New PowerDVD 8 Update to build 1730

[hlkc]

I’ve got the 4850s in now and the HD play is great. 28 Weeks Latter now stays at 15-40% and I can open Web pages without causing lag. With the 1900s if I just moved the mouse it would lag sometimes. Gaming wise it’s another big disappointment. Supreme Commander goes from 46fps to 73fps with Crossfire on but Team Fortress 2 is slower with Crossfire on. I may return them for a 4870 but I have two diplays and it nice to have the second card for HDMI to the TV.

Same here - so far so good but won't go 4870 will go to Asus and Auzentech HDMI sound card next.

 

[kdssrugby]

I just got my card yesterday and I love it, after a minor hassall getting the audio via HDMI working. While its not super powerful, I am able to play Crysis at all settings on high at 1280x 720. It is also excellent for Hi def playback. Watching the new Rambo with DTS HD MA my CPU load hovers around 30% and 25% memory usage. Turning on the PiP makes it only jump to 35-38% and 26%. Also the 7.1 PCM audio doesn t automatically upmix all sounds into 7.1, so stereo remains stereo.

Oh ya, and she is one hot sonuvagun. According to the catalyst control centre, shes running at about 78 degrees Celsius at idle and about 87 C under load. I tested it and when I was removing my sound card I accidentally touched it and almost burn myself, so anyone concerned about heat should buy an aftermarket cooler.

 

[SamuriHL]

That's the problem I have with all the new cards. Heat and power consumption are through the roof. Literally. I know my 8800 GT is "aging" by today's standards, but, heat, power, and noise are the absolute BEST mix I've found on any card. It plays every movie I've ever thrown at it (even that craptacular Cloverfield we watched last night. God that sucked).

The new 3850 (AGP) I put in my ANCIENT XP 2500+ machine does its job. CPU is running 60-80% with that thing, but, what do you expect with such an old single core CPU? I think I've stabilized the machine enough now to play just about any title. PowerDVD 8 causes that machine problems with CPU spiking so I just use PowerDVD 7. The audio I have in that room wouldn't allow for anything that 8 gives me anyway. But, so far, I'm impressed with the quality and the fact that she seems to handle streaming ISOs over my network fairly well. With the xbox 360 HD DVD drive connected directly, playing HD DVD's doesn't seem to be a problem at all for it.

 

[hlkc]

Watching the new Rambo with DTS HD MA

How can you do that?

Oh ya, and she is one hot sonuvagun. According to the catalyst control centre, shes running at about 78 degrees Celsius at idle and about 87 C under load. I tested it and when I was removing my sound card I accidentally touched it and almost burn myself, so anyone concerned about heat should buy an aftermarket cooler.

I am doing the same here about 85 degrees. I have a above average box and couple fans inside. I will monitor it for few days and see. but to me thiis will not the keeper for now unless it just display something that my 3650 did not on the HTPC BD level, sorry I am not gamer. I plan to update Asus or Azuentech HDMI as soon as they release.

 

[SamuriHL]

DTS HD MA is easy. PowerDVD 8 with analog out.

EDIT: Actually, I think it's also been added to PowerDVD 7 in the 4102 build. Analog out is the key, however.

 

[hlkc]

DTS HD MA is easy. PowerDVD 8 with analog out.

EDIT: Actually, I think it's also been added to PowerDVD 7 in the 4102 build. Analog out is the key, however.

I hate to side track here, but when we do analog out, I never do that before, do you mean it will send equivalent stream to AVR such as LPCM OR send a real loseless format to AVR and when AVR detects, it will output DTS- HD MA from the AVR?

 

[SamuriHL]

I hate to side track here, but when we do analog out, I never do that before, do you mean it will send equivalent stream to AVR such as LPCM OR send a real loseless format to AVR and when AVR detects, it will output DTS- HD MA from the AVR?

Wow, my friend, you ARE confused. Let's get this straightened out for you, shall we?

