Motherboard or card for HTPC that does 5.1

1463 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Ace of Spades, Nov 23, 2009

Sistum Id

Discussion Starter · Nov 23, 2009

I built my HTPC back in Febuary and its been running fine ever since. I recentally bought a new AVR due to the lack of no HDMI ports on my old Sony AVR. Now I have a Onkyo with 5 HDMI ports. I hook my PS3, 360, STB, and HTPC to the Onkyo and than out to my TV via hdmi.

So I'm on my HTPC trying to set my sound out and turns out I'm not getting any sound from my rear speakers. Turns out my motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-US2H) only does 2 channel output via HDMI.

From the manual

Quote:

Please note the HDMI audio output only supports AC3, DTS and 2-channel-LPCM
formats. (AC3 and DTS require the use of an external decoder for decoding.)

So now its either ditch the motherboard (micro ATX) for one that does 5.1 no problems via HDMI or a video card (passive cooled, low wattage) that does 5.1 hdmi no problems.

Any recommendations?

And please, please let me know if I'm wrong because I've tried everything and its only the fronts and center that have sound come out but fine with the toslink. I've checked all thought the sound settings.

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Tator Tot

· #2 · Nov 23, 2009

I would pick up an MSI HD3450 for $35, Free shipping, + $10 MIR.

You are kind of limited on the AMD side for motherboards that do 5.1 via HDMI with the IGP.

The Geforce 8000 boards do though. But the cheapest you are getting away with that is This Zotac GF8200 $55 w/$20 MIR + Shipping.

So the dedicated card is a better choice.

Though, why not look into a better sound card instead?
They can be quite expensive, but I think they can be well worth it. The quality compared to the ATi or nVidia solution is much better, and you can transfer it over to any other rig in the future.

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EvilGenius007

· #3 · Nov 23, 2009

Can't you just use the S/PDIF optical (Toslink) connection off of the motherboard? The integrated Realtek sound should be capable of doing 7.1 surround. Alternatively, if you want to go the cheap route but insist on carrying audio over HDMI you could use any stand-alone Radeon HD5xxx/4xxx/3xxx card or GeForce 9xxx/2xx card with an HDMI port. (The GeForce card would require an internal cable to the S/PDIF header on the mobo to be connected to the vid card).

If you want to go with a sound card carrying audio over HDMI, you're looking at the Asus Xonar line. The HDAV1.3 Slim is the probably the best of those for HTPC use.

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Stevo

· #4 · Nov 23, 2009

Yeah what evil said. Just buy an optical cable and you should be good to go. Easier to just go with the spdif then get new hardware. Just have to set digital out as your default and you should be good to go. Minor tweaks for your codecs but thats about it.

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craigap

· #5 · Nov 23, 2009

What media are you playing from your HTPC that you aren't getting sound to the rear speakers using HDMI?

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DuckieHo

· #6 · Nov 23, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by craigap

What media are you playing from your HTPC that you aren't getting sound to the rear speakers using HDMI?

The motherboard cannot pass 5.1 audio via the onboard HDMI. It's a hardware limitation.

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craigap

· #7 · Nov 23, 2009

It can if its coded in DTS or AC3

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Ace of Spades

· #8 · Nov 23, 2009

Quote:

Please note the HDMI audio output only supports AC3, DTS and 2-channel-LPCM
formats. (AC3 and DTS require the use of an external decoder for decoding.)

That means films encoded in DTS will be played as 5.1 through your amp.

There was a few drivers around for teh sound blaster series so it would encode all the normal 5.1 sounds into a dts stream which could be sent to the amp. Thus allowing 5.1 sound.

I however just use an optical link from my USB Sound Blaster (laptop is my main pc :s), then i can run all my HD films and 5.1 sound, 7.1 through my ps3, and games on my 360

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