Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 HDMI sound card does bitstream output from your HTPC
by Darren Murph 
posted Jun 20th 2008 at 11:33AM
Earlier this month, ASUS introduced the "world's first HDMI 1.3a compliant audio / video enhancement combo card." Who knew numero dos was so close behind? Auzentech has just announced its very own HDMI 1.3-native PCIe audio combo card, which is built around Creative's X-Fi processor and enables PC users to easily output 7.1-channel audio with no downsampling. Essentially, the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 "accepts video from either an internal or external connection, mixes it with digital audio, and outputs the combined video and lossless multichannel audio via a single HDMI 1.3 port." Yep, that means Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs are fully supported. The only digs? For one, pricing remains a mystery, but the real kicker is the September release -- talk about a long wait.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jimmy @ Jun 20th 2008 12:55PM
I am thinking of building a new home theater PC and this may just be the card I go with. However, as far as I can tell neither this card nor the Asus card have been tested.
Apparently the sound card can accept video from the video card and then combine that with the generated sound. I wonder how they synchronize the audio with the video? I imagine that there would be some sort of small delay. If they are just doing a pass-through of the video and injecting audio into the stream then I suppose there would be almost no delay. At least not enough delay to notice.
I also wonder why Creative has not announced a product like this. Both this device and the Asus device use Creative chips.
Cossa @ Jun 20th 2008 2:00PM
Bitstream is great, for people who have a receiver that can decode the various high def codecs. PCM is better for HDMI receivers that can not decode HD audio. Will this card support PCM?
dj496 @ Jun 21st 2008 6:58AM
People are preferring the Asus HDAV1.3 by far, mainly because:
- it comes out earlier (July)
- it has *confirmed* 8ch LPCM support, (unlike this, everyone's in the dark).
- There's no update about an Auzentech HDMI add-on card, which people have been investing in Meridians and Preludes for since around July last year when Auzentech gave their original promises of an HDMI add-on!
The only problem with both, is what price? Hopefully competition will play a role, but that might not happen until both are out on market.
Rulother @ Jun 21st 2008 3:41PM
Whoopie it comes out earlier, does that mean you should jump the gun just cause it comes out earlier? If you're the kind of impatient guy that loves to waste money sure, otherwise it would be smarter to wait until each are reviewed and compared side by side. This device supports 7.1 just the same as the Asus device or 8channel if you wanna hear that instead (same thing).
The other thing is, the add on that allows for the users to get analog output for the Asus card (which is nice for users without a HD reciever) probably won't come with the entry level unit and will most likely come with a nice extra price tag as well. I imagine this one will most likely be cheaper as compared to the Asus variant.
DiscoPanda @ Jul 20th 2008 5:17PM
Silly question perhaps, but the tech specs say it supports 1080p@60Hz, but what if that's not what my graphics card is outputting? What if its 1080p@24 or 72 or whatever else.