[adrianstealth]

hi all

I'm setting up a dedicated PC ( windows 7 xbmc on kodi ) for my projector room
( have a denim av amp with 7.1 speakers )

my options :

1)
from PC optical out & allow amp to decode dts or Dolby digital
( my denon amp dosn't do HD sound formats )


2)

from PC use phono jacks ( from separate outputs in sound card ) for L/R front L/R back, center/sub , etc
& simple EXT in in amp - straight out to relevant speakers (amp not decoding anything)
......does xbmc do all the work eg decode

also is it worth being setup for the HD formats in this way
(online content may not support it + my home collection on a NAS drive is mainly Dolby digital )

I'm obviously interested in best quailty etc

any help appeciated (-;

[Sunflux]

XBMC will not decode DTS HD Master internally. So you're left with only Dolby TrueHD, and that's not really the most popular choice.

Is there some reason why HDMI is not one of your options? You say your amp doesn't do HD formats, but you also mention that it's 7.1... and I'm not aware of too many 7.1 amps that don't also have HDMI. Well, unless they were maybe a real budget model that only did HDMI switching, and couldn't process any kind of audio from it.

Failing HDMI, I would go optical.

[Matt Devo]

and I'm not aware of too many 7.1 amps that don't also have HDMI.

pretty much every mid/high end AVR right before HDMI was 7.1, like the Sony DA4ES I'm still using.

[Stereodude]

Analog sucks 5.1/7.1... You can't time align it or use bass management.

I'd use SPDIF myself.

[fritsch]

SPDIF is limited to 2 pcm channels, can only do AC3 and DTS. Most of those are furthermore limited to 48 khz.

I would not go with SPDIF.

[Stereodude]

SPDIF is limited to 2 pcm channels, can only do AC3 and DTS. Most of those are furthermore limited to 48 khz.

1) You can't hear above 20kHz (if that) so being limited to 48kHz is irrelevant
2) DTS does support 24/96 over SPDIF though it's not a very common format
3) The lack of time alignment and bass management will be more audible when using analog 7.1 than listening to the lossy DD / DTS over SPDIF in comparison to the full 7.1 over PCM

[adrianstealth]

UPDATE :



thanks for replies

I'm trying to obviously go in the best configuration for an overall quality sound
there seems to be a lot of conflicting information & opinions
so I've decided to sit down at a few hours at a time and run some tests


i was up until about 3am last night fiddling with my setup

this is my gear :

PC with high end sound card asus d2x ( a new addition to my projector room )
denon av amp ( avr-3803 ) ( my trusty amp ive now had a while )
kef egg 7.1 speaker system (looking to add a 2nd sub)

I'm waiting for a connector for the sound card so I can run optical out from it to the amp,
(think the sound card came with one but I've lossed it ! )

so in the meantime I tried using multipul (RCA? -standard phono I think they are called)
to the various external inputs of the amp ( front left front right centre/sub rear sides etc)
& have set the amp up in a pretty much "direct" state

the results were breath taking ( testing with higher bit rate Dolby digital / dts demos off their site )

I was (at last) getting a great balance between bass / different channels using hifi-movie presets in the asus software, never would have believed that a pc would be a way to go for a cinema room
(great 1080p & seamless menus etc in xbmc )

I did fresh win7 install onto a solid state hard drive & also put xbmc on this too
from button press to xbmc menu ready 24 seconds (set xbmc to auto load on boot)

a great way to use an older pc ( but install a high end sound card + solid state drive advised ! )

when my connector gets delivered I'll test with allowing the amp to decode as opposed to the d2x sound card

I've previously used a Bluray player then an Apple TV 1 then a 3 on my sound/visual setup & the pc in both sound & visual quality is blowing them both away (to my surprise ) again please bear in mind I'm testing using approved 1080p Dolby digital & DTS demos

***************the question here I gues is :

in my case (with my kit) is a high end pc sound card with latest software drivers & config unitlity (for setting up for output / my size of room / speaker set ) BETTER or WORSE than allowing a decently rated (was great reviews when I purchased but this was about 7 years ago) AV amp at handling / decoding etc audio media coding/files



I'll report back when I try the other options (when connector shows up)

in the meantime any info / opinion any one has ....please post !!!! (-;

[00b5]

I use one of these for my older non HDMI avr (older Sony, I'm just too lazy/cheap to replace it).

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=10...1&format=2

Works with my Pi, worked on a laptop hdmi, DTV receiver, Tivo (that replaced my DTV), etc.

Passes DD and DTS into a format the recevier is happy with, full 5.1

[malcolmbarr]

adrianstealth

If your Denon Av amp is 7 years old, is it even able to decode all the new HD 7.1 formats anyway?

I guess the answer to your question about whether the PC sound card or the Denon AMP will sound better would depend (a) on which has the digital to analogue to conversion which sounds good to you, and (b) which offers any settings which you like to use which are not simply a "flat" presentation of the original audio.

I have a Yamaha RX1010 which got good reviews a while back, but when I use it for 2-channel music purposes I don't particularly like the way its digital to analogue conversion sounds. But when it comes to home theatre sound playback, I don't think I am alone in being lazy in that it is just a lot easier to send the data via HDMI to AV amp and let it handle both the decoding and ampolification, rather than having to pipe all the audio in analogue multichannel to the amp. If you like the way the Asus card sounds, then it seems to me that you are all set.

[malcolmbarr]

Your Asus card is using Burr-Brown PCM1796 chips for the digital to analogue conversion, and these are often thought to be decent.

[Sunflux]

SPDIF is limited to 2 pcm channels, can only do AC3 and DTS. Most of those are furthermore limited to 48 khz.

I would not go with SPDIF.

However, the only higher quality sound formats he would be missing out on are Dolby TrueHD, and 7.1 LPCM. Chances are, the ability to have his receiver handle bass management and matrix everything up to 7.1 is more valuable than two formats he admittedly probably doesn't even have any examples of.

Now, if Kodi knew how to decode DTS HD Master, then maybe there might be a reason to want it to do the decoding (hint hint!)

[Stereodude]

Now, if Kodi knew how to decode DTS HD Master, then maybe there might be a reason to want it to do the decoding (hint hint!)

I think you're hinting to the wrong people. I believe FFMPEG has to add it before Kodi will get the capability.

[adrianstealth]

hi all

got it all working like a dream, the separate outputs from the PC Card ( d2x ) sounded great

but I think I'm going to stick with optical out now,
the sound quality seems as good, but the amp decoding & handling stuff seems a bit more movie sound friendly,
eg it's much easier/quicker to find a sweet spot -hardly surprising really as av amps are setup soley for this job

I still think I'm benefiting from a high end PC Card though -the cards software is still playing some part
(I've keep most thing to default ....no effects etc)

with the PC Card the thx sound test really did do 7.1 channel separate & from the correct speakers etc
the amp I think uses some trickery for the side speakers ( the amp is denon avr-3803 & is DTS ES & Dolby digital ES ) as rips are always dts or Dolby digital then it's not a a worry

either way I'm extremely happy to get much better sound using my pc as a sound source as it's noticeably better quality than my previous sources : high quality DVD player / Apple tv 1 / Apple TV 3