HTPC: Video/Audio Card

[itschris]

I'm back on my kick again. I've realized that solution for the HD Lossless audio formats is not coming anytime soon. Despite that, there is still no reason no to have an HTPC, if only to catalog and play your music, use as a DVR, and use for normal DVD archiving and playback.

That being said, assuming I want to rip all my CD's lossless, what's the best possible card I should use in the HTPC and how should it connect to the Pioneer Elite. I'm assuming I would just use an optical output, but want to know which card will do it best.

 

[stratman]

I'm back on my kick again. I've realized that solution for the HD Lossless audio formats is not coming anytime soon. Despite that, there is still no reason no to have an HTPC, if only to catalog and play your music, use as a DVR, and use for normal DVD archiving and playback.

That being said, assuming I want to rip all my CD's lossless, what's the best possible card I should use in the HTPC and how should it connect to the Pioneer Elite. I'm assuming I would just use an optical output, but want to know which card will do it best.

I'm one of those strange backward beings that loves only his music on a dedicated "music" PC. The best SOUND card I found in my research is Turtle Beach's Montego card:

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/mtgoddl/home.aspx

Remember: Sound. It has SPDIF to hook up to your receiver.

 

[itschris]

How do you think or do you think this card will work with future solutions for bitstreaming the HD Lossless audio via HDMI?

 

[stratman]

How do you think or do you think this card will work with future solutions for bitstreaming the HD Lossless audio via HDMI?

I wouldn't be able to tell you about future compatibility, but the price is low enough that when something better comes down the pike, an upgrade will be painless.

If you're looking for HDMI, check this out:

http://www.engadgethd.com/tag/EAX1600PRO/

 

[bandphan]

The tb montego was one of the best cards ive ever used.(primary fuction was importing live recorded dats) http://www.digigram.com/products/by_category.php?o=getcat&pcat_key=PCSCD&t=Sound+Cards makes some extreme sound cards up to professional broadcast

 

[itschris]

Thanks guys. I think I'll just start slowy picking thing up piece by piece. I read that in June or July, ATI / Nvidia are all supposed to have this whole codec thing worked out.

 

[jcPanny]

Htpc?

Chris,
You don't need much to get the lossless 2 channel audio from the PC. I bought a card with bitperfect digital optical output for <$40.

Before you spend a ton getting the latest audio formats on your PC, you might consider buying a PS3. It will play bluray and I think you can also set it up to stream music. There are also several devices like SB3, AppleTV, Airport Express, etc. for wireless music streaming from the PC to your receiver.

 

[jinjuku]

If you are using Vista, just use the ATI card recommended by Stratman. Your Pioneer Elite will have a better DAC than any reasonably priced sound card. Use the TOSlink optical from the built in mainboard audio OR the sound from the ATI card over HDMI and let the receiver do the decode. The HDMI 1.3a route is assuming that your Elite receiver supports HDMI 1.3a. If not, TOSLink.

The new sound sub system in Vista does away with the dreaded kmixer in Windows XP. This means you don't have to worry about by-passing using ASIO.

If you are just starting out and picking up components:

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H

It has a passively cooled integrated ATI Radeon 3200HD display controller all over either DVI or HDMI (w/ audio!).

Processor: AMD X2 BE-2350 Brisbane. A dual core 45W TPD processor

Passively cooled:Thermalright HR-01-775 and required AM2 rev a. retention bracket

Power Supply: Antec Earth Watts

 

[itschris]

I guess ideally, I want nothing "touching" the signal, so I guess I would just run optical out from the motherboard. In this case, I guess you're saying the onboard the MB is fine.

I'm assuming when the latest cards come out that fully support blu-ray, it will be a video card that links to a sound card via a cable then bitstreams the lossless surround tracks over HDMI to the receiver for decoding. I'm also assuming that when I simply want to playback my music files, it will still shoot the signal over that same HDMI output. If so, will that comprimise the quality of the sound?

 

[jinjuku]

No sound quality issues to worry about. The over all idea we want to get across is a digital signal is 1010010010010. It is either there or it isn't. You won't hear any compromising of the sound.

BTW, buy your HDMI and other interconnects from Blue Jean Cable.

 

[itschris]

That I did. I got pretty much all my cable from them.

 

[audioman00]

let me say also that I built a HTPC recently and just using the coaxial spdif output on the back of the mobo to the yamaha receiver was a great solution, sounds really clear, and no distortion. I used a 12ft regular radioshack gold series rca cable, and presto. I suppose the 1's and 0's are getting there as they should. The mobo is an ASUS and the Power supply used is higher quality, so maybe that CAN make a difference, but I dunno