ATI Avivo Video and Display Engine - Technology Discussion
Quote:
ATI seek to please with a next generation of video capture, display output and video controllers under the Avivo umbrella. Related to display output, Avivo fixes my whinge with a pair of dual-link DVI outputs, fitted to the low-end up (!) via two built-in TMDS transmitters, and brings the rest of the video path, from input to output, up to modern standards.
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xNjIy
Audio side of things - HDMI
Rys,
thanks for the interesting article. :thumbsup: I think it was well balanced - easy to grasp but still full of new info (at least for me... :P )
One question:
Quote from the article: "HDCP is required for HD video (and audio over HDMI) display on HD-able displays, lest the Avivo engine downscale to 480p (or something else, it's unconfirmed as yet but likely 480p)."
Do you have any idea will the future ATI (AIW?)-products (or Nvidia's, for that matter) allow outputting audio over the HDMI, too?
I would think this would be a logical thing to do, as the version 1.1 of HDMI supports full-scale (hi-res, multichannel) audio over the HDCP-encryted interface.
Many PC-displays, shamefully, still lack even basic HDCP-support, but many consumer receivers and TVs already support HDMI, some of them even v.1.1. (1.0 supported only 2-ch PCM or DD/DTS-level bitstream audio over the HDMI). And as Creative and other sound card manufacturers do not seem to have any plans to use HDMI in the near future, we won't have use for the audio side of HDMI unless motherboard- or graphics-card -makers implement the audio side, too. If I've understood correctly, products based on Intel's HDA -standard would have the necessary support for all the channels etc., but I'm not certain about their DRM / HDCP -implementations. Neither have I heard any of them mentioning HDMI. :confused:
So I think (and hope) it would be logical for the graphics card makers to implement the audio side, too, when they introduce their first HDMI-products. I, for one, would not mind paying Creative nothing when I build my next HTPC, if I had the basic digital audio connections and HDMI on the video card or mobo. Would be nice to build a HTPC without the need for separate sound card, just output everything digitally to the display and sound system via a HDMI-equipped pre/pro/receiver... :D
Gaming is a totally different game, of course, at the moment at least.
I know that the market penetration of HDMI is not yet broad and there are many questions regarding for example which component does what in a HDMI-chain. But I think HDMI is here to stay, and I'm frustrated that I don't yet know which component will do the audio side of things. :undecided
Keep up the good work! :)
Wbr, Tatu