ASUS Reveals Xonar HDAV1.3 Series Sound Cards with Dolby TrueHD Bit-Stream

[alexp999]

Following the success of becoming the world’s first sound cards to be equipped with the next generation DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Plus bitstream on the PC platform, the ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Series once again moves to the forefront as the world’s first and only solution to offer Dolby TrueHD audio bitstream on the PC platform. A powerful combination comprising of C-Media’s custom-made AV200 audio processor and ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre software player lets users be the first to enjoy Dolby TrueHD’s lossless compression rate of 24bit/192KHz over to their AV receivers. This breakthrough in the emerging Blu-ray era was unprecedented before the release of the Xonar HDAV1.3.




Working closely together with C-Media and ArcSoft to create the world’s first premium audio solution, ASUS hopes to not only address consumer audio needs, but also to showcase its outstanding R&D capabilities.

"Ever since Blu-ray technology was announced in the market, there has never been a solution capable of bringing lossless digital audio formats to users on the PC," said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group.

"Even some BD players and PS3 could not output bitstreams of Dolby TrueHD and other High-Bit-Rate audio so far, and we are glad to be the first inventors to implement the Protected Audio Playback System (PAPS) on PC platforms and fulfill the Full-HD AV entertainment desires for vast PC users," said Jason Liang, C-Media senior manager of System Business Division. "We are pleased to work with ASUS and ArcSoft to make this product happen."

ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 – The Sound Card of the Blu-Ray Era
The ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 is the world’s only solution capable of providing bit-to-bit exact lossless Blu-Ray audio output—without any downsampling to DVD quality—allowing users to enjoy next generation audio enhancements such as DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus on the PC. Furthermore, the Xonar HDAV 1.3 also supports most Video Graphics Cards on the market, allowing delivery of both video and audio outputs through a single HDMI cable.

Source: ASUS

[WarEagleAU]

Fantastic. I just read in this past Maximum PC where Gordon Mah Ung was showing folks how to hook up their pc sound card (or onboard audio) to their home theater. No solution was present at the time to do what this card does. Simply amazing.

[Hunt3r]

I have a friend I saw this card very nice and good for home theater ..
by post

[Hunt3r]

My friend has a very nice card that personally .. rs ..
I put the video of his plate.
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZIQ4M...e=channel_page

[Darren]

I'm confused, I've got two questions

1.) didn't Asus release the same card a few weeks back, the specification and model name is the same as this card which has been on the shelf for a long time...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829132008

2. ) As I understand it, this card may have Dolby Digital Live and DTS encoding in real time and pass-through for DD True-HD via HDMI but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have DD True-HD encoding in real time.


Can anyone shed some light on those two issues.

[LittleLizard]

Originally Posted by Darren

I'm confused, I've got two questions

1.) didn't Asus release the same card a few weeks back, the specification and model name is the same as this card which has been on the shelf for a long time...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829132008

2. ) As I understand it, this card may have Dolby Digital Live and DTS encoding in real time and pass-through for DD True-HD via HDMI but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have DD True-HD encoding in real time.


Can anyone shed some light on those two issues.

agree but probably the only thing they have in common is the emi shield and behind it are different

[imperialreign]

So . . . wait a minute . . .

the only thing this card is bringing to the table that's new is Dolby TrueHD?! And we're marketing the card as being the next big thing? I love ASUS marketing!


For the moment, at least until specs are released - I'm assuming that the card is 99% identicle to other PCIEx1 Xonar D2Xs on the market. The only difference is this card will be able to handle the lossless Dolby TrueHD format . . .

Just to throw some more light on this format, for those that might not be too keen on it: Dolby TrueHD is a "lossless" format, where the original studio tracks are compressed onto the disk - they are bit-for-bit identicle to the original masters . . . which equates to no audio quality loss at all.

Here's the catch - to make use of it, you must have a digital output from your card (either coaxial, optical or HDMI), which means you'll also need a reciever; and the HD DVD you want to watch must support the format as well . . . on top of that, you must have a player that can play HD DVDs (either HD-DVD or BluRay), as the format isn't supported on standard DVD . . . and to the best of my knowledge, there are only around 100 released films that support TrueHD in 24b/192kHz playback (althought there are more that support samples rates below the 24b/192kHz rate - which doesn't make sense to me ).


Anyhow, I'm diggin the marketing spin on this card . . . it's about as bad, IMHO, as Creative adding a couple of features on an Live!/Audigy economy card and renaming it a X-Fi Xtreme Audio.

[Darren]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

So . . . wait a minute . . .

the only thing this card is bringing to the table that's new is Dolby TrueHD?! And we're marketing the card as being the next big thing? I love ASUS marketing!

ASUS already brought out the exact same product a few weeks/months ago called the "Xonar HDAV 1.3 Deluxe" which is suppose to have support for True-HD and HDMI support, it's like ASUS are trying to get people to buy the same product twice.

EliteBarstards.com did a review on it:
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...1&limitstart=1

Originally Posted by imperialreign

you must have a digital output from your card (either coaxial, optical or HDMI)

Unfortunately with DD True-HD and DTS-Masters optical and coaxial will not work because they do not have enough bandwidth to support the format, only HDMI will work. However Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) can pass through optical/coaxial but only if the receiver supports DD+ specifically.