quality sound card or Gefen HDMI detective plus?

[EmirOfGroofunkistan]

Well, here's where I am. If I use HDMI to my AV (marantz) I will be able to get multi channel sound to work. But, I also get HDCP issues if I need to change to a different input or turn the tv and a/v off. If I hook up sound from my motherboard using the optical connection, I am not able to get multichannel sound working.

The way I see it I have two options. I could either keep using the hdmi cable and buy the geffen HDMI detective plus -or- I could try to buy a nice sound card and hook the sound up using the optical connection. Does anyone have an opinion which way I should go? Does anyone use a dedicated sound card?

[barnabas1969]

Lots of people have HDCP issues. The first thing I can recommend is to make sure you turn on the TV first, then the AVR, and finally the PC. If this doesn't solve your HDCP handshake issues, then the next thing to try is all combination of inputs. For example, start with TV input #1, and then change through all the inputs on your AVR. If none of those combinations solves your problem, then use TV input #2, and cycle through all of the AVR inputs again. Do this until you've gone through all possible input combinations. This means that if your TV has 4 inputs, and your AVR has 4 inputs, you'll go through 16 combinations before you are finished. I know it's a big pain in the arse, but that's just the way it goes.

[crawfish]

Well, here's where I am. If I use HDMI to my AV (marantz) I will be able to get multi channel sound to work. But, I also get HDCP issues if I need to change to a different input or turn the tv and a/v off. If I hook up sound from my motherboard using the optical connection, I am not able to get multichannel sound working.

The way I see it I have two options. I could either keep using the hdmi cable and buy the geffen HDMI detective plus -or- I could try to buy a nice sound card and hook the sound up using the optical connection. Does anyone have an opinion which way I should go? Does anyone use a dedicated sound card?

Why can't you get multichannel sound using the motherboard optical out? The default Windows driver should be all you need. I always recommend connecting the video card to the TV for video and the mobo S/PDIF to the receiver for audio. This is all I've ever done, and I've never had any HDCP issues, weird power on/off or input switching order issues, problems with audio, etc. I get DD and DTS 5.1 audio on Denon and Pioneer receivers without any problems at all using optical or coax out on mobos with Realtek and VIA audio chipsets, using Windows default drivers for each.

[.Nico]

I too am using SP/DIF from my mobo to my Marantz without any problems. Make sure you set the windows sound settings to stereo and through media center you should have 5.1 to your Marantz.

.Nico

[newfiend]

Optical works great. The only Thing you will loose would be the HD audio codec's DTS-HD and True-HD. if you have a blu-ray player and want to bitstream the HD audio you would need to use HDMI and a Geffen HDMI Detective. It will depend on what your goals are and how much codec support you want. Personally I use the HDMI out on my NVIDIA GT430 to my AVR and HDMI from AVR to TV without any issues and I get all the audio codecs supported as well as the HD audio.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[newfiend]

Not sure why your not getting surround sound through optical off your mainboard.. Did you install the audio drivers for your motherboard? Or does it just not work?

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[EmirOfGroofunkistan]

Lots of people have HDCP issues. The first thing I can recommend is to make sure you turn on the TV first, then the AVR, and finally the PC. If this doesn't solve your HDCP handshake issues, then the next thing to try is all combination of inputs. For example, start with TV input #1, and then change through all the inputs on your AVR. If none of those combinations solves your problem, then use TV input #2, and cycle through all of the AVR inputs again. Do this until you've gone through all possible input combinations. This means that if your TV has 4 inputs, and your AVR has 4 inputs, you'll go through 16 combinations before you are finished. I know it's a big pain in the arse, but that's just the way it goes.

I didn't realize different inputs may give me different results. I'll run through what I have to see if any of them behaves better, thanks.

