Auzen HDMI 1.3 board PICs & Info!!

[Robscix]

Here are the Pics of the new HDMI 1.3 board from Auzentech.

Looks very cool to me. Auzen is pushing the bar again. There is a Video input from your HDMI/DVI GFX card to integrate

with the audio so both are available over the HDMI cable. I will also note many of the current HDMI 1.3 solution available on the market ONLY offer plain SPDIF output formats and resolutions. The Auzen board offer new high resolution formats

The Auzen X-Tension HDMI 1.3 supports LPCM such as:
8-channel Audio : DTS HD, Dolby® Digital Plus, Dolby® True HD, Dolby Digital,
DVD-Audio, LPCM 8-channel
IEC60958(S/PDIF) : 2-channel PCM (up to 192kHz)
IEC61937 Compressed audio : Dolby® Digital, DTS digital audio

Press Release form Auzentech 01.06.2008

See Auzentech's HDMI X-Tension and X-Fi Prelude at CES

Santa Clara, CA - January 6, 2008: Auzentech, Inc. Auzentech announces today the demonstration of
an early version of its forhtcoming HDMI X-Tension at CES 2008 in the Creative Labs booth..

"The sample to be displayed is a prototype, the first-of-its-kind, and provides a glimpse at one of the products
online for 2008," said Auzentech President Stephane Bae.
A sample of HDMI X-Tension benefits are listed below:

• A single HDMI cable can be connected with External devices like Digital TV or Receiver
• High compatibility with various external/internal devices by multi-Input selection (4 input).
• Compatibility with Desktop/HTPC/Slim PC (with Standard/LP bracket)
• Supports the next generation of Audio format (Dolby True HD/DTS HD)
• Swift and stable hardware installation without any installation of related software.
• Wide connectivity using the SPDIF Combo Output port.*
• Support for HDMI 1.3 and earlier receivers

* The SPDIF Input port on the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 is not available with Auzen X-Tension HDMI1.3.

Release of the HDMI X-tension is planned for Q2 of 2008

For more information or live demonstrations of the HDMI X-tension and X-Fi Prelude, visit Auzentech at the
Creative Labs booth (South Hall 3, #30642) during the CES 2008. CES is in Las Vegas from January 7 to 10

As always we will keep this thread updated with new information related to this product.

[Cheator]

cool! Thats a great idea.

[Cptn Vortex]

That's pretty sweet.

[Mitsuko Aninikkou]

Hmm, I'm curious about this.. I'm afraid I don't understand the idea behind it. Okay, so you've got your elite Auzentech Prelude and your massive Full-HD LCD.. but you're sending the sound to its crappy, bass-deprived speakers? Why not hook the soundcard up to your nice aftermarket speakers directly via analogue, optical or whatever? I could see this as an option if you don't care much about sound but you want to setup a relatively cheap solution with your PC and telly, but the Auzentech Prelude itself isn't exactly cheap, and this'll only add to that ... and why get the soundcard at all if you're not going to use good speakers?

I imagine I'm missing some crucial point here, and I am interested in why this is such a popular request, so I wanted to throw it out here: can someone tell me what the point is to getting this card?

[Robscix]

No, no your confused. Many new receivers have BOTH sound and video routings so while your DVI stream from the HDMI cable is routed to your TV the audio from the cable is routed to your nice HDMI ready surround sound system.

For example:

The reason to go HDMI 1.3 is the newer audio standards and newer compatible gear like high end receivers etc. giving your Prelude the ability to pass: DTS HD, Dolby® Digital Plus, Dolby® True HD, Dolby Digital, DVD-Audio, LPCM 8-channel


Alternately you could just use this card to connect to a HDMI ready sound system. Does this info help answer your questions?

[Mitsuko Aninikkou]

Thank you for the reply, it does clear things up a bit. Are all of these techniques only available through HDMI, or is HDMI simply the only port you're likely to find on all high-end speaker systems to support them?

