Sunday, January 17, 2010

Audio output options for HTPC

With a HTPC, audio output can be a little confusing with so many types of sound output ports. Firstly, there are the regular analog speaker output ( Left, Right, Central/Subwoofer/Rear Left & Rear Right ). We usually only use the audio out to PC speakers. With a HTPC, there are a few more options to choose from..




There are the S/PDIF compressed digital audio ports that comes in two flavors, optical TOSLINK and copper version in RCA connector ( usually orange in colour ). S/PDIF is a method for DVD players to send compressed audio like DTS or Dolby Digital  to your AV receiver to decode them.

Since HTPC are usually placed in the living room together with an AV Receiver, the best method to output the audio would be S/PDIF to the AV receiver similar like a DVD/BD player.



There is new method to output BOTH audio & video called HDMI. This is somehow electrical compatible with the DVI video signal. That is why you see some graphic cards some with DVI ports with HDMI converter. HDMI carry high bandwidth and only requires 1 cable to do the job.



Now with three methods to output the sound from the HTPC, it would be a little confusing especially to the software running in the operating system. Some software will use the default method from Windows Control Panel and some software can be configured directly where to output the sound to.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 22, 2010 at 2:10 PM

    just want to add that the power supply unit in a htpc is quite critical. i've been using an elcheapo psu and was having hdmi problems when the htpc is connected to my projector (via long hdmi cable!). on sat, finally upgraded to a coolmax 460W psu - and presto...hdmi issues went away

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  2. AnonymousMarch 23, 2010 at 7:04 PM

    Guys, is there anyway to output both analog (stereo) and digital audio (DD/DTS) via onboard realtek sound device, or even stereo on HDMI and DD/DTS on S/PDIF simultaneously?
    I am using Win 7 and it only allows me to choose one device at one time (ie speaker, HDMI auiod or HD Audio). Found modded Realtek driver for vista but only output stereo on both speaker and s/pdif.
    Another problem, play mkv file with DD/DTS and output to LCD TV via HDMI (ATI HD5770) (format set stereo) get "repeating" and unclear sound. Anyone facing that?

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  3. AnonymousMarch 25, 2010 at 11:11 PM

    m using vista and when i connect to my room tv using hdmi (sound set to optical out), i get no sound thru hdmi...only pictures. not sure if you can have both.....

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  4. AnonymousMarch 30, 2010 at 10:42 PM

    continue from March 23 post: i finally figured out what cause the "repeating" sound. I installed window7 codec from Shark007 which allowed windows media centre to play all kind of video format. I then installed Arcsoft Total Media Theatre 3 with SimHD (upscale video using GPU). The "repeating" sound on DTS/DD audio was due to incorrect setting of ffdshow. However, since SimHD not yet support ATI 5000 series, i decided to uninstall it and shark007 codec and switch to powerdvd 10 which play all video format and support ATI Stream for 5000 series. This time, without ffdshow, the DTS/DD output clearly in both HDMI & SPDIF (sorry, no simultaneously on both)
    As for switching audio device between HDMI & SPDIF, so far only can be done manually in Win7. However, i found a little useful utility called "vista audio changer" that allows you to create hotkey to instantly change audio device.
    Hope this will help for those having problem...

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  5. friexsOctober 20, 2011 at 4:58 PM

    Hi,
    i'm using coaxial output connected to my AVR, using WinXP. The length of cable is 5meter.
    Which sampling rate should i use in Realtek audio properties?
    i tried 96khz, the audio seem to on and off. it seems like the AVR lost sync with the HTPC. But when i use 48khz, i able to stream audio smoothly. Can someone enlight me why is this happen? Or anybody here also face the similar issue as mine?

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