2014-12-23, 18:45
I've had a sound quality question for a long time - can't quite figure out why the difference.
My setup - Old Acer Aspire Revo as HTPC (yes - I need something new) running XBMCBUNTU Gotham. Connected via HDMI to Denon receiver -> Speakers + TV. Movie and TV audio is perfect and of excellent quality, but my problem arises with music playback. XBMC audio from my library plays fine and sounds decent when piped from Revo to receiver via HDMI. But when I use UPNP (Bubble) via my phone to stream from same library directly to the Denon, WOW - sound is startlingly better. There is no comparison to be made - the UPNP stream blows the XBMC audio out of the water. My confusion is this: Doesn't HDMI send uncompressed digital audio directly to the receiver? Shouldn't what arrives at the receiver via XBMC or via DLNA essentially be the exact same thing? Why is there such a huge difference in quality? The receiver is doing the digital to analog in both cases right? Or am I missing something fundamental in the audio transfer? Is the Revo the weak link? I would just use the DLNA all the time, but then I don't have all the pretty pictures that I worked so hard on - and really, that's why we all spend so much time getting the library right in the first place.
My setup - Old Acer Aspire Revo as HTPC (yes - I need something new) running XBMCBUNTU Gotham. Connected via HDMI to Denon receiver -> Speakers + TV. Movie and TV audio is perfect and of excellent quality, but my problem arises with music playback. XBMC audio from my library plays fine and sounds decent when piped from Revo to receiver via HDMI. But when I use UPNP (Bubble) via my phone to stream from same library directly to the Denon, WOW - sound is startlingly better. There is no comparison to be made - the UPNP stream blows the XBMC audio out of the water. My confusion is this: Doesn't HDMI send uncompressed digital audio directly to the receiver? Shouldn't what arrives at the receiver via XBMC or via DLNA essentially be the exact same thing? Why is there such a huge difference in quality? The receiver is doing the digital to analog in both cases right? Or am I missing something fundamental in the audio transfer? Is the Revo the weak link? I would just use the DLNA all the time, but then I don't have all the pretty pictures that I worked so hard on - and really, that's why we all spend so much time getting the library right in the first place.
