Not necessarily. If you have a good setup (like a HTPC or a Blu-Ray drive) and want to send DTS-HD or True-HD to your receiver over HDMI you won't be able to do it without bitstreaming support, therefore it's necessary is some situations. It's also good for lossless audio formats like FLAC.for the curious... no bitstreaming means a max of 5.1 surround, no 7.1 surround sound available without bitstreaming. and it means non lossless audio (which honestly, you probably can't hear the difference)
Despite you saying "not necessarily", this in no way shape or form contradicts what I said. The end result of what you described is a max of 5.1 surround, and no lossless audio. exactly what i said. DTS-HD and True-HD allow 7.1 surround and lossless audio.Not necessarily. If you have a good setup (like a HTPC or a Blu-Ray drive) and want to send DTS-HD or True-HD to your receiver over HDMI you won't be able to do it without bitstreaming support, therefore it's necessary is some situations. It's also good for lossless audio formats like FLAC.
Huh? PCM over HDMI works with multiple speakers, lossless or not. You don't need bitstreaming support to get 7.1 output. Reread what you originally posted, it's confusing.Despite you saying "not necessarily", this in no way shape or form contradicts what I said. The end result of what you described is a max of 5.1 surround, and no lossless audio. exactly what i said. DTS-HD and True-HD allow 7.1 surround and lossless audio.
Huh? PCM over HDMI works with multiple speakers, lossless or not. You don't need bitstreaming support to get 7.1 output. Reread what you originally posted, it's confusing.
wikipedia said:DTS-HD Master Audio may be transported to AV receivers in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channels, at lossless quality, in one of three ways depending on player and/or receiver support[4]:
Over 6, 7 or 8 RCA connectors as analog audio, using the player's internal decoder and digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
Over HDMI 1.1 (or higher) connections as 6-, 7- or 8-channel linear PCM, using the player's decoder and the AV receiver's DAC.
Over HDMI 1.3 (or higher) connections as the original DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream, with decoding and DAC both done by the AV receiver.
I can get audio from the HDMI of my GT240, but in software I have to change the default audio output device from my mobo's onboard audio to the Nvidia device as you can't have multiple audio devices outputting sound at the same time in Windows 7. Very annoying.
according to the anandtech article I read, you do need bitstreaming and DTS-HD MA or True-HD for 7.1 over HDMI.
What I said isn't confusing at all, it is wrong though (not my fault, the article was wrong and I just repeated it).
It is possible to do so via PCM. This means that DTS-HD MA, True-HD, and bit-streaming provide even less benefit. Because PCM is lossless digital and allows 7.1 over HDMI...
here is a related forum discussion: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=832787
The issue is that due to space constraints (PCM files are too big) all PCM files included by studios are actually of reduced quality (to cut it down to about 6GB @ 3 hours instead of 12GB it will take for the master quality). DTS-HD MA on the other hand lets you get the master quality @ the same 6GB thanks to better lossless compression.
So ideally you want a disk with DTS-HD MA or Dolby True-HD data on it... BUT, you don't need to have any special support in your video card.
According to wikipedia:
What does that mean? it means that if you have HDMI 1.1 (or higher), then the only thing bitstreaming does is slightly reduce your CPU and RAM usage.
without bitstreaming, your player will convert the DTS-HD MA stream into PCM (lossless to lossless conversion, no data is lost) and send it digitally over the HDMI link, it will do up to 7.1 surround with no problems.
with bitstreaming, your player will send DTS-HD MA stream as is over the HDMI link, to be processed by the sound AV receiver.
So, the only thing you gain is a slight reduction in CPU and RAM utilization, hurray! useful only if you are playing on an underpowered HTPC, anything with a proper CPU and enough RAM doesn't need it.
The nvidia GTX460 is the only card that can do bitstreaming: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1360/2/ , not even the GTx465 can do it. The article that you read misinformed you. I have the 460 and get a DD True-Hd single from the card. I am not sure yet if the GTX560 will support bitstreaming but i would imagine it would.
My 9600GT does this as well. I have to manually select HDMI audio via the audio control panel. I generally disable the television from Nvidia control panel as well though until I'm ready to use it, so selecting HDMI audio isn't terribly inconvenient, but yeah it would be nice if the audio outputted to multiple devices.I can get audio from the HDMI of my GT240, but in software I have to change the default audio output device from my mobo's onboard audio to the Nvidia device as you can't have multiple audio devices outputting sound at the same time in Windows 7. Very annoying.
Hmmm. Do the NVidia 9800 GTs support sound-out on their HDMI port? (I know I'm reaching here...) I;m asking because I just scored one for $40 on Craig's List for basic output and testing on my new rig (higher-end card has to come later) and it'll be going into a new LG display.
My 9600GT does support sound via HDMI. I use the spdif cable from mobo to video card. Since the card only has DVI ouputs, a DVI-->HDMI adapter is necessary.
RF should have no affect on Digital Audio.
My card actually has an HDMI port! (EVGA model.)
I can get audio from the HDMI of my GT240, but in software I have to change the default audio output device from my mobo's onboard audio to the Nvidia device as you can't have multiple audio devices outputting sound at the same time in Windows 7. Very annoying.
A question I didn't see asked here. Is the audio processing on video cards produce as good or better quality than on-board audio chip (ie. Realtek)? How about comparing to dedicated sound card?