Sound Card Question

[gumdigger]

Hi there
Olympics are comming, so i am thinking to build a dedicated HTPC, At the moment i have my pc connected to my amp though coxal digital cable, I notice the sound, its not very powerful. if i play the same set of cd through my cheap dvd player connected via digital cable also, it sounds very powerful/loud. (Note: my pc has onboard sound).
now my question is, what card would pros like you suggest when it comes to HTPC and processing DTS, DTS HD and all new formats.

 

[newaudiofile]

Hi there
Olympics are comming, so i am thinking to build a dedicated HTPC, At the moment i have my pc connected to my amp though coxal digital cable, I notice the sound, its not very powerful. if i play the same set of cd through my cheap dvd player connected via digital cable also, it sounds very powerful/loud. (Note: my pc has onboard sound).
now my question is, what card would pros like you suggest when it comes to HTPC and processing DTS, DTS HD and all new formats.

I'm not a pro but I dont think you have worry so much about processing when it comes to the sound since all decoding will be handled by you A/V.

But in any case if you building an HTPC which is what I use, then I will recommend this Zalman external sound card.

It is good and I have had no problems.
Hope this helps.

 

[audioman00]

depending on the motherboard that you are using, you may have a realtek soundcard. Most of the onboard sound cards on mobo's have a digital SPDIF or Optical output, I know for a fact if you are running vista and a realtek soundcard with digital out you WILL indeed get full Dolby Digital, Now, getting anything better than DD is going to be hard, that is the only method I can get to pop up besides PCM stereo. hope this helps. BTW, I'm using an ASUS motherboard and it is 3 years old, still puts out full DD 5.1

 

[bandphan]

http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php nice new card

 

[MDS]

At the moment i have my pc connected to my amp though coxal digital cable, I notice the sound, its not very powerful. if i play the same set of cd through my cheap dvd player connected via digital cable also, it sounds very powerful/loud.

If the sound seems less loud coming from the sound card when the volume control on the receiver is at the same level as when you play a CD through the DVD player, it would be due to the settings in your sound card's mixer applet.

Whether you use the Windows mixer or one that was installed with the driver for the on-board sound card, there should be controls like 'WAV out', 'CD audio', or 'CD digital' as well as the master volume control. One of those is probably set pretty low. For example, even if you have the master volume set to max, if the WAV control is set to min you will hear no sound when playing any digital audio files from the hard drive.