DTS HD MA and TrueHD are containers. They're compressed versions of lossless LPCM tracks. When you "decode" them, you're decoding them to the lossless LPCM version for playback. Now you can do that either on the player or the AVR depending on your equipment's capability and how you have it all set up. To decode it on the AVR, you need to use HDMI set to bitstreaming mode. I don't prefer this for a variety of reasons. However, this will send the compressed DTS HD MA or TrueHD track to your AVR so it can decode it for playback. I prefer to let the player decode it and send LPCM to my AVR. Doing this allows me to utilize my analog connections. On my receiver, using the analog inputs bypasses ALL processing by the receiver, so, it plays straight up whatever it's sent on each channel. PowerDVD can decode DTS HD MA and TrueHD audio into LPCM. Ideally you'd want to send the decoded LPCM track to your receiver through HDMI, as well, but, since I don't have that option and PowerDVD doesn't yet support it anyway, I use analog. Make sense?

 

[hlkc]

Wow, my friend, you ARE confused. Let's get this straightened out for you, shall we?

DTS HD MA and TrueHD are containers. They're compressed versions of lossless LPCM tracks. When you "decode" them, you're decoding them to the lossless LPCM version for playback. Now you can do that either on the player or the AVR depending on your equipment's capability and how you have it all set up. To decode it on the AVR, you need to use HDMI set to bitstreaming mode. I don't prefer this for a variety of reasons. However, this will send the compressed DTS HD MA or TrueHD track to your AVR so it can decode it for playback. I prefer to let the player decode it and send LPCM to my AVR. Doing this allows me to utilize my analog connections. On my receiver, using the analog inputs bypasses ALL processing by the receiver, so, it plays straight up whatever it's sent on each channel. PowerDVD can decode DTS HD MA and TrueHD audio into LPCM. Ideally you'd want to send the decoded LPCM track to your receiver through HDMI, as well, but, since I don't have that option and PowerDVD doesn't yet support it anyway, I use analog. Make sense?

So how do we able to use PDVD to output DTS HD MA or TrueHD LPCM way to AVR via analog out?

When PDVD outout today are they down sampled them?

 

[SamuriHL]

So how do we able to use PDVD to output DTS HD MA or TrueHD LPCM way to AVR via analog out?

When PDVD outout today are they down sampled them?

You're not getting this apparently. The ONLY way to output DTS HD MA or TrueHD tracks directly is via HDMI using bitstreaming. ANYTHING else will have PowerDVD decode the DTS HD MA or TrueHD track into LPCM first, and send the raw LPCM track to the receiver. And yes, PowerDVD downsamples them, but, they're still *WAY* better quality than what you'd get through SPDIF using DTS or AC3. Besides, as James has pointed out, MOST movies come at the sample rate they're supposedly downsampling to anyway. So, even when they stop that nonsense in the next version of PowerDVD 8 when using HDMI, you won't notice any difference. HDMI gives you 2 options vs analog's 1 option. HDMI allows you to bitstream and let the AVR decode the compressed formats, OR, you can let the player decode them and send a raw LPCM track to the receiver. I prefer the LPCM track for many reasons. One is the player can mix audio into it for things like profile 1.1 and BD Live titles. You can't do that with bitstreaming.

The audio will sound exactly the same quality no matter where it's decoded. Think of decoding in terms you already know. Zipped files. When you unzip a file, the file is identical to the original. The same process is happening with DTS HD MA and TrueHD...once it's decoded, it's identical to the original LPCM track. So whether it's done on the player or AVR is irrelevant IMO. But for analog, it MUST be decoded on the player. ALWAYS.

 

[hlkc]

You're not getting this apparently. The ONLY way to output DTS HD MA or TrueHD tracks directly is via HDMI using bitstreaming. ANYTHING else will have PowerDVD decode the DTS HD MA or TrueHD track into LPCM first, and send the raw LPCM track to the receiver. And yes, PowerDVD downsamples them, but, they're still *WAY* better quality than what you'd get through SPDIF using DTS or AC3. Besides, as James has pointed out, MOST movies come at the sample rate they're supposedly downsampling to anyway. So, even when they stop that nonsense in the next version of PowerDVD 8 when using HDMI, you won't notice any difference. HDMI gives you 2 options vs analog's 1 option. HDMI allows you to bitstream and let the AVR decode the compressed formats, OR, you can let the player decode them and send a raw LPCM track to the receiver. I prefer the LPCM track for many reasons. One is the player can mix audio into it for things like profile 1.1 and BD Live titles. You can't do that with bitstreaming.

