HDMI Audio Performance

Associate
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Hi,

I am trying to help a friend out with his media PC. And i am trying to find out some information about the performance of HDMI Audio which is something i myself have not used as my media PC has an old 7900GT so i connect to my amp via optical and just HDMI for the Video.

My media PC is an i3 (can't remember exact model), 4GB DDR3, the GeForce 7900GT and on-board sound. Which plays 20-30GB HiDef videos perfectly.

My friends is a quad core Core 2, 6GB ram on-board audio and a radeon hd 4350 and his struggles with the same files. He uses the HDMI audio out on the graphics card straight to his amp.

Now considering my i3 doesn't even hit 30-40% surely the Core 2 can handle such high rips, it’s not the ram so it must be the graphics card (as i know the 4350 is a very low end card).

Does anyone know how well the HDMI audio performs? where the processing happens? does it use CPU or the Graphics cards resources. I know this will probably vary from card to card but some generalisations are fine if anyone knows.

I'm thinking about the GeForce GT 640 as a replacement which is at the upper range of his budget.

I'm a bit out of the game these days, more software than hardware, so any comments would be received with gratitude!
 
Soldato
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All video content will be handles by the 4350 which is more than up to the job of playing HD content.

HD audio will be processed by the receiver - as long as it supports it. (DTS, DTSHD etc)

His setup shouldn't be struggling at all. Are the files being played locally or across a network?
 
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Thanks for the reply, i thought it might just pass the audio through to the amp.

No, everything is running from local drives. Its wierd because its symptoms are exactly that of playing a game on too high a spec. During big action scene's and panning shots the picture stuters, but doesn't stop start line it would if the buffer under ran. We've tried all the major video players, VLC, MPC and WMP.

You've reminded me of a nother issue i seem to be having while i'm here and asking. I have my media stored on a central server, my media PC is on the floor below and my gaming rig is in the same room. The main router is next to the media pc and the server and my gaming rig are both connected through a seperate switch. the whole network is a wired 1Gbit. I can copy from the server to the media PC at the full 50-60MB/s but when it comes to streaming a very high def rip it just can't handle it where as when i stream the same video fine from server to gaming rig. Now obviously my gaming rig is a better machine but never the less they are both very capable machines. Now my guess is that its either, the length of the network cable (approx 6m), the main router, or the network card in the media pc. Now i haven't yet tried moving the server downstairs next to the media pc to rule out the uplink between router and switch but just wondered if this rings any bells.
 
Soldato
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Hmmm what file type are the films encoded as? mkv? mp4? ISO?
Couple of things it could be:

The HDD read speed is horrible (possible a bad drive)
Hardware acceleration isn't enabled so its being all done via the CPU? (DXVA)
The graphics card could be on its way out. Have you got one you could switch it with as a test?

If MPC can't play it then there is an issue somewhere!! (love that little thing)

2nd bit:

Is that copy speed taken from windows?

I use a raspberry pi for playback and my media server is in my downstairs office, further away than yours and its fine.
What happens when you use Lan Speed Test

Is your meida PC connected to your router? Does the router definitely have Gigabit LAN ports?
 
Associate
OP
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Again, thanks for the help!

Generally the high def rips are x264 .mkv's. Thanks for the tips, all definite possibilities with my mates PC. Next time i go round i'll pull mine out the media pc and try that.

MPC is good, but i've find every now and then some rip won't play on it and i'll need to pull out VLC.

As for my LAN, yes the speed was taken from windows.. and yes i know its not the most reliable of sources :). My router does indeed have Gigabit LAN, i bought it specifically for the speed. Thanks for the pointer towards the LAN speed test, very useful little thing.

Its certainly gotten me a lot closer to an answer.

Media PC --> Server Write ~500Mps, Read ~30Mps
Server --> Media PC Write ~30Mps, Read ~400Mps
Gaming Rig --> Server Write ~550Mps, Read ~570Mps

I would guess this narrows it down to the write speed of the HDD in the media PC.. and bearing in mind it is a very old, and probably over used, drive that i had lying around when i built it this is more than likely the culprit.

again, thanks for your help, it has been laziness on my behalf that i haven't yet gotten round to actually sorting it out.

off topic even more, how are you finding your raspberry pi for 1080p playback.. i got mine a month or so ago and haven't gotten round to actually doing anything with it. I was thinking about putting the r-pi convert xbmc on it..
 
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