Asus shows off HDMI-equipped Xonar DX and Xonar AV1 sound cards

Asus continues to crank up its media PC related offerings, its latest are two HDMI equipped sound cards aimed at HTPC users or prosumers. Next week at CeBIT expect to see the Xonar DX sound card, a slimmed-down edition of its Xonar D2X card made to fit any PCI-E x1 equipped computer. Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect support is still part of the package, plus EAX 5.0 compatibility. Next up is the Xonar AV1, complete with three HDMI jacks and Asus' Splendid HD chip to assist audio and video mastering. Price or release date on these is unknown but we're sure to get a closer look once the show starts.

[Hooterman @ Feb 28th 2008 11:05AM]

Holy cow, Asus is proving to be pretty serious about this soundcard thing.

Heads up Creative...

[Kurian @ Feb 28th 2008 12:31PM]

Its just a high quality digital output port. Its no match for an X-Fi.
I cant believe how people get scammed by buying these other brand sound cards to play games.
Games need EAX. Creative's X-Fi chipset is the ONLY one which has EAX 5 API.
Its the EAX API that causes all the awesome effects, distortions, room specific effects etc in games.

The Razer Barracude is the biggest scam of all. That PoS has EAX 2 support and they call it a gaming card. EAX 2!! TWO! 2!! Wtf. Onboard crap has EAX 2 support.

[Darkest Daze @ Feb 28th 2008 3:08PM]

You DID read that one part of the article stating that the Asus card will have EAX 5.0, right? Cause you just went rambling on about how EAX 5.0 is soo important totally ignoring that fact.

[Mad Dick Bones @ Feb 28th 2008 4:40PM]

People also use sound cards for purposes other than games... whic is why I ended up buying the Auzentech Xplosion. I listen to a lot more music than games so the Dolby Digital live is a great feature which the X-Fi cannot match

[Jason @ Feb 28th 2008 6:43PM]

Kurian don't be such a tool. How long have you worked for Creative? :rofl:

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 28th 2008 10:12PM]

Kurian, there is more to a good soundcard than the latest EAX support and the last I checked, all incarnations of EAX were almost heading out the door as far as future game development is concerned.

And if you are one of those who does not like Creative but demands the latest EAX 5 (or what ever), the go check out Auzentech who builds their own cards from their own designs and uses Creative audio processors.

http://www.auzentech.com

[JD9000 @ Feb 28th 2008 11:09AM]

I would like to see a covergance between PC video and sound. At this point, since all of the HDMI switching equipment can handle 1080P / 1900x1200, I would like to be able to have just one cable going from the PC to the receiver... and then connect my PC monitor and speakers to the receiver.

[Justin @ Feb 28th 2008 11:21AM]

The 2000 and 3000 series graphics card from ATI (or AMD I should say) already has audio controller that basically does the same thing. It doesnt actually produce sound but allows audio from your sound card to be streamed out from the hdmi port on the graphics card.

[looseinthedeuce @ Feb 28th 2008 11:30AM]

Justin's not quite right. You can get coax digital audio, which limits you to 2 channel PCM or DD/DTS bitstream. They don't have the capability of multi-channel PCM or DD TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstream. I would imagine that's what these new sound cards are doing.

At least that's what I've been waiting on...but even more would be a way to have either both video and audio in a single card or at least an internal jumper so I only have to run ONE A/V HDMI cable to get all the HD glory from my PC without the mess of analog audio cables I currently have.

[E71 @ Feb 28th 2008 1:30PM]

I agree, still waiting to see that happen -- stuck on 2ch. I'm using Zotac GeForce 8800 512MB PCI 2.0 with DVI + SPDIF Audio to HDMI.

[andyo @ Feb 28th 2008 7:57PM]

You don't need a sound card with the bells and whistles for HDMI audio (full 1.3a). You just need the port, as with the upcoming G45 mobos. Since all the processing is gonna be done in your receiver, you can just leave a high-end audio card out, but if you wish so, you can just get one without HDMI like the DX (which does *not* seem to have HDMI, Engadget!) and get all the features for analog audio. You can switch between 7.1 PCM HDMI and the sound card in Windows.

If you wanna get processing like Dolby Pro Logic IIx from the HDMI out, most if not all 7.1 HDMI audio receivers can do it for you, along with other processing. So, you just need the port, even if it's integrated in the motherboard, it won't take away quality.

[Shane @ Feb 28th 2008 11:13AM]

What, no Display Port interface? HDMI is so yesterday...

[Kyran @ Feb 28th 2008 11:31AM]

Dude, it's a sound card...

[Wwhat @ Feb 28th 2008 9:24PM]

Didn't displayport have improved sound capabilities over HDMI too?

[Shane @ Feb 29th 2008 12:02AM]

Jeez people, it was SARCASM! If the card supports HDMI it is obviously a bit more than merely a sound card. I was poking fun at the fact that if you believe some in the industry, HDMI's days are as numbered as DVI's. Personally, I think HDMI is just fine (as was DVI--though it is nice that HDMI carries audio) and Display Port is just another way to get more money from consumers in hardware upgrades. It's a technological solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

[Jonathon @ Feb 28th 2008 11:23AM]

Any chance for Linux support? It would be nice to have a single cable from my (soon to be built) MythTV box to my TV.

