[Judas]

OK,

i've been seeing a number of motherboards... mostly namely the Asus boards being more prominent with this new Realtek ALC HD audio chip which even Realtek's own website doesn't list a damn thing about... hell according to thier readme file for the drivers, don't list it as a supported product..

So i decided to get a motherboard down with it.

First off:

While initial i tried the drivers (updated version off asus's own support center right off the bat), I ended up downloading the latest realtek HD codec driver set for vista x64. Even thought it doesn't show it as supported, it installed fine and actually did provide the proper driver update and fully fuctional Realtek Manager gui.


For features, it's pretty much identical to that of a ALC882/883/888 series realtek chipset, From what i can gather on it though, the chip is superiorer in it's quality aspects, a considerable improvement. However it doesn't have Anything Surround sound related in the digital area, or Dolby Digital LIVE! or DTS Connect for that matter, it DOES however include:

DTS ULTRA PC

From what it states, it allows anyone using a Stereo only set of speakers or headphones to produce a better then average surround sound. From my initial tests, it does alot better then the mostly "matrixed" or Virtual Surround sound i've heard previously on the other older realtek chipsets as well as other competeing onboard and add in cards. Definitely a plus for those using stereo only or headphones for that matter. Course it's all personal preference as well.


Aside from that, that's about it. If you looking for better features, The ALC889a chipset is still probably a bit better, but the quality won't be quite as good as the 1200 here.

Now i would expect that realtek will have a higherend 1200 series chip that includes a number of digital as well as analog bonuses such as Dolby Digital LIVE! or other such features.

So lets sum it up:


ALC1200

Latest drivers from Realtek.com.tw install and work perfectly.

Probably one of the best Analog only Quality onboard audio chip at present.
Lacking Digital (fiber/Coax)capabilities compared to the ALC889a
New Feature for those using Stereo/2channel/Headphones.

I approve of this chip. It's a good addition to realteks Onboard Audio solution.

[Judas]

[BlueMak]

Thank you for the info.

[GigaWatt]

a good review on the motherboard's audio card, still, it can't compare to any external sound card. but it's good to know that finaly there are quality onboard sound cards out there, and that the production will probaly continue , thanks for the info Judas.

[BlueMak]

I have the ASUS P5Q WS, and it has the ALC1200. My PC was pre built. I check the device manager and under sound it has these two listed.
ATI Function Driver for High Definition Audio - ATI AA01
Realtek High Definition Audio

I checked the realtek site and they still don't have a driver or even mention of the ALC1200. I use Vista 64. Should I just use the drivers for the realtek HD codecs?

[Judas]

yeah that's all i did... downloaded the latest drivers from realtek, the HD codec and installed them straight away. No problems.. latest set is working great for me.

I've noticed some improvements recently that trumps the older chipset in relation to using the realtek as 2 independant sound devices..... primary for speakers, 2ndary for headset.... some people have commented on my microphone quality.

[BlueMak]

Alright, I will give it a go later today, thank you.

[skutflut@gmail.com]

I have a problem with the ALC1200 driver (part of ASUS P5QL Pro board) on a Win XP pro system. When I go to the Windos XPrecording contol panel, it shows multiple sliders, including Line in, Mic, Stereo Mix and CD. It also has a master recording level control. The problem is that the 4 channel sliders are greyed out and cannot be moved so that levels between the four sources can be balanced against each other. The Output control panel is fine, and everything there can be adjusted as required and then controlled by the master volume control.

I checked on the realtek control panel and the problem exists there as well, except that the sliders on the Rexording input control are not even visible.

Anybody have a cure for this problem?

[Judas]

unfortunately i've never installed windows XP on a ALC1200 series, frankly last time i had windows xp was using the ALC882 on the Asus ATI Xpress 3200 socket 939 board.

Sorry i'm of no help here with windows xp.. hopefully another user here knows...

