Hi, What is the best way to playback high definition audio files on a computer...it seems from what I've read that Creative sound cards are less than perfect, and the other sounds cards I have seen seem more for recording purposes; and even amongst them I am very confused as to which are better than others based on net research. I'm wondering for both the case of having a reciever that could accept just about any digital signal or needing it to be converted to analog. I'm assuming dsd/sacd type of audio is pretty much impossible to playback from a computer? Thanks for any help. itaru
There are no SACD drives available - period - so unless you have raw DSD files & a way to decode them back to PCM, or a DSD setup, you will never play these. DVD-A will play back just fine from WinDVD6 Platinum, and from early builds of WinDVD7. Some idiot hacked the MKB CPPM protection, and this caused InterVideo to revoke the compromised keys. So later builds did not play early DVD-A, and now it is completely dropped. Decoding an Unwatermarked but still protected by CPPM DVD-A can be done easily enough. Watermarking has proved to be extremely resilient. There is a tool that alleges it can detect watermarks, but it does *not* remove them. Playing back High Res files is easy enough. You will not be able to do this down a consumer digital connection if the files are 5.1 at 24/96, as there is insufficient bandwidth in the system. You will need a DAC that is capable of accepting a DS type signal, or a card with HDMI Multichannel Audio output.
Thanks for the response! hmm, I should have stated more clearly where I was at. I have decent software that can play files [including dvd-a and on the fly dsf conversion], but I am just swamped looking at all the different options for sound cards, etc. It seemed to me that if I can't get a device that has a DAC in it but just sends a digitial signal out via HDMI it shouldn't have to be too expensive. It was hard even finding HDMI as an option; and, since as I see from your other posts you know as well that optical/spdif cannot handle over 96khz multichannel. I guess I wouldn't mind if it did DAC if it did it well. I just didn't need like 20 inputs and outputs since I'm not doing recording as it seemed most of the decent models were for. I guess I was hoping someone could recommend something; maybe high definition playback from a computer is a lost cause still? itaru
Have you tried looking into an HDMI capable graphics[/] card, instead of a straight Soundcard? HDMI transfers audio as well as Video, so any good card with HDMI should also be capable of outputting the Audio at the same time into your reciever. You then hook up the screen from the reciever, and should get video & audio both at the same time. ASUS make one that fits the bill perfectly. See http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/06/06/asus_hdmi_enabled_graphics_cards/ and this one has an optical audio loop into the graphics card, facilitating HDMI Audio/Video playback simultaneously.
