gmcintire

[gmcintire]

The sound now over the HDMI cable as stereo (96KHz) does sound better than the USB/SPDIF which was at 48KHz.

Now sure if that is why it sounds a little better or if it is some compressing the USB card did as you guys mention.

I’m curious why you think the signal was compressed over the USB. I’m thinking it was just surround encoded two channel stereo that could be decoded by the Yamaha, the same as is happening now over HDMI.

The USB interface in the sound control panel is named ‘Direct’ and I cannot set up any speakers as you normally can. I am thinking this is just some way of bit streaming. Would that be incorrect?

Not that it matters too much for me now. The HDMI Dolby PLx sound is so good, I can’t really ask for more over the internet. Maybe I’ll change my mind someday when we can hear DD+ from netflix.

Thanks for all your explanations, guys. It’s really helping me understand all these different formats and transcodings.

[gmcintire]

Well, I finally figured something out.

If I tell the Win7 Sound control panel to output “stereo” instead of 7.1, it allows the Yamaha’s Dolby PLIIx Surround decoder to kick in and finally I get the “good 5.1” sound (over HDMI) from netflix and VUDU that I could only get with the USB/SPDIF card before.

So, I have solved my original problem, but still need education.

Is this what you call “upconverted” sound?

It certainly sounds far better than any sound programs I’ve heard operating on a true stereo source. So, I think there is more coming down these two channels than simple stereo.

When I read this wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Pro_Logic it sounds to me like this is true surround sound.

Upconverted or not, I promise you will like netflix and VUDU much more in this mode.

Please help me understand this better.

[gmcintire]

guys,

It says “The other thing is that if you want pure 5.1 sound from a DVD or 5.1 sound source, you’ll need to tell the software to output to S/PDIF. Otherwise, it will process a 2-channel sound into “fake” 5.1 rather than the separation that is intended on the disc.”

It outputs to SPDIF as true 5.1.

It sounds way too good to be upconverted. That is not what’s going on. Because of this, I am convinced that you can get true 5.1 out of Netflix and Vudu on a PC.

I just want it to go out my HDMI port so I can avoid all the hassel of the USB device.

 

[gmcintire]

Aaron,

This is the USB card http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-ZM-RSSC-External-Sound-Card/dp/B0001OZ2K8

It converts USB to its 5.1 analog speaker output ports, and it also sends the 5.1 audio over a coax cable to your receiver. It is an awkward device requiring a lot of fooling with to get it right (hint: do not install its driver, but let Win7 install its driver), but it can somehow get 5.1 out of Netflix and VUDU. I don’t see anything about DD live on its configuration or documentation, so I assume that is not part of it, but don’t know for sure.

[gmcintire]

Aaron,

Thanks for your comment.

I know VUDU and Netflix(sometimes) send 5.1(DD+ I think from reading about them), because if I use my USB soundcard, I get 5.1 out. The “encoding Formats” on the USB are Dolby and DTS, so I think it must get converted by Win7. The HDMI formats are also Dolby and DTS.

You mention “decoding and sending as LPCM”. I don’t know how do that with Netflix and VUDU??? I’m a newbie at this. Can you tell me how to do it?

 

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