The audio will sound exactly the same quality no matter where it's decoded. Think of decoding in terms you already know. Zipped files. When you unzip a file, the file is identical to the original. The same process is happening with DTS HD MA and TrueHD...once it's decoded, it's identical to the original LPCM track. So whether it's done on the player or AVR is irrelevant IMO. But for analog, it MUST be decoded on the player. ALWAYS.

I am getting there but I must not read it right that I thought you guys can do DTS HD today and because of this I just want to make sure I don't got left behind.

But when u mean "The audio will sound exactly the same quality no matter where it's decoded." I believed this will depending on the DAC and if we do that we are betting that the sound card DAC is better than the AVR DAC.

 

[SamuriHL]

I am getting there but I must not read it right that I thought you guys can do DTS HD today and because of this I just want to make sure I don't got left behind.

But when u mean "The audio will sound exactly the same quality no matter where it's decoded." I believed this will depending on the DAC and if we do that we are betting that the sound card DAC is better than the AVR DAC.

We CAN do DTS HD MA today. That's what I'm saying. We let PowerDVD decode it into LPCM and play that through analog to the receiver. It's not the most ideal situation, because, as you point out, we do have to trust that the sound card is doing its job. However, even my crappy built in realtek audio card has better sound output on HD audio tracks (LPCM, DTS HD MA, TrueHD, etc) than what I'd get if I used SPDIF and only output DTS or AC3. If you have a GOOD audio card like an auzentech, well, then, the difference is going to be even higher. This is all for analog and what we're able to do today.

Soon, HDMI will be a possibility for those that have HDMI enabled receivers. At this point, the DAC issue is moot. PowerDVD will decode the HD audio track to LPCM if it's compressed (DTS HD MA or TrueHD) and then shove the raw LPCM track down the HDMI cable to your receiver. Or, if you somehow think the receiver will do a better job of decoding the HD audio track, you can bitstream it to the receiver via HDMI and let it decode it. Either way it stays digital and you rely on the receiver to do DAC in that case.

Nonetheless, we ARE doing HD audio today with analog. While not perfect, it's certainly FAR better than SPDIF and using DTS and AC3.

 

[hlkc]

We CAN do DTS HD MA today. That's what I'm saying. We let PowerDVD decode it into LPCM and play that through analog to the receiver. It's not the most ideal situation, because, as you point out, we do have to trust that the sound card is doing its job. However, even my crappy built in realtek audio card has better sound output on HD audio tracks (LPCM, DTS HD MA, TrueHD, etc) than what I'd get if I used SPDIF and only output DTS or AC3. If you have a GOOD audio card like an auzentech, well, then, the difference is going to be even higher. This is all for analog and what we're able to do today.

Soon, HDMI will be a possibility for those that have HDMI enabled receivers. At this point, the DAC issue is moot. PowerDVD will decode the HD audio track to LPCM if it's compressed (DTS HD MA or TrueHD) and then shove the raw LPCM track down the HDMI cable to your receiver. Or, if you somehow think the receiver will do a better job of decoding the HD audio track, you can bitstream it to the receiver via HDMI and let it decode it. Either way it stays digital and you rely on the receiver to do DAC in that case.

Nonetheless, we ARE doing HD audio today with analog. While not perfect, it's certainly FAR better than SPDIF and using DTS and AC3.

Understood and I always want to confirm what I have in mind is correct. What confuse me from the beginning was you guys keep saying that you output TrueHD today. Yes, I do the same too with PDVD8 and 8 channels LPCM to my receiver now with 4850 via HDMI. I thought you guys can choose and pick and bit-stream to the receiver of some sort... My bad did not read it clearly. Thanks and have great weekend!

 

[Tanquen]

I think an even bigger advantage to going digital to receiver (save for the fact the receiver I want to replace the old one with is like $5000) and using its DACs is the fact that I and others pick up some or a lot of noise using the analog out from the PC sound card. Weather the PC or receiver is not grounded and whatever you’ll always pick up a little somethin’ somethin’. Going AC3 from my set top DVD play to the AVR-5803 I get like no noise from the speakers when the movie is paused but the analog outputs form the PC have some hum and I can even hear it in quiet parts of films, if I listen for it.