[EmirOfGroofunkistan]

I understand HDCP is evil. I had a workable solution while routing sound through my optical cable and hdmi video directly to the tv. But I recently upgraded speakers to include a sub. I'm not sure why I could not get multichannel sound through my optical connection. The only sound options available were http://sdrv.ms/NfzrRg - however using hdmi I'm able to see the ones I expect http://sdrv.ms/NkwISR. It's probably a driver issue or motherboard setting that I haven't been able to track down I guess. I got frustrated so I just switched to using the hdmi to a/v which I knew would work. Except it has its own issues. I'm trying to get the best of both with the least amount of effort - I have kids and not many hours of "free time" to spend on a solution.

If I'm not able to find an input combination that solves the hdcp issue, I'll try using the optical connection again.

[crawfish]

I understand HDCP is evil. I had a workable solution while routing sound through my optical cable and hdmi video directly to the tv. But I recently upgraded speakers to include a sub. I'm not sure why I could not get multichannel sound through my optical connection. The only sound options available were http://sdrv.ms/NfzrRg - however using hdmi I'm able to see the ones I expect http://sdrv.ms/NkwISR. It's probably a driver issue or motherboard setting that I haven't been able to track down I guess. I got frustrated so I just switched to using the hdmi to a/v which I knew would work. Except it has its own issues. I'm trying to get the best of both with the least amount of effort - I have kids and not many hours of "free time" to spend on a solution.

If I'm not able to find an input combination that solves the hdcp issue, I'll try using the optical connection again.

The first dialog is normal, and the second one won't be available when you're using S/PDIF as it's just a passthrough connection. You don't need the second one when using optical. Try this. Download and install VLC. While playing a file, make sure Audio->Audio Device is set to "A/52 over S/PDIF". Then look at your receiver to verify that Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS are coming through as expected for files using those formats. This is how my system works, and I use the default Windows driver for audio. When you're at the desktop, in iTunes, etc, your receiver is going to show a 2 channel format by default. Only when you're playing a multichannel source through a program that passes the audio will you see the multichannel indicators light up on your receiver. These programs include Media Center, VLC, foobar2000, and others.

[barnabas1969]

OK, well, I'll say this...

If you don't care about playing BluRay movies on your PC (and getting lossless HD audio formats), then you should be able to use optical digital audio. Make sure, after you connect your optical/coax audio cable, to go through Media Center's "Setup my speakers" wizard in the settings menu. Media Center's audio setup is separate from Windows' audio setup. In fact, it is recommended to setup Windows in stereo, and Media Center in 5.1.

But, if you DO care about playing BluRay movies on your PC, and you want to get lossless HD audio... then the first step is to make sure you turn things on in the correct sequence (TV first, AVR 2nd, and PC last).

Then, and only if neither of the above solutions works, should you go through the pain of trying all the different combinations of HDMI inputs.

[EmirOfGroofunkistan]

Well, I was finally able to get muli-channel sound through the optical connection. I had two issues. First, there was a motherboard setting that I had to enable and configure on the southbridge. And second, when I ran through the setup of my a/v it had set the front speakers to large size and full band range, which they are (tower speakers). The problem is with the main speakers set this way it didn't utilize the sub. So, I set the speaker size to small and suddenly the sub came to life. Thanks for pushing me to figure this out.

[crawfish]

Well, I was finally able to get muli-channel sound through the optical connection. I had two issues. First, there was a motherboard setting that I had to enable and configure on the southbridge. And second, when I ran through the setup of my a/v it had set the front speakers to large size and full band range, which they are (tower speakers). The problem is with the main speakers set this way it didn't utilize the sub. So, I set the speaker size to small and suddenly the sub came to life. Thanks for pushing me to figure this out.

Glad you figured it out. I have Denon and Pioneer receivers, and both Audyssey and MCACC detect my bookshelf speakers as large, which they are not. I always have to set them to small after the fact. I understand this is the right thing to do even when you have genuine large speakers. Just make sure all your speakers are set to small, including center and surrounds if present, set the crossover to a suitable level, probably 80 is fine, and you should be good to go.