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Have I made the wrong decision?

Yup Black Hole, which is why I bought one in 2012 - more powerful than Windows Media, less powerful than MythTV, but also less cost and fuss! (and a reasonable if not ideal subsititute for Toppy/Mystuff functionality)

Graham, interested in your views on sound. Are you saying a digital link from PC to AV amp is not affected by having a hi(ish) end sound card? If so, are you saying the digital signal is not affected by any differences in sound card, perhaps because any difference in sound cards (maybe in timing/jitter) are masked by a lower quality coming off the signal?

Actually my situation is different. My hifi amp (expensive, much loved and not about to be changed) only has analogue inputs so I am more affected by any differences in the D/A conversion process in the sound cards/mainboard. Or are you saying these would be also impercetpaible? If so, why I wonder?

Ron
 
Basically taking broadcast TV. The audio is digital and uses a lossy codec. SD channels use mpeg1 layer 2 (MP2) audio, HD channels on Freeview use the more efficient and fully surround capable aac audio. Many amps require this to be recoded to Dolby Digital. Before these digital outputs get sent to your speakers, this needs converting to analogue (2 channels or 5 channels - up to 8 for media files (counting the bass extension .1 as a seperate channel). If you are using a high class sound card to drive computer speakers then yes the quality of the digital analogue converter and the sound card analogue pre-amp output will make a difference. If however you send this data by hdmi (which supports higher end codecs like DTS-HD) or S/Pdif to a quality AV amplifier then all this processing is done within the amplifier, in this event there won't be much different in sound cards provided they support outputting the original sound data as is. In your case presumably you need to convert the audio to 2 channel analogue stereo so yes a good sound card could well make a difference. Blu-ray has the currrent highest quality lossless digital audio formats which are only deliverable by a hdmi cable.
 
I would say most the advantages of a high-end sound card are in the way it handles D-A (and A-D) conversions, so it depends where the D-A conversion is going to happen, Graham was talking about the D-A taking place in an AV amp and in this case a high-end sound card isn't going to help. If you have a choice as to where the A-D conversion is going to take place, I would suggest that an AV amp. is will be be a much better location than the very digitally noisy environment of a P.C.
 
Ezra Pound said:
I would say most the advantages of a high-end sound card are in the way it handles D-A (and A-D) conversions, so it depends where the D-A conversion is going to happen, Graham was talking about the D-A taking place in an AV amp and in this case a high-end sound card isn't going to help. If you have a choice as to where the A-D conversion is going to take place, I would suggest that an AV amp. is will be be a much better location than the very digitally noisy environment of a P.C.
Click to expand...

My full HD Core I7 laptop only has a built in stereo soundcard which isn't much use for anything requiring multichannel sound output. For example playing back a blu-ray or more particulary editing surround sound mixes in a video editing suite and being able to audition the result

I use one of these

http://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x-fi-surround-5-1-pro

combined with a S/Pdif and DVI to HDMI combiner.


The HDMI output of the combiner connects to a spare HDMI input on the my Denon AV amp.

It works very well. But clearly doesnt have that much relevance to what RON347 want's to achieve.
 
Thx folk, makes good sense. Although - depending on how 'lossy' the codec is - I might guess that the difference between a good and less good card may not be as profound as I hoped.

Considering the pcs use as a madia player, I tried playing wav files through the soundcard (Delta 66), and it sounded good, although lacking some of the subtlety of direct CD playback. At that stage I considered something similar to your creative device (I think it was an arcam) but by then the price was getting stoopid. Sounds like, considering what you say about loss, that was a good decision.

Perhaps something to 'play' with over the Easter break.
 
Pravda, get the HDR Fox T2. I very much doubt that you'll regret it, auto decryption and much more with the custom firmware.
 
Last night my T2 booted and insisted out-of-the-blue that the hard drive must be reformatted. However, with support on these forums I was able to telnet in and launch disc repair routines included with the custom firmware to recover the drive and restore my recordings, etc., instead. I strongly recommend that only Humax PVRs capable of running the custom firmware be bought, i.e. currently the T2 only.
 
My T2 packed up when 11 months old. Had it been 13 months I would have had a fight on to get it replaced. I don't think the issue is quite as clear cut as you make out.
 
colirv said:
My T2 packed up when 11 months old. Had it been 13 months I would have had a fight on to get it replaced. I don't think the issue is quite as clear cut as you make out.
Click to expand...
If it was bought new (not grade A refurb) then it would have had a 2 year warranty (if you registered it that is).
 
I have four HDR-FOXes in my care, at a variety of ages up to Aug 2010, two of them refurbs - no problems at all (not hardware, anyway).
 
Between myself, my Aunt and my parents I have three HDR Fox T2 in my care. None have exhibited any hardware problems. Mine is considerably older than the other two.
 
This sounds like great news! I shall dispense with my supply of capacitors, solder and spare hardrives forthwith!:D
 
If anything is going to break those are the most likely (but not the only), but parts can die in storage too...
 
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