 

[Momber]

And yes, PowerDVD downsamples them, but, they're still *WAY* better quality than what you'd get through SPDIF using DTS or AC3.

But only if you have a *REALLY* great soundcard... and they are rare!

 

[Momber]

even my crappy built in realtek audio card has better sound output on HD audio tracks (LPCM, DTS HD MA, TrueHD, etc) than what I'd get if I used SPDIF and only output DTS or AC3.

Have you ever tried PDVD's "DTS Mixing" on a LPCM track and used SPDIF? Now that kicks ass, mate! It definitely exceeds the analogue output of a "crappy realtek soundcard" - I know, because I have one.
It will also blow middle-of-the-road soundcards right out of the pool (like the Audigy 2 NX I'm toying with at the moment).
But my new M-Audio Revolution has arrived and I'm planning to set it up tonight. Let's see if I've finally found a card with an analogue output that manages to surpass a quality SPDIF signal in fidelity...

S.

 

[Momber]

Ok, ok... You all talked me into it:

I accept no reponsibility

2 DIAMOND 4850PE3512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
Item #: N82E16814103060
Standard Return Policy $399.98
$379.98
($189.99 ea)

Geez! Talk about overkill!!!
I bought a 3600 Radeon for the price of a good lunch and it decodes all BluRay videos known to man. So well in fact that I can still use my old P4 3GHz CPU (and it's really bored, too).
The card is cooled 100% fanless and never gets hotter than 55° C.

But then again, I don't have the time (nor the inclination) to play computer games...

S.

 

[SamuriHL]

Have you ever tried PDVD's "DTS Mixing" on a LPCM track and used SPDIF? Now that kicks ass, mate! It definitely exceeds the analogue output of a "crappy realtek soundcard" - I know, because I have one.
It will also blow middle-of-the-road soundcards right out of the pool (like the Audigy 2 NX I'm toying with at the moment).
But my new M-Audio Revolution has arrived and I'm planning to set it up tonight. Let's see if I've finally found a card with an analogue output that manages to surpass a quality SPDIF signal in fidelity...

S.

I find that the analog output I'm getting (strangely with no interference which is freaky but I'm just going to go with it and be happy) surpasses even DTS for me. I've tried it both ways on several different movies. Personally I'd love to upgrade my receiver and go HDMI and call it good. Now that I just saved myself from having to rebuild an HTPC in the bedroom (dropped the 3850 AGP in it...works great!) I MAY have a little bit of cash to spare on a new receiver later this year. If I do, I'll go for one of the new Onkyo's. I'd love to get into the 7xx series but if I have to settle for a 6xx series that's fine, too. Maybe for my birthday next Feb I can convince my wife to help me pay for a new speaker set for the living room. HAHHAHA. The set I want costs about a grand currently. That'll definitely have to wait. The yamaha set I have right now will have to suffice. They're ok.

 

[hlkc]

But only if you have a *REALLY* great soundcard... and they are rare!

Same reason therefore at the end I choose not to do that route and rely my receiver DAC instead.

 

[hlkc]

I find that the analog output I'm getting (strangely with no interference which is freaky but I'm just going to go with it and be happy) surpasses even DTS for me. I've tried it both ways on several different movies. Personally I'd love to upgrade my receiver and go HDMI and call it good. Now that I just saved myself from having to rebuild an HTPC in the bedroom (dropped the 3850 AGP in it...works great!) I MAY have a little bit of cash to spare on a new receiver later this year. If I do, I'll go for one of the new Onkyo's. I'd love to get into the 7xx series but if I have to settle for a 6xx series that's fine, too. Maybe for my birthday next Feb I can convince my wife to help me pay for a new speaker set for the living room. HAHHAHA. The set I want costs about a grand currently. That'll definitely have to wait. The yamaha set I have right now will have to suffice. They're ok.

By that time, I can sell you my Onkyo 885 pre-amp cheap in order to compensate all the stuff you taught me since I will have my Theta Casablanca III HDMI but you need get some amps to do that.

 

[SamuriHL]

Same reason therefore at the end I choose not to do that route and rely my receiver DAC instead.

Everyone has to decide what sounds the best for themselves. All equipment is going to be different and sound different. The acoustics in the room you're watching it in is going to make a difference on the sound, obviously. If you're happy with SPDIF then that's a great thing.