[Robscix]

-These standards are new and found on HDMI ready receivers. If they are available through analog I haven't seen any examples of it yet. Some of those listed standards are NOT compressed and are very high resolution and should give audio quality never available before on the PC. Glad I could help.

[ocxTas]

I still don't get it...why can't you do the same by pulling the HDMI cable from the GFX to the TV and a separate SPDIF to the AV receiver?
Does the HDMI on the GFX only include picture or does it also include sound?

As far as I could see, the card only has HDMI and SPDIF/optical inputs, so all the sound formats has to come from one of those inputs... which one?

Thanks!

[Cheator]

Originally Posted by ocxTas

I still don't get it...why can't you do the same by pulling the HDMI cable from the GFX to the TV and a separate SPDIF to the AV receiver?
Does the HDMI on the GFX only include picture or does it also include sound?

As far as I could see, the card only has HDMI and SPDIF/optical inputs, so all the sound formats has to come from one of those inputs... which one?

Thanks!

Many video cards out there don't do audio through HDMI, only video. You can accomplish a similar result with SPDIF but this is so its only one cable.

All ATI cards from the 2x00 series on support audio in HDMI. I don't know what is going on with nvidia but I am under the impression that all of the 8x00 series don't do audio over HDMI (or only some of them do). the 9x00 series might be different.

[Robscix]

Originally Posted by ocxTas

I still don't get it...why can't you do the same by pulling the HDMI cable from the GFX to the TV and a separate SPDIF to the AV receiver?
Does the HDMI on the GFX only include picture or does it also include sound?

As far as I could see, the card only has HDMI and SPDIF/optical inputs, so all the sound formats has to come from one of those inputs... which one?

Thanks!

Not at all. S/PDIF standards are no where as high a quality as HDMI audio solutions. Some of the standards are high resolution lossless. This is the future of high res digital audio. Many of the HDMI solutions available now are meant more for GFX, and their audio standards are nothing more the S/PDIF standards in disguise.

The sound on the HDMI cards comes from the main card -either a Prelude or possibly a X-Meridian 7.1. They are sent through to this board for encoding to HDMI standards.
This card is used with another soundcard.... Hope that answer your questions.

[SKYMTL]

All 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2 cards can do audio through HDMI by way of an on-board SPDIF connector. The HD3...-series cards can do this as well but the decoding is done (I believe) by software instead of hardware.

[Robscix]

That is what I was getting at though. The standards are S/PDIF.....not TRUE HDMI. -Atleast this is the case in many of the newer products. They offer audio over the HDMI connector sure, It is not TRUE HDMI audio standards though. I hope that makes sense. HDMI is extremely high resolution, much higher quality sound then normal S/PDIF. Many of the newer products aren't offering true HDMI audio support yet.

[Oversized Rooster]

And what is this thing for exactly? I though Auzentech made sound cards.

And what is the HDMI for, when you can just output from your video card using a DVI to HDMI cable?

Sorry, I don't mean to sound un-excited. I just don't get what this thing is for.

[Robscix]

HDMI -Is NOT just video. This card is for outputing high definition audio standards to a receiver or other HDMI compatible device. The inclusion of the video input on this card just for ease of use as HDMI cables can transfer both audio and video signals to a device. HDMI audio offers many new output standards including DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Lossless, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD. Many of these newer audio formats are the state of the art in audio and will be used in Blu-ray and other media types. HDMI audio is considered the holly grail of digital audio_high resolution multi tracked lossless audio. Does this help excite you?

[ocxTas]

So... S/PDIF does not support the new high def audio standards like DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Lossless, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD. So the only way to get that signal digitally (or without pulling multiple analog cables) to the receiver is to use the Auzen HDMI 1.3 board which will get the audio signal from e.g. the Prelude sound card via the option board port(?) and encode that into the HDMI signal, which then in turn is sent to the AV receiver... right?