Dolby Digital on the fly encoding is here!

Socio · Feb 19, 2005, 02:49 PM

Check out this new PCI based soundcard with on the fly DD encoding, works with games and everything else it will even upconvert 2 channel to 5.1!

HDA Digital X Mystique 7.1 gold

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20448

You can buy one here:

http://www.price4you.co.kr/shop/sub_...pnyc=pba51&buy=#

The DD on the fly encoding is software based but causes very little cpu overhead, read more here:

http://www.cmedia.com.tw/product/CMI8768_plus.htm

It is also rumored that the drivers and software can be used on any card with the CMI8768 8ch+ chip. I do not know if the driver have to be modified to make them work or if the drivers or software can be made to work on other cards. You can download the drivers here and try your own experiments

:

http://digitalaudio.co.kr/xm71.rar

**dj_stick** · Feb 19, 2005, 07:51 PM

mmm nForce soundstorm, Intel Azalia… but this looks like the first expansion card version

Socio · Feb 19, 2005, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

mmm nForce soundstorm, Intel Azalia… but this looks like the first expansion card version

Yes that is what I ment, first PCI based sound card with on the fly DD encoding.

**dj_stick** · Feb 19, 2005, 09:22 PM

mmm i wonder how many standard SPDIF inputs this thing has… if its 3, you might be able to chain an Audigy 2 ZS to this thing

Socio · Feb 20, 2005, 01:00 AM

Interesting idea,

Likewise, if you had 4 stereo analog inputs on that card perhaps you could do 7.1 from the ZS thus beable to do DD EAX 4 in 7.1.

**dj_stick** · Feb 20, 2005, 01:07 AM

keep them SPDIF inputs, no ADC/DAC distortion/quality loss… the ZS has 4 SPDIF outputs…

Socio · Feb 22, 2005, 04:00 PM

I am going to try and get one of these cards and see,

This card will output 16/ 41.1 - 24/48 or 24/96 so besides the EAX stuff it would be interesting to hear a CD played using ASIO and outputting 24/96 DD or ASIO upconverted to 5.1 DD.

**dj_stick** · Feb 22, 2005, 07:50 PM

you won't notice a difference in sound quality. CDs are 16/44.1. Upsampling does nothing

Socio · Feb 22, 2005, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

you won't notice a difference in sound quality. CDs are 16/44.1. Upsampling does nothing

In my case I might because I would be out putting it in digital instead of analog to my receiver thus using a better quality DAC on my receiver.

[color=#000000]Besides that I am more curious about upping a 2 channel CD from ASIO to DD 5.1, I know that the settings for 5.1 on the card are adjustable in the software like the AC3Filter so it can be tweaked, I know it won't be multi channel SACD quality but I bet it would sound pretty damn good. [/color]

[color=#000000] [/color]

Socio · Feb 23, 2005, 01:36 PM

Looks like you can only get two Digital inputs and you would need to purchase the Digital I/O HDA-X10 S/PDIF Input Extension board for the X Mystique card to get them.

Here is a pic of the extension board for the curious:

xzero1 · Jul 23, 2005, 01:41 AM

I have the card. There is a lot I like about it BUT consider this: If I disable the card (device manager) Doom3 timedemo (sound is off) increases about 5 FPS to 37. Aquamark3 also shows a similar increase. The drivers must always be using cpu. Note: this is analog out only (DDL is even worse). This means more performance hit than previously seen but a sneaky way to hide it since it wont show up in the baseline. I don't know if or how much loss is incurred with other cards. Can someone test this with other sound cards for comparison. Can someone with this card try it themselves. My system is athlon xp 2000+.

Turdhat · Jul 28, 2005, 04:07 PM

I am seeing a big hit from this card just being enabled in device manager. For instance:

Call of duty bench with HDA on 143.
Call of Duty bench with HDA off and sblive enabled in device manager 176 (you can switch between the two for a/b comparison)

Counter Strike Source stress test with HDA 138
Same with Sblive 180 !

Thats a giant hit ! Call of Duty OU online feels much choppier to me and I am still troubleshooting to see if its the card or sopme weird conflct. I have emailed bluegears and awit their responce.

Feb 19, 2005, 02:49 PM	#1
Socio DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 82 Rep Power: 0	PCI based Dolby Digital on the fly encoding is here! Check out this new PCI based soundcard with on the fly DD encoding, works with games and everything else it will even upconvert 2 channel to 5.1! HDA Digital X Mystique 7.1 gold http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20448 You can buy one here: http://www.price4you.co.kr/shop/sub_...pnyc=pba51&buy=# The DD on the fly encoding is software based but causes very little cpu overhead, read more here: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/product/CMI8768_plus.htm It is also rumored that the drivers and software can be used on any card with the CMI8768 8ch+ chip. I do not know if the driver have to be modified to make them work or if the drivers or software can be made to work on other cards. You can download the drivers here and try your own experiments : http://digitalaudio.co.kr/xm71.rar Last edited by Socio; Feb 19, 2005 at 05:38 PM.

Feb 20, 2005, 01:00 AM	Thread Starter #5
Socio DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 82 Rep Power: 0	Interesting idea, Likewise, if you had 4 stereo analog inputs on that card perhaps you could do 7.1 from the ZS thus beable to do DD EAX 4 in 7.1.

Feb 22, 2005, 04:00 PM	Thread Starter #7
Socio DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 82 Rep Power: 0	I am going to try and get one of these cards and see, This card will output 16/ 41.1 - 24/48 or 24/96 so besides the EAX stuff it would be interesting to hear a CD played using ASIO and outputting 24/96 DD or ASIO upconverted to 5.1 DD.

Feb 23, 2005, 01:36 PM	Thread Starter #10
Socio DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 82 Rep Power: 0	Looks like you can only get two Digital inputs and you would need to purchase the Digital I/O HDA-X10 S/PDIF Input Extension board for the X Mystique card to get them. Here is a pic of the extension board for the curious:

Jul 23, 2005, 01:41 AM	#11
xzero1 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0	I have the card. There is a lot I like about it BUT consider this: If I disable the card (device manager) Doom3 timedemo (sound is off) increases about 5 FPS to 37. Aquamark3 also shows a similar increase. The drivers must always be using cpu. Note: this is analog out only (DDL is even worse). This means more performance hit than previously seen but a sneaky way to hide it since it wont show up in the baseline. I don't know if or how much loss is incurred with other cards. Can someone test this with other sound cards for comparison. Can someone with this card try it themselves. My system is athlon xp 2000+.

Jul 28, 2005, 04:07 PM	#12
Turdhat DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	I am seeing a big hit from this card just being enabled in device manager. For instance: Call of duty bench with HDA on 143. Call of Duty bench with HDA off and sblive enabled in device manager 176 (you can switch between the two for a/b comparison) Counter Strike Source stress test with HDA 138 Same with Sblive 180 ! Thats a giant hit ! Call of Duty OU online feels much choppier to me and I am still troubleshooting to see if its the card or sopme weird conflct. I have emailed bluegears and awit their responce.