[Drunik]

I cant install Realtek sound on ALC1200 under Windows XP x64. There is unidentified Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus. Newest drivers from realte.com.tw isn't work for me.
MB: Asus P5Q Pro.
Could anybody help me?

[Judas]

you may need the HD Audio patch/update from microsoft before you can install the realtek HD audio drivers

[Drunik]

Originally Posted by Judas

you may need the HD Audio patch/update from microsoft before you can install the realtek HD audio drivers

This patch is already integrated into Service Pack 2 for my system. There is Microsoft High Definition Audio Bus system device in device manager.

[Judas]

ah.. sorry

i'm still used to my last experience with windows xp x64 where it was sp1 and sp2 hadn't arrived.

you may have to try the manufacturer supplied driver just to see.. then installed "overtop" with the realtek for a more recent driver...... see if that works.... no guarantees... i've completely dropped my xp support here.

[ReaLm]

Hi,
I've recently purchased some new hardware .
my new mob is a P5Q PRO that's equiped with a Realtek ALC1200 sound chip.

Driver install was not so easy but finally it worked.

I have one big problem: what ever option i choose: 2 channel, 4 channel, etc.
the sound level that comes out of the speakers is really very soft.
I tried to set all possible volume levels to max but still it is very soft.
I have used the same speakers on a previous asus board an78x-x zith a real tec alc'97 chip and here the sound level was much more louder.

I even tried to install the standard realtec HD audio driver: it works but same result.

Is this normal. it should be possible without amplifier to get some decent sound level. How come ?????

Any body had the same problem or knows a secret setting?????

[Judas]

since the introduction of the HD audio solution, no unamplified set of speakers produces "loud" volumes..... they were never ment to.

The 1200 series hooked up to unamped speakers will get you what you explain as "soft" audio, actually some speakers that are not amplified almost produce no audioable sound at all really.

What type of speakers are you running?

[ReaLm]

Hi, i use Creative EP-360 Stereo Earphones, i can't understand this Realtek panel, why when i plug-in to pc EARPHONES, Realtek can't support this, and understanding of standart speaker. I have old motherboard, P5B-VM these realtek chipset, very good, and understand where are standart speakers, where are a headphones or earphones. And sound level have very beautifull. Why P5Q this can't do?

(Sorry for my bad english)

[Judas]

headphones should be quite loud with the realtek chipset... sorry i thought you were referring to actual speakers... passive speakers... which simply wouldn't do....

earphones should definitely produce plenty of volume. When you plug in the headphones nothing occurs?

[pollux]

Hi !
I have an asus P5Q-pro with onboard ALC1200, running vista 64.
It's working perfectly, but I'm trying to achieve something a bit 'special'

It's 7.1, but I dont have any 7.1 system.
I'd like to use it to ouput 2.0 to 3 sound devices.

I tried for example to plug my headset to the side suround speaker (it's a grey jack), but I dont get correct sound, since it's spacialized ...

Is there a way to have all speakers play the same 2.0 output ?
or even better, to play differents 2.0 output I could then tune (like volume / balance settings and mixing from differents sources, like line in or different applications ...)

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask though ... but any idea would be welcome...
thanks

[Judas]

erm, not really a good way to do that aside from using only the front and rear as options and then using vista to set Quadrophonic (but if i recall that doesn't provide the options for 2x stereo mode)

The only REAL way to do it without issue but could induce a little noise (maybe) is to purchase a dual or triple head adapter.

What it is, is that it's a male 3.5mm jack that plugs into the green port, from there it provides 2 or 3 female stereo 3.5 jacks allowing you to plug in as you wanted, 2 or 3 stereos all sharing the same identical stereo sound. I've tried this on a few systems including realteks ALC1200 and it does work very well (for me at least)

Those adapters are actually quite cheap, and should be available from any audio store that provides a large list of cable connectors and adapters.