[Alexander @ Feb 28th 2008 11:35AM]

I'll hold my breath along with you.

Ready? GO!

[JD @ Feb 28th 2008 12:42PM]

Only problem is it's not a video card, it's a sound card. So You'd still need video out of your video card. However, you could probably zip-tie them together and get the appearance of 1 cable!

[rcappo @ Feb 28th 2008 3:16PM]

I have two wires coming out of my recently Mythbuntu HTPC. One DVI->HDMI for video and an optical toslink for audio. Both go to my receiver that does the switching for me between that and other video/audio HDMI sources.

[Sal @ Feb 28th 2008 11:27AM]

The only problem i have with this: PCI-E x1. That bitch is smacked inbetween the video cards. If you have this bad boy and lets say a 8800 ultra. That card is going to die from heat.

[JTM @ Feb 28th 2008 11:45AM]

You can put an x1 card in a 4/8/16 slot.

[SGAg07 @ Feb 28th 2008 12:17PM]

Many motherboards Ive seen have an x1 slot above the first video card...but it all depends on the particular board of course.

[Jacob N @ Feb 28th 2008 11:38AM]

I don't really get how this will work. would you have to run one HDMI cable for video, and another for audio, or would it like hook up with the graphics card through an internal cable? Or wait, is it possible to just send the video and audio through the sound card's HDMI? That doesn't sound quite right to me.

[Koolkid1935 @ Feb 28th 2008 12:57PM]

I think I saw a sound card not too long ago that had an HDMI input (to accept the HDMI output from the video card) and an HDMI output. The sound took the HDMI video then injects the sound into the signal then outputs both through the output. I would like to see in the (hopefully near) future maybe either an internal interface of some sort or some sort of a sound card/video card combo.

[OneLove @ Feb 28th 2008 2:59PM]

...then outputs both through the output. wah?

[strang @ Feb 28th 2008 12:03PM]

I would love to get my hands on one of these.

[Koolkid1935 @ Feb 28th 2008 1:04PM]

I didn't exactly word that right...What I meant was:
The sound takes the HDMI video from the video card then injects the sound into the signal then outputs both through the HDMI output on the sound card.

[The Truth @ Feb 28th 2008 1:08PM]

From the linked article:
In order to get the HDMI capability, Asus put some serious silicon on the board itself: "Splendid HD" no longer is a software feature, but rather supported through a real video processing chip that will mix the sound and audio in order to produce best possible A/V mix.

------

There is also on internal HDMI connector (above and rotated 90 degrees from the other two), so maybe this is where the hdmi from a video card can go.....

[superklye @ Feb 28th 2008 2:03PM]

sound and audio?

Thank God they're getting those properly mixed...

[Aaron @ Feb 28th 2008 1:19PM]

It sounds like this puts HD HTPC enthusiasts closer to the Holy Grail: A physical mechanism to output a *digital 7.1* lossless audio or PCM signal to the receiver. Am I right? And I'll save some people some trouble by saying that if you think you already get a 7.1 signal from your computer to your receiver, it is analog and lossy, not digital.

Now we just a few other odds and ends like some hardware/software protected pathway so Cyberlink PowerDVD does feel the need to downsample audio to regular DVD quality.

[Dave T @ Feb 29th 2008 1:14AM]

"It sounds like this puts HD HTPC enthusiasts closer to the Holy Grail: A physical mechanism to output a *digital 7.1* lossless audio or PCM signal to the receiver. Am I right? And I'll save some people some trouble by saying that if you think you already get a 7.1 signal from your computer to your receiver, it is analog and lossy, not digital.

Now we just a few other odds and ends like some hardware/software protected pathway so Cyberlink PowerDVD does feel the need to downsample audio to regular DVD quality."


I've heard the Intel G35 motherboards, like the Asus P5E-VM HDMI, can pass 7.1 channel LPCM at 24-bit/96kHz though HDMI now, so it's not just analog. Since I prefer using VGA on my HDTV because it's been more reliable, I'd probably just use HDMI to connect my soundcard to my receiver.

[wickedpheonix @ Feb 28th 2008 5:14PM]

If they're having HDMI on it...

Here's my setup - a 360, PC, X-Fi Fatal1ty, BenQ FP241W (with an HDMI port, no audio) Logitech 5.1 Surround Z-5300e (point being, analog only). If there's a HDMI-in and an HDMI-out port on this card, what I would like to see is if this card could take the audio and video signal in the HDMI-in port, strip off the audio and send the audio out by the triple 3.5mm jacks (I dunno, maybe there was a dongle or something) while sending just the video out by the HDMI-out port to my BenQ screen. If the card could do that and the price were right, I would definitely consider picking one of these up.

Considering EAX 5.0 - it's near worthless nowadays. Since Vista doesn't like EAX every developer has been using OpenAL for quite some time. I'm not saying EAX is bad, it's just going the way of the dinosaur. And besides, if Asus can supply decent Vista drivers (*ahem*, Creative?) then that's a good sign.

[Magallanes @ Feb 29th 2008 7:37AM]

Why Xonar, will be compatible with Cakewalk Sonar?.