<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 1:18 PM, Steven Adeff <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:adeffs.mythtv@gmail.com">adeffs.mythtv@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Brad DerManouelian<br>
<<a href="mailto:myth@dermanouelian.com">myth@dermanouelian.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> On Nov 19, 2008, at 6:03 AM, Steven Adeff wrote:<br>
><br>
>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:05 AM, <<a href="mailto:lindsay.mathieson@gmail.com">lindsay.mathieson@gmail.com</a>><br>
>> wrote:<br>
>>>> or plug all those HDMI connections into a receiver and get<br>
>>>> uncompressed high quality audio...<br>
>>><br>
>>> Not sure what you mean by that Steve but it sounds interesting<br>
>><br>
>> The bandwidth in HDMI was set to allow uncompressed multichannel audio<br>
>> up to (and possibly exceeding) 7.1 at a very high bitrate which allows<br>
>> for very high quality audio (think better than DVD-Audio/SACD). It has<br>
>> been taken use of with Blu-Ray(and what was HD-DVD) and is slowly<br>
>> becoming the replacement for the old DVD-Audio/SACD debacle for music.<br>
>><br>
>> It may not be better(or worse?) than the DisplayPort thing, but it is<br>
>> a standard that is in place and being used quite extensively.<br>
><br>
> DisplayPort standard allows for more bandwidth (10.8Gbps) so<br>
> theoretically better. HDMI 1.3 offers 10.2 Gbps which is more than<br>
> earlier versions, but I don't know what they offered. DisplayPort also<br>
> allows for great color depths and refresh rates than HDMI. Apple and<br>
> Dell (and probably others) have started using DisplayPort as their<br>
> preferred and standard port. I hope more people use it. Lots more info<br>
> here: <a href="http://displayport.org" target="_blank">http://displayport.org</a><br>
><br>
> None of this has anything to do with the new nVidia API. ;)<br>
<br>
</div>well yes, DisplayPort is designed as a digital monitor cable, HDMI was<br>
designed for use in hometheaters, specifically tailored to HDTV<br>
resolutions.<br>
<br>
from the wikipedia,<br>
"HDMI supports 8 channel uncompressed digital audio at 192 kHz sample<br>
rate with 24 bits/sample as well as compressed audio streams such as<br>
Dolby Digital and DTS.[14] HDMI supports up to 8 channels of one-bit<br>
DSD audio, which is used on Super Audio CDs, at rates up to 4x that of<br>
Super Audio CD.[14] With version 1.3, HDMI also supports lossless<br>
compressed audio streams such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master<br>
Audio."<br>
<br>
so 8 channels at that high quality, or DTS-HD/Dolby-TrueHD which is<br>
lossless compressed, so even better possible quality. Thats way more<br>
than most people need/can take advantage of. Of course, fewer channels<br>
allows for high sample/bit rates per channel.<br>
<br>
Right, right. NVidia needs to get their driver doing audio over HDMI<br>
working in linux. ;-)<br></blockquote></div><br>I haven't actually tested this myself, but I believe HDMI audio over MCP78 (geforce 8200) is now suported in alsa 1.0.18:<br><br><a href="http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Changes_v1.0.17_v1.0.18">http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Changes_v1.0.17_v1.0.18</a><br>
<br>"ALSA: Support NVIDIA MCP78/7A HDMI audio"<br><br>I have this MB:<br><br><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128340">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128340</a><br>
<br>It had audio problems with whatever alsa came with ubuntu 8.04 (1.0.17 I believe), so I had to go buy a $20 sound card. According to the alsa lists it got fixed for 1.0.18 but I haven't been brave enough to mess with it yet (my wife would kill me if I ruined my working frontend right now).<br>
<br>So if somebody wants to give it a go and then report how it went I'd be all ears :)<br><br>--Jack<br><br>