentioned in the AVS forums, but the Yamaha receivers don't seem to suffer from this, hopefully this won't be needed with future driver releases. I haven't tried using the latest (2.42) realtek HDMI drivers, I'm still using the 2.39 version only because it resyncs the audio faster when watching a blu ray and unpausing it.

 

[fightinkraut]

I'm using the 2.42 drivers but think I might have a problem with my software. I'm using the software which came with my blu-ray burner, powerdvd 7 ultra I think. Is Powerdvd 9 the only version to allow bitstreaming?

 

[GlocksRock]

Yes, to my knowledge only PDVD 9 supports bitstreaming of HD audio, but TMT 3 has a beta that allows HD audio bitstreaming, only with the native ATI HDMI drivers, not the realtek drivers.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I didn't first play an actual disc, I just mounted one of my rips that contains only the movie and hd audio and pdvd 9 remembered it, it also bitstreams standard dd/dts from regular dvds automatically too. You just can't select non decoded hd output until you actually start playing the disc/.iso

Oh, yeah, I forgot about playing the movie first, then change the setting while the movie was playing.

But for some reasons, PDVD9 would not remember the HD Audio settings until I put in an actual disc (instead of ISO file). I had to manually reset the Audio setting on PDVD9 over and over again - until I put in an actual disc - then PDVD automatically played the HD audio from there on.

Computers have a mind of their own!!!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It will be the best $35 you ever spent Once you get it up and running, let me know how the video quality compares to your 5750 when playing back blu rays.

Sure thing.

But I doubt there is any difference in PQ.

 

[GlocksRock]

I doubt it too, but I just want to confirm, since I would be upset if I bought two of the low end cards when the higher up cards with their extra stream processors look better. Either way, I'm still very pleased with the results I have now. I'm going to update to the Realtek 2.42 HDMI driver and see if that makes any difference for me. I watched The Stepfather on blu ray last night on my new powercolor card in my bedroom system and it did great. This one point in the movie it started storming, and when the thunder cracked you could hear it in the surrounds and the sub, and it actually startlled me a bit.

 

[GlocksRock]

The realtek 2.42 drivers only allowed me to select 2 ch. stereo, not 5.1 or 7.1, so I reverted back to the 2.39 driver and it was fine again. I guess if it isn't broke, I won't try to fix it.

 

[fightinkraut]

The realtek 2.42 drivers only allowed me to select 2 ch. stereo, not 5.1 or 7.1, so I reverted back to the 2.39 driver and it was fine again. I guess if it isn't broke, I won't try to fix it.

I upgraded to PDVD9 Ultra last night and finally, for the first time, saw the beautiful TrueHD light on! Worked by disable AMD event monitor service, 2.42 realtek drivers, and EDID override. Mostly works anyway...still getting random black log on screens.

 

[GlocksRock]

I upgraded to PDVD9 Ultra last night and finally, for the first time, saw the beautiful TrueHD light on! Worked by disable AMD event monitor service, 2.42 realtek drivers, and EDID override. Mostly works anyway...still getting random black log on screens.

Seeing those lights is a beautiful thing isn't it! Glad you got it working.

 

[fightinkraut]

Sheesh. In case anyone is having trouble with black screens after logging in, it may be due to a blue-ray disc in the drive. I've repaired windows, used system restore, changed every driver I could think of, uninstalled/reinstalled, removed all start up services except for core, etc. Turns out it was just that simple.

Seriously. I've spent countless hours on this. Hope no one else has suffered the same fate!

 

[GlocksRock]

I've never had that issue, but then again I don't usually play physical discs, just .iso files which become automatically unmounted upon a reboot, so I haven't experienced that issue. But I was having some sound issues since installing, and reverting back to the realtek 2.39 hdmi driver, so I reinstalled windows and everything else and now it works great. I was also previously having major playback issues with a couple of .mkv files that would only play smoothly on my machine with a core i7, but after installing media player classic - home cinema x64 edition and ffdshow 64 bit I can now playback those files with zero issues. I had previously found VLC to be among the best, but MPC-HC seemed to handle those files better, and you have many more options when it comes to using external filters for audio and video. Plus they are both freeware, and will play blu rays too, but I didn't try it on one of my media pc's so I can't comment on if or how well it can bitstream HD audio, but I'm pretty sure it can if it's setup right using the proper filters.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

But I was having some sound issues since installing, and reverting back to the realtek 2.39 hdmi driver, so I reinstalled windows and everything else and now it works great.

Like they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Everything is workly so perfectly right now, I'm not updating a single thing on my HTPCs.

 

[GlocksRock]

I agree, but if I had the same mentality I would never have gone from the ati HDMI driver to the Realtek driver... and I like the realtek driver better. Thats why it pays to back up often so it's easy to revert back. But I also went from Win. 7 home premium x64 to Win. 7 Ultimate 64 bit. so it was worthwhile to do a clean install of everything, especially after having done other software upgrades.

I just hope Arcsoft can hurry up and get a patch for TMT 3 that allows bitstreaming to work properly with the realtek hdmi drivers. I know they have a beta patch out that allows bitstreaming to work with ATI drivers.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I agree, but if I had the same mentality I would never have gone from the ati HDMI driver to the Realtek driver... and I like the realtek driver better. Thats why it pays to back up often so it's easy to revert back. But I also went from Win. 7 home premium x64 to Win. 7 Ultimate 64 bit. so it was worthwhile to do a clean install of everything, especially after having done other software upgrades.

I just hope Arcsoft can hurry up and get a patch for TMT 3 that allows bitstreaming to work properly with the realtek hdmi drivers. I know they have a beta patch out that allows bitstreaming to work with ATI drivers.

Yeah, both of my HTPCs have Win7 Ultimate 64bit.

So how is the Realtek HDMI driver better than the ATI HDMI driver?

 

[GlocksRock]

When you unpause a movie when using the ATI drivers, it takes a a second or two for the audio to sync back up, the realtek driver doesn't have this issue, it just syncs back up immediately. It's not difficult to uninstall the ATI driver and use the realtek driver, and it's free, so why not upgrade.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

When you unpause a movie when using the ATI drivers, it takes a a second or two for the audio to sync back up, the realtek driver doesn't have this issue, it just syncs back up immediately. It's not difficult to uninstall the ATI driver and use the realtek driver, and it's free, so why not upgrade.

Yeah, I noticed that sync issues when pausing a movie.

So the Realtek HDMI 2.39 driver works perfectly with the Radeon 5xxx cards for HD audio and there is no audio-sync issues when pausing?

 

[GlocksRock]

Yeah, I noticed that sync issues when pausing a movie.

So the Realtek HDMI 2.39 driver works perfectly with the Radeon 5xxx cards for HD audio and there is no audio-sync issues when pausing?

I'm sure the 2.42 realtek driver would work just fine on a clean install, but I didn't want to risk using it when I reinstalled windows yesterday so I put 2.39 back on there since I knew it worked perfectly with everything I've used it on so far, my old radeon 4350 cards, and my both of my new 5450 cards. I just uninstalled the ati hdmi driver using the latest download package from the ati website, then installed the realtek driver. They sync issue is the only real advantage I can see when using the realtek driver. It really wasn't that big of a deal to me, but if I can avoid a sync delay by using a diff. driver I don't see why I shouldn't do it.