HDMI that does video and audio

[lcurrie]

Hi All,

I've built a Windows XP box and am running SageTV.

I'm fairly nerdy and generally get the technical stuff, but I'm a 20+ year Mac user so PCs can be somewhat of a mystery to me.

I'm running my SageTV box through a stereo (7.1 surround capable) via an HDMI in. My stereo then runs the TV and speakers in the house. I have the box mirrored onto two TVs via an HDMI video distributor.

Is there a video/audio combo card I can get that pushes both sound and video through the HDMI port? I currently have a ATI Radeon X1250 in the setup and unless I have settings wrong (which is entirely possible) I seem to have to run audio separately through another cable via the RealTek audio card.

And, assuming the answer is yes, can you make some recommendations for a decent one?

Sorry if this is a total noob question.

Thanks,

Lynn

[SWKerr]

ATI Radeon HD 4550. The one below is passively cooled and $40.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102819

I am using this in a Windows7 box that had AMD 780G video before. The onboard HDMI would push audio as well but I struggled getting smooth 1920x1080 output with Sage. The 4550 works flawlessly and uses almost no cpu.

[lcurrie]

Thanks for the info. I've been poking around in my settings and am wondering if the X1250 already pushes audio out of HDMI as well. If it doesn't, I'll check out the 4550.

[paulbeers]

If you are talking about the X1250 video chipset included on the 690G chipset, then it should do audio out (at least in Windows, Linux may not work).

[joe123]

That video card looks excellent!

What is a good and inexpensive and QUIET system to buy to run SageTV placeshifter?

I already have a beefed up SageTV recorder. I know about SageTV HD200 extenders, but at $200 bucks, I rather buy a dedicated PC to output HDMI to my other HD TV's around the house.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

ATI Radeon HD 4550. The one below is passively cooled and $40.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102819

I am using this in a Windows7 box that had AMD 780G video before. The onboard HDMI would push audio as well but I struggled getting smooth 1920x1080 output with Sage. The 4550 works flawlessly and uses almost no cpu.

SWKerr - with this setup, can you push stereo audio through the HDMI output while at the same time pushing 5.1 through the 780G's on-board optical spdif output? I am trying to get a Gigabyte GA-785 board to do that, but I can't find the correct driver -filter - decoder combo to output both audio streams simultaneously, which I must do.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

SWKerr - with this setup, can you push stereo audio through the HDMI output while at the same time pushing 5.1 through the 780G's on-board optical spdif output? I am trying to get a Gigabyte GA-785 board to do that, but I can't find the correct driver -filter - decoder combo to output both audio streams simultaneously, which I must do.

You would think there is a way to do it but I can't seem to figure out how. It is always an either or situation. Even in Graph edit I can't find a way to output to two sources at one time. Perhaps someone else could help with this.

I have seen devices that will split the Audio from the HDMI input and monoprice.com seems to have something that does exactly what you want.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...=2#description

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

You would think there is a way to do it but I can't seem to figure out how. It is always an either or situation. Even in Graph edit I can't find a way to output to two sources at one time. Perhaps someone else could help with this.

I have seen devices that will split the Audio from the HDMI input and monoprice.com seems to have something that does exactly what you want.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...=2#description

There are two sets of drivers for the Realtek audio: HD and HDMI. I can actually listen to three different sources from the three outputs of this MB: Analog outputs, HDMI audio and spdif outputs. What I CAN'T seem to do is make any one of the input sources go OUT to TWO of the outputs - any combo. What are we missing? My 7 year old $25 MSI mAtx board allows this. Is this due to HDCP and paranoid HDMI Hollywood?

[ttiller]

With Receiver on, life is perfect. If I turn off my Reveiver, HTPC looses the "handshake" with the HDMI. Sage Errors out due to lack of audio source. Bought a GEFEN HDMI Detective in attempt to "trick" HTPC. No Luck. Need advice how to use ATI HDMI with Sage and Receiver powered off.

Denon AVR-988
ASUS M4A785TD-V
CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB)
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM395W Triple-Core Black Processor
GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670

[Fuzzy]

Why run without the receiver? I know, not much help.. but i don't see why you can't just use the receiver all the time with it... My receiver is pretty integral to my home theater...

[ttiller]

My STV HTPC is located in my media room with my Denon Receiver. i use STV to record programs at all hours. I also go several days without using the media room. We watch the recording in other rooms of the home. I can see no need to run a fairly expensive Denon for no real reason.

[Fuzzy]

so you're saying the Sage service (which does the recording) is crashing when the denon is turned off? Also, I doubt the UI would crash if it isn't actively playing back anything when the denon is turned off.

[stanger89]

Yeah, that seems odd, I've run Sage on my Windows Server machine for quite a while and as far as I can remember, there's no audio device in that box.

[ttiller]

I'm sorry u doubt me, but it happens everytime. I will spend sometime this wknd working it out and report back.