[mythtv-users] Possible to do HDMI audio with BFG GT 220 Rev B?

[Greg Zornetzer]

On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Justin The Cynical <
cynical at penguinness.org> wrote:

> Ozzy Lash wrote:
> > Fry's had a good deal (if the rebate comes through) on a BFG GT 220 1Gig
> > card.  Looking at the box it prominently said it had HDMI out, so I got
> > one.  When I got it home I noticed it had a DVI to HDMI adapter in the
> box,
> > and thought that was a bit strange, until I tried to plug an HDMI cable
> into
> > what I thought was the HDMI port built into the card.  I then realized
> that
> > the onboard ports are DVI, VGA, and Display Port.  So now I wonder if the
> > HDMI can carry sound since it is plugged into the DVI port through an
> > adapter.  The documentation that came with the board is pretty sparse,
> and
> > the BFG web site isn't a lot better. The Rev A version of the card did
> have
> > HDMI on the board instead of Display Port.
> >
> > It isn't a big deal, I can use the SPDIF out of the motherboard, just
> > curious more than anything.
>
> Nope.  DVI doesn't have the lines for audio, which electrically, is the
> only real difference between HDMI and DVI.
>
> I saw that card in the advert, and after I went looking at the specs on
> the BFG website, I decided against it (looking at the selection on
> newegg now, same cards, same 'out the door price', no need to drive a
> half hour to get it).  I'm glad I did now with what you have reported.
>
> Keep in mind that from what I have been able to find online, the NVidia
> cards can not bitstream DTS HD or Dolby True HD, but convert it to 7.1
> LPCM, quite like the 'fat' PS3.  Somewhat frustrating as the current
> batch of ATI cards can bitstream the HD audio.  Might be an issue for
> you if you are watching anything with those audio codecs on your myth
> system.
>
> Well, not necessarily.  My motherboard came with a DVI out and a DVI-HDMI
converter.  When the converter is used, one can indeed send audio over the
link.  I would guess that the BFG card in question is also capable of this,
but you can't be sure without trying.

As for the DTS-HD and TrueHD support, it is true that on windows the new ATI
hardware supports bitstreaming these protocols.  Can the ATI linux driver
(and a current mplayer) support this?  I haven't heard that native
bitstreaming of these protocols was supported on linux yet.  As an academic
exercise, it would be interesting to know how much data can be pushed over
the HDMI bistream on recent ATI vs nvidia cards.  Note that I haven't been
able to get bitstreamed ac3 over hdmi to work on my gt220, but I can't rule
out my TV as the culprit.
-Greg
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20100329/53143857/attachment.htm>