Onkyo 5100 AVR pairing with HTPC

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Vishu_fbd

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Hi Friends,

I have Onkyo 5100 7.1 HTiB. It has HT-R560 amp, rated at 130 W/ Ch Continuous 8 ohms. ONKYO SIGHT & SOUND - INDIA

It supports below formats:

DTS, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES Discrete/Matrix, DTS Neo:6 Decoding
Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx Decoding

Now as I am planning to build HTPC and would want to pair it with the above AVR. I have a question as to how the DTS-HD or DD-HD or other HD audio sources would be handled by the AVR. Will the AVR downcovert the audio or the HTPC will give the format that's understood by AVR or it needs to be preconverted by the HTPC sound card???

I am thinking out loud on the possibilities. Suggestions welcome if I need to do anything to handle the latest audio HD formats at HTPC end. OR is it time to upgrade the AVR altogether? :sad:

Appreciate your help as always.

BR,
Vishu
 
N how much loss would be there in the audio quality? I hope it should not be significant n noticeable difference to the ears!
 
In all probability, with HDMI, you will bit stream the HD audio (MA and TrueHD) and your AVR will down convert it to DTS and DD (if it does not support HD Audio). Either way you can also let your HTPC do the down converting and send the signals to AVR, but the first method is fairly straight forward .

If you want HD Audio and your AVR does not support its decoding, there is not much of an option left but to buy a new AVR.


EDIT :: IMP :: I just went through the link you provided for your receiver, your receiver does HDMI Pass-Thru (1080p Compatible; 2 Inputs and 1 Output), so this mean you will not even get audio over HDMI let alond HD audio. You will need to use optical/coaixl for audio out, and Optical/Coaxial do not support HD audio, so there is no question of downconverting here. Better get a new AVR if you wanna have HD audio.

Hope this helps ....
 
ShakenSoul said:
All HD Audio would be downsampled to DTS or DD depending on the source.
Click to expand...

Not true always.I am using old Onkyo 330 with HTPC which decodes all HD format & send to multich in of AVR.Yes you need 7.1 soundcard which can handle 192/24bit audio.I have also tried same way connecting Yamaha 667 & sound was gr8.Little bright with my speakers though.(Yamaha + Tannoy)

http://www.hifivision.com/home-thea...ng-lossless-hd-audio-5-1analoge-out-htpc.html
http://www.hifivision.com/av-lounge/16258-post-your-av-audition-demo-here.html
Asus HDAV deluxe is better option as it has 7.1 out & HDMI too.
 
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I have always been using co-axial as audio out instead of hdmi. So having hdmi pass-thru is not a big deal :)

The thing I am concerned about is how the audio will be handled esp. HD audio thru HTPC when sent thru co-axial to AVR. Will it be appreciable loss to the sound quality when downsampling the DTS-HD or is it something that is a technical jargon and not much difference to human ear when compared with DTS? Much like refresh rate of 200 or 400 or 600hz!

Will the onboard sound card of asus p8h67 be able to handle all audio formats and do all the processing before sending to AVR? Can someone confirm if asus has coaxial out since I read it only supports optical out. I need Mobo that support coaxial out to go with i3. Or do I need to purchase external sound card that gives coaxial out with 7.1 channel support?

Thanks.
Vishu
 
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Vishu_fbd said:
The thing I am concerned about is how the audio will be handled esp. HD audio thru HTPC when sent thru co-axial to AVR. Will it be appreciable loss to the sound quality when downsampling the DTS-HD or is it something that is a technical jargon and not much difference to human ear when compared with DTS? Much like refresh rate of 200 or 400 or 600hz!
Click to expand...

Co-axial wont do HD Audio, so ofcourse it would downsampled. About the quality loss, ofcourse there is quality loss, else why to have HD audio at the first place. However how prominent is the difference would entirely depend on the quality of the audio equipment ...(the AVR, AMP, spks, cables etc) . Better the equipment more prominent the difference.

In simple words, the usual Onkyo HTiB setup would not bring much of a difference in the audio. However you connect a top quality AVR with Martin Logan/EPOS spks, quality cables, connectors and difference become huge.....

