Alright, I've got my system specs to the left, i just got a new TV (panasonic VT25), and I'm interested in hooking my PC up. The 5850 has an HDMI on the back (i use DVI to my monitor). My monitor resolution is 1920x1080, which, as I understand it, should be the same as my TV. When i tried plugging in the computer though, the TV had about 2 inches of blank black screen all the way around the picture. Can anyone help me get rid of this? Also, the HDMI carried audio to the TV as well, which I'm interested in doing, but I didn't know where that audio really came from.... is that audio that has been processed by the sound card and then routed through the video card's HDMI? Or is that some sort of basic, like "stereo mix"? I have an optical out on the soundcard that I could use, however I don't know how a reciever (yet to be purchased) would deal with having two separate audio streams from one source. Thanks for the help! -Jason
ATI/AMD card have built in audio and hdmi for that purpose. DVI is almost exactly the same as HDMI minus the audio and other data features. as for the black bars you need to check the native resolution of the tv to make sure it really is 1920x1080 because some have higher native resolutions but HD-TV,HD-video, etc... normally max out at 1920x1080 but the TV or monitor has a higher native resolution...i have the same problem with my 42" LG LED so when the resolution was set at 1920x1080 for the computer i had black lines on the TV so i had to change it so that the TV was the default and use its resolution for both. Unless you use eyefinity and have a separate feed going to each you'll probably run into a problem on one of the two
ATI/AMD graphics cards have an integrated Realtek HDMI Audio chip. The audio is all handled through software....the Realtek HDMI Audio chip is there strictly to provide audio output over an HDMI cable. It's not the greatest sound quality....but if you're connecting directly to a TV the sound quality will be degraded anyway.
Strange, I always thought ATI Radeon 5xxx series had bitperfect DTS-HD MA bitstreaming capability lol.
To get rid of the boarders go into CCC find your HDTV and set the overscan option, it is on a slider.
I'll take my Xonar DG over ATI or nVidia's integrated HDMI audio.... To me, it just has more distortion than a stand-alone card....even through TV speakers.
cool, thanks for the info. Right now it will go straight into the TV, but soon it will be going to an AV reciever. I will probably try to figure out how to use the audio from the optical out on my Xonar D2X, which should be much higher sound quality.
I think you misunderstand. The word 'bitperfect' means every single bit is transferred completely untouched, so in fact what comes out of the HDMI cable is 100% identical to what's on the Blu Ray disc.
so... would I be better off using the audio from the HDMI or from my sound card? Its a nice sound card with lots of good software options, seems like it would be better, although I don't know if the optical connection is ideal...
+1, had to do it on my 32" led lcd tv, HDMI carries both audio and video so you should be absoulately fine for a htpc!!
As I've tried to explain, i'm going to have a 5.1 surround with good speakers and receiver soon, and sound quality matters to me... which option would be better?
As explained above the HDMI signal is digital, there is no loose of quality. I use both, my SB Audigy2 ZX outputs to my Logitech speakers and the HDMI output of my ATI card outputs to my Hardon/Kardon Amp, Paradigm speakers. I just switch playback devices on the fly, switching to which ever task I'm doing at the time.
This will depend on the quality of the DAC and pre-amp circuits in your amp compared to the DAC and pre-amp in your soundcard. As your soundcard is built for analogue sound quality, you will have to spend quite a lot on the amp to beat it (well over £1000). So I recommend analogue. However... If you want to use the high definition sound tracks on Blu Ray films, you will have to use HDMI. Either that or buy a new soundcard that has a PAP (Protected Audio Path) and can output analogue (they need an additional daughterboard). The graphics cards with onboard HDMI audio have a PAP these days. So you might want to switch between HDMI and analogue depending what you are doing, this is what I do.
All soundcards process audio in software except most of Creatives range and a few other cards with Creatives X-Fi chip. The Audio chip on the gfx card has no bearing on the sound quality, that is determined by the quality of the DAC and pre-amp in the amplifier.
Okay, cool. I have a pretty good 3D blu-ray player, I won't be using the PC for that so that won't be an issue. Thanks for the help!
ive got a 1250w 5.1channel home theater system for mine. ideally you'll want to run the hdmi cable directly into the receiver. see if theres a pass through mode for your video card. in my case, i just used the toslink from my xonar d2x to the receiver. better quality audio overall.
