Prelude 7.1 or B-Inspire

[SkankyHo]

Hi Guys,

In am in a quandary and would appreciate the advice of one more educated. I currently have two sound cards at hand and am not sure which to choose.

My rig consists on the usual suspects amd 4k, asus MB, 2 Gb ram etc and feeds through to my Onkyo 805 via optical. I have read a few thoughts on using the analog outs vs the digital and can't be ass'd finding the adapter for the analog outs.

Moving forward, I have these two cards as I brought the Prelude as a gaming card but now find my self on the PS3 more often than not.
I have the b-inspire as the incumbent but I was contemplating with the idea of swapping it out for the more hyped Prelude.

My main source of media is in the form of divx/ xvid with some having AC3. But lately I have obtained a few HD files and want to take advantage of the audio etc.

My current video card does not support HDMI, which i am looking to rectify by grabbing a Leadtek 9600GT 512M HDMI and connecting up the S/Pdif headers to transport the audio through the HDMI.
I plan on passing through the audio and for what I've read this would negate the need for either of these cards?

Anyway, I am sure I've babbled enough, however I would really appreciate your insight.

Evo

[nikko1974]

Skanky - haha there's a queston in there?

There seems to be a lot of different theories flying around about getting the best audio out from your HTPC - but the general opinion seems to be that if you can pass it out so that its kept in digital thats usually best.

Both because most people's receivers have better DAC's than their onboard/audio cards & also you don't bring into play the electrical interference that you'd get by using a soundcard and analogue outs.

I've tried to get to the bottom of this but 90% of people say SPDIF out (or HDMI if you have it) is best - no need for an onboard soundcard.

Hence as you've alluded to, both your soundcards will prolly be redundant.

You can always rig them up and see what sounds best to a neutral friend - as you'll prolly get a placebo effect yourself.

Let us know how you go.

[SkankyHo]

Originally Posted by nikko1974

Skanky - haha there's a queston in there?

There seems to be a lot of different theories flying around about getting the best audio out from your HTPC - but the general opinion seems to be that if you can pass it out so that its kept in digital thats usually best.

Both because most people's receivers have better DAC's than their onboard/audio cards & also you don't bring into play the electrical interference that you'd get by using a soundcard and analogue outs.

I've tried to get to the bottom of this but 90% of people say SPDIF out (or HDMI if you have it) is best - no need for an onboard soundcard.

Hence as you've alluded to, both your soundcards will prolly be redundant.

You can always rig them up and see what sounds best to a neutral friend - as you'll prolly get a placebo effect yourself.

Let us know how you go.

Thanks Nikko, I appreciate your thoughts.

At this stage I am a bit of a dufus when it comes to deciphering the jargon that floats around this forum, and with that, I am unsure what to (not to) install to get the best out of the MC.

I have read various posts including the best way to build your media centre etc, and now I am at the stage where I am deciding whether I go with XP or ****ta.

The current rig is XP and it runs ok, however I do run CCCP as when I install FFdshow alone I never seem to get full functionality when it comes to playing XVids etc.

I think that this long weekend may be a good time to rebuild the system, and if the advice points to ****ta I will pull it back off the shelf and run it up.

Anyway, hope all you people have a fine ANZAC day and don't spend too much cash on the 2UP.

Regards,
E

[nikko1974]

Hey......

I'm biased but I think MCE2005 is very good - seems folks have a lot of probs with Vista and well it just seems by the time they get it stable Windows 7 will be out! So why bother.

On your HTPC you really don't want to run FFDSHOW with any other codec packs if you can avoid it. All I have is the an OGG one that also does FLAC - and also CoreAVC for H264....otherwise FFDSHOW does the lot - PureVideo for MPEG2.

A dedicated HTPC is far easier to make than a part time HTPC that also has loads of other stuff on it - MCE2005 is a very good performer but has a temper.

Good luck, cheers.

[ExtremePC]

Optical out is NOT capable of outputting 7.1 digital audio, HD Audio, DTS-HD, DTS Master Audio or any other HD audio format. The only thing that will is HDMI, however there are currently no PC peripherals capable of outputting any of the above mentioned via HDMI.

For PC output that leaves the only 5.1 compressed audio formats via optical or analog. There is absolutely no 7.1 content available on any format that a PC is capable of producing via optical or HDMI.