Will the onboard sound card of asus p8h67 be able to handle all audio formats and do all the processing before sending to AVR? Can someone confirm if asus has coaxial out since I read it only supports optical out. I need Mobo that support coaxial out to go with i3. Or do I need to purchase external sound card that gives coaxial out with 7.1 channel support?
Click to expand...

onboard audio for asus h67 would not do HD audio and if I am not mistaken it would also not bitstream. However it can send DD and DTS over co-axial and optical. Mostly people (including me) use the GPU these days to bitstream audio HDMI and let the AVR do the decoding .....
 
To be honest this is getting confusing:

Lets take it one by one:

1. Onkyo AVR would only handle audio coming from coaxial. This is straightforward.
2. If asus Mobo does not handle HD audio then what will be the output from htpc to avr? Whats so special for asus board in that case and what other options exists?
3. Will adding GPU enable HD audio processing and will the output to the avr be any different from #2.
4. Will adding an external soundcard instead of GPU solve the hd audio handling purpose even if it downsample hd audio for the avr to handle and will it be any different to #2 and #3? I have no 3D requirement.

Vishu
 
2. If asus Mobo does not handle HD audio then what will be the output from htpc to avr? Whats so special for asus board in that case and what other options exists?

HTPC sound card (on mobo) would downconvert HD Audio and send DTS or DD signals to AVR via coaxial .... .....simple. and whast so special about ASUS board ...???? lol ASUS board's audio capability is the least among the specialties of the mobo. Its not an audio product. There are loads of other things that a mobo needs to accomplish.

Also I missed mentioning in the previous post that ASUS P8H67 - Delux board also has onboard HDMI and does support HD Audio, if coupled with a sandy bridge CPU like i3 2100 or i7 2600

3. Will adding GPU enable HD audio processing and will the output to the avr be any different from #2.

If you add GPU (HD 5XXX series or GTX 4XX series), you will get HD Audio, the first thing and also the ability to bitstream so that the AVR does the processing.

4. Will adding an external soundcard instead of GPU solve the hd audio handling purpose even if it downsample hd audio for the avr to handle and will it be any different to #2 and #3? I have no 3D requirement.

Yes if the sound card has Audio over HDMI. Like for example ASUS Xonar HDAV. But these were only popular when GPU did not have the support of HD audio. Once the GPU starting becoming mainstream for HD audio bitstreaming these sound cards were extinct. External Sound cards are now mainly used for analogue out for stereo playback because of their decent DACs.

Best solution is either get a mobo like p8h67 Delux or add a GPU and bit stream HD audio over HDMI and let your AVR do the decoding. Ofcourse your AVR should support HD audio decoding

You should not be much concerned about HD audio as your AVR does not support DTS MA and True HD decoding.

Lastly yes as spirovious said you can go analogue way.
 
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Vishu_fbd said:
Looks like one should not worry about these jargons and gimmicks like DTS HD and DD HD.. Dolby and DTS' new audio schemes worth it? | The Audiophiliac - CNET News

Anyways thanx sam for clarifying majority of the doubts. Whats the cost of Deluxe board? I assume this board gives coaxial out, pls confirm.

Thanks,
Vishu
Click to expand...

errrr these are not technical jargon for sure, and that article you shared is pretty lame if you ask me. There is a pretty noticeable difference. Its just that your gear should be good enough to bring it out. Its the same argument about 320kbps MP3 and FLACs. On any run of the mill spks MP3 and flacs would sound same, but get a quality hardware and you start to feel the difference. And this is not any reviews I am talking about. This is my personal experience and I dint think my ears are any hifi audiophile ears ....:)

ASUS H67 should be around 6000 NP Delhi price and it does not have coaxial but optical out along with HDMI .....
 
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You can search for a sound card or motherboard with coaxial output. Also there are optical to coaxial converters. They may be useful.
 
This should be standard spec for HTPC boards. Even AMD Fusion with MSI provides that!

Looks like either I need to wait more or go with good old amd fusion :(

I am also searching for the same... Appreciate your help.
 
Vishu_fbd said:
This should be standard spec for HTPC boards. Even AMD Fusion with MSI provides that!

Looks like either I need to wait more or go with good old amd fusion :(

I am also searching for the same... Appreciate your help.
Click to expand...

These are not htpc boards. These are regular boards which can be used as htpcs. Infact there is no such thing as proper htpc board. My htpc has ASUS p5b deluxe. It's not an htpc board but I have still made a full blown htpc.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
 
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