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markcu
13th June 2008, 09:45
Apologies if this has been seen elsewhere, but this article may be of interest.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3328

looks like this will bitstream DTS-MA (and others) AND comes with ATM which will play unprotected disks (blu-ray and HD-DVD) from the HD......
Adbear
13th June 2008, 10:41
Will be of no use to me if it can only work properly with Arcsoft's crappy playback software, I'm still waiting for them to sort out a version that doesn't cause my systems to lock up and crash
kdssrugby
13th June 2008, 11:17
Ya, a similar story was posted a few weeks ago, and as much as I would love to ge it, from what I gather from the specs on Asus`website, it is PCI-Ex1, and my mobo doesn t have that, so I ll likely have upgrade the mobo or wait for a PCI version from Auzentech.
DigiMagic
13th June 2008, 11:38
I am not going to give another 1000-2000$ - already having perfectly capable 24/192 7.1 soundcard and receiver - just for the sake of DRM :mad:

I'll stick to PowerDVD as it is now (and upgrade to SlySoft player, if/when it comes out).
markcu
13th June 2008, 12:46
Adbear,

ATM works ok for me, but I see your point.

KdsRugby.

Yes I agree having to upgrade the mobo would be bad. I'm lucky that I have a spare slot.

Digimagic.

I thought that PDVD downsampled the audio, so this wouldn't only get around the DRM issues, but also allow the output of full uncompressed audio as
opposed to what comes out of PDVD. This also looks like it will play HD-DVD, and PDVD 8 has (not insumountable) issues with that.

And lastly I would personally rather my reciever did the decoding than a PC sound card if I had the choice. (in reality I do both, Auzentec sound card in the PC in the study, and Rx-v3800 in the lounge)

If this really does end up being $1000-2000$ then it will never be a winner, but I might pay 150.00 GBP for it.

But I think the point a was trying to make (albeit badly) was that this might be the final piece of the puzzle in terms of getting the same functionality out of a PC as you can from a standalone player.

(yes I know a PC will do more than a stand alone player but hopefully you see where I'm coming from.)
hlkc
13th June 2008, 12:50
Here is my position with this card perhaps with this game...

In the near future I will get the 4850 and see how it plays out. I hope it will do 8 channels bit-stream if so, I will hold on and not getting this card. If not, I will 100% sure that I will get this card and give TMT a try. But before I install this card, I will clone my OS HDD in case anything goes wrong then I can turn back with PDVD. I also have an instance that after TMT installed everything was not working...
DigiMagic
13th June 2008, 16:16
But I think the point a was trying to make (albeit badly) was that this might be the final piece of the puzzle in terms of getting the same functionality out of a PC as you can from a standalone player.

(yes I know a PC will do more than a stand alone player but hopefully you see where I'm coming from.)

You are right, and indeed this is very helpful information for someone planning to assemble a HTPC. I would also guess you could be right about the price.

I thought about higher cost if Asus' soundcard does not decode audio, but instead just passes undecoded digital bitstream to receiver. I couldn't quite understand what are card's capabilities from AnandTech article. If it really doesn't do decoding, then one also needs to get appropriate external decoder/receiver.

PDVD does downsample, but despite that sounds quite impressive. Unfortunately this situation is entirely analogous to one with HDCP - a "protection" that really doesn't protect anything (as we all know :) ), and just wants to force people to abandon perfectly good equipment in favor of new and "improved" one.
markcu
13th June 2008, 17:26
Yes, I point blank refuse to ditch the two dell monitors I have in my study that dont support HDCP. why would I? afterall they are perfectly good and hopefully will be for a while. Anydvd sorts out the HDCP issues for me perfectly fine.

In the lounge however I have an HTPC and now a blu-ray player. The player does an awesome job of DTS MA and that sounds very different to me than what I get out of the htpc. The down side is that the blu-ray player wont play Region A disks, and also wont play HD-DVD's (obviously). So once the HTPC has the same abilities as the standalone players then for me thats the time to consider if I need the player and fully move to the HTPC solution.

It's so frustrating that high def on PC's is so close but just not quite there yet (IMHO)

On a side note, I'm surprised that no one yet produces a 'blu/hd-dvd player on a card' that just has one hdmi port that does it all, and of course it would be fanless, and of course it would only be 20.00 GBP and of course it would work flawlessly and of course it would come with a decent player.........you get the idea :agree:
Zeratul
13th June 2008, 17:30
YI'm surprised that no one yet produces a 'blu/hd-dvd player on a card' that just has one hdmi port that does it all, and of course it would be fanless, and of course it would only be 20.00 GBP and of course it would work flawlessly and of course it would come with a decent player.........you get the idea :agree:

perhaps bundled with anydvdhd? 8) :D
markcu
17th June 2008, 08:56
http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php

Looks like Auzentechs card has now finaly arrived :)8)
markcu
17th June 2008, 08:58
The latest in a long line of breakthrough soundcards from Auzentech, the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 outputs a bitstream of high-definition, multichannel audio from Blu-ray or HD movies with no downsampling, to take full advantage of lossless digital audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.



Very Excited!!!!!!8)
hlkc
17th June 2008, 10:32
The latest in a long line of breakthrough soundcards from Auzentech, the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 outputs a bitstream of high-definition, multichannel audio from Blu-ray or HD movies with no downsampling, to take full advantage of lossless digital audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.



Very Excited!!!!!!8)

Same deal as Asus HDMI sound card here (http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=11638), the different is Asus will use TMT and ATI and Auzentech will use PDVD and NVIDIA.
markcu
17th June 2008, 13:42
which is fine as I use PDVD ( :( ) and Nvidia, just a shame I'll have to wait until september..... :bang:
hlkc
17th June 2008, 14:03
which is fine as I use PDVD ( :( ) and Nvidia, just a shame I'll have to wait until september..... :bang:

Good for you but I like ATI better. My wish list will be PDVD ATI before TMT ATI.
markcu
17th June 2008, 16:59
With the auzentech card you could still use ATI, take the output from the graphics card, and feed it in to the auzentech card, then take the output from that and take it to your amp.

It wont matter if it's NVIDA, ATI, or anyone else.
hlkc
17th June 2008, 17:06
With the auzentech card you could still use ATI, take the output from the graphics card, and feed it in to the auzentech card, then take the output from that and take it to your amp.

It wont matter if it's NVIDA, ATI, or anyone else.

I thought about that and I sure will do that too. I just not so sure since they said it will add some deep color there and not sure if I do that it will do that or not. But it looks like this is the one I want and like to keep. Unfortunately it will come out the last after 4XXX and Asus :(
markcu
11th September 2008, 08:36
So the ASUS card has now beel released. Has anyone tried it yet? Does anyone know if it works with PDVD?

Cheers.
markcu
3rd October 2008, 08:31
http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php#hdmi_lineup

So it looks like Auzentech have shelved their initial plan, but are releasing a different stand alone card. I suspect this is more like the Ausus Xonar card that has just been released.