[GigaWatt]

not a great idea Judas... some of the devices connected through the adapter, like amplifiers, headphones, etc, might interfere with each other... the amp might get a recursive feedback from the headphones from it's input and vice versa...

you could probably use Morgan Stream Switcher but this is only a direct show filter which will probably only work with DVD movies played by players who use direct show filters...

[Judas]

The adapter i'm using doesn't allow for feedback.... it's a small little box... I Do know of some pretty horrible connections that go both way resulting in some nasty results.... but then you gotta do a little research on it.

[NanooseGuy]

I have the new Asus M4A79 Deluxe with the Realtek ALC1200 onboard. I also have the Radeon ATI HD4870 graphics card. I am running Vista 64-bit.

I have two questions that I am hoping can be answered here:

1. Realtek driver problems - the driver that came with system (6.0.1.5657) doesnt work properly. I was able to get things working by deleting this driver completely (uninstall didn`t work). The Vista drivers seem to be working. Is there any benefit in quality from trying to get the Realtek drivers to work or should I just use the Vista default drivers É Suggestions É
2. What differences is audio quality are there between Realtek ALC1200 and the HDMI audio output from the Radeon HD4870 graphics cardÉ. Which is better É

P.S. This is my first post here. For some reason question marks appear as: É

[Judas]

1: mostly it's fuctionality, features and a few other "audio solutions" that the official drivers do, i'm unaware of the specific drivers that came with the board... but i highly recommend you get the latest Vista drivers from realtek. Realtek is the official site. you'll need to download the Realtek HD Audio drivers/codec file.

Alternatively , i usually go to www.majorgeeks.com and search for the latest version as the realtek download can be extremely slow at times.

2: there is mostly no difference between the alc1200 and hdmi audio in a digital format, the HD4870's hdmi is limited to 2 channel stereo only or passthrough digital audio which is essentially similare, my hd4870 with hdmi is limited to 48hz stereo though where as the realtek is capable of 192khz.

IMO you'll have an easier time with realtek.

Just download the Realtek supplied drivers and install it.... you shouldn't have a single hitch.

[NanooseGuy]

Ok, I'm downloading drivers now.

What about the installed Vista HD ausio drivers? Do I need to delete or uninstall them or is the new Realtek driver smart enough to handle this situation? ( I suspect that it was these installed Vista drivers that were causing me the probems [spurious noise]).

[Judas]

The drivers that come with vista you can just install over top...

[NanooseGuy]

Well I downloaded realtek (R2.17) 6.0.1.5794 dated yesterday. I deleted the default Vista audio drivers and installed this driver. Unfortunately I have the same old problem = spurious noise.

Intitally I thought that this might be a hardware problem but the problem is solved by deleting the Realtek driver and letting Vista install its default drivers.

If anyone from Realtek is monitoring they may want to test out my configuration. The system is a brand new build with standard components, nothing special except for 8 GB of RAM.

Suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Judas]

While i don't have the same board as you.. i'm using pretty much the identical thing

ALC1200
HD4870 with HDMI
windows Vista 64bit
(used 4/8/16gb of ram)


How are you connected to the realtek chipset? (Digital via coax/fiber or Analog? )

[NanooseGuy]

I have two small stereo speakers connected to the rear, 2-channel (Analog) line out (lime green) and my stereo headset is connected to a 2-channel analog output jack on the front of my computer case (also lime green).

Previously, when I did some more thorough testing of 6.0.1.5657 (that required moving my computer to be near my stereo system) I discovered that the digital S/PDIF output was also not working. Removing the Realtek driver corrected this problem as well.

[NanooseGuy]

Judas, are you using the special ATI DVI to HDMI Dongle? (you mention HDMI in a previous post).

[Judas]

No, using the direct HDMI connection off the card...

On the other 4870 i had, the DVI to HDMI dongle would not work at all... period.... no video nothing.. even after swapping through a number of the adapters and cables i had here.. it refused to show anything on my hdtv.

so i replaced the card with a 4870 with a HDMI connector right on it.