Onboard HDMI - Are we there yet?

ddrueding

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Right now I'm looking at one of these that uses the Intel H57 Express chipset.

Will this (or any) onboard HDMI port give me all the video and audio capabilities necessary for BlueRay? This system won't have room for any expansion cards.
 

ddrueding

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From what I understand, the H57 is one step down from the top-of-the-line Q57. Unfortunately the only Q57 on Newegg is ASUS, which I think has an extra "U" in it.
 

Pradeep

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Pretty sure only the AMD based boards provide multi-channel lossless audio through the HDMI port.

If you can switch to AM3 then something like this with the 4200 video should outperform the i3 video, I believe it supports the AMD UVD1 spec (which covers AVC blu-ray decoding etc), the current 5xxx series does UVD2 on all but the lowest end cards, and supports dual streams of HD decoding:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130247

Are you looking for an HTPC type machine? Or is it just a compact box for the office?
 

Pradeep

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AMD integrates their Unified Video Decoder 2.0 (UVD 2.0) capabilities into the 780G. UVD 2.0 offers hardware acceleration for decoding VC-1, H.264 (AVC), WMV, and MPEG-2 sources up to 1080p resolutions. Advanced de-interlacing is available when using a Phenom processor. We generally found CPU utilization rates and output quality to be near or equal to that of the HD 3450.

Keep in mind this article is nearly two years old:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3258&p=2

A couple of months should see the intro of more boards supporting USB3 and SATA 6gbit.
 

Stereodude

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The ATI integrated solutions suck.

1) They're unable to parse EDID correctly and there is no workaround for XP.

2) It can't do 5.1 or 7.1 LPCM or bitstreaming the new codecs.
 

Stereodude

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Yeah, wait for them to introduce new features while not fixing the bugs of the previous generation. That's a great strategy. ;)
 

Pradeep

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Well I think one thing we have all learnt is that when it comes to claims of HDMI multichannel lossless/bitstreaming, until it's actually reviewed and tested to work it's all a bunch of empty promises.
 

Stereodude

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Too bad the hardware reviewers are inept when it comes to testing the audio capabilities of HDMI equipped video cards.
 

Stereodude

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Way too much money IMHO. $250 for the Auzentech... I'll just wait one more generation for nVidia to add bitstreaming to their video cards. My GF9300 IGP is doing fine for now.
 

MaxBurn

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Yeah, we are in a weird position here where the set top players have been around for a while and we even have several media player box devices that can do the hi def sound over HDMI but PC's are still stuck in the DVI way of thinking. Could use those markets to converge yesterday.
 

Mercutio

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I don't get it. Why would anyone want HDMI in the first place? Isn't it just DVI + sound + hardware copy protection crap? Enlighten me.

Single cable connection for audio and video, plus a level of sound quality from some sources (Bluray Discs) that is not available otherwise.
 

Stereodude

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I don't get it. Why would anyone want HDMI in the first place? Isn't it just DVI + sound + hardware copy protection crap? Enlighten me.
Pay to play... If you want to play Blu-Ray and get full quality audio your only choice is to pay via HDMI. Come 2013 they are going to sunset the analog outputs for Blu-Ray players, so any new players will only have digital outputs (HDMI).
 
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