I know Media Center GPU topics seem to come up regularly but I'm having trouble finding the answer to a specific question that I have. I am building a Media Center to watch my HD movies either from Blu Ray discs or ripped on my Samsung through my h/k receiver and am only having trouble in choosing a GPU. I would like to find a card that has an HDMI out (w/o DVI to HDMI adaptors) and can also pass 8 channel (7.1) surround sound uncompressed (TrueHD, etc..) if that is at all possible. I've been reading that the Radeon HD 4xxx series will pass sound through the HDMI and that it is 8 channel but can't find if it is only DTS-ES or TrueHD uncompressed. I also have seen that to get the HDMI to pass sound you have to use the DVI adaptor which doesn't make sense to me seeing as the DVI doesn't pass sound... Any help would be greatly appreciated! Oh and as far as pricing I would like to stay under $100 but if not it is no big deal seeing as I would now be saving money on a sound card! Thank you.
I recently bought the sapphire radeon hd 4350 ($39.95), I mainly bought it to play games. But what surprised me on this budget card, is that it has a DVI out, vga out, and also a HDMI out, no adapters needed. The HDMI pass thru audio according to the box is 7.1. I didn't see anything about 8 channel audio. The card has no fan and uses less than 30 watts. It's a decent card for the price, I don't have a HDMI capable TV to test that feature out. The radeon hd 4670 (which is the card I wanted to buy but the store was out) cost $80.00, that one does show in the specs HDMI 7.1 audio and mentions 8 channels. But that card has an HDMI adapter. I don't think any gpu offers true HD uncompressed sound. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3411&p=4
Thanks jony. I found out from more research that right now the ASUS Xonar is the only card that uses HDMI 1.3 (for uncompresed audio) and runs $200+. Suprised at the lack of support for this format considering the growing popularity of HTPCs but I guess what we get is what we get for now.
I'm using the Xonar HDAV1.3, its a fantastic card, I managed to get it for £120 as the site posted it incorrectly, should have been over £160. But it sounds great and has loads of features.
