4 questions about HD audio on ATI 4X0 cards...

[rojito]

Ok, to put it simple, I'm interested on having my computer plugged to a home theater system on another room, so what I need it to have audio over hdmi (if no luck over spdif) on the home theater and 5.1 analog on my computer. So the questions are these:

1) Does the radeon 4XX0 cards transmit everything (audio formats) over SPDIF? I know PCM is the only HD format it can handle, but is it able to transmit anyting below that?
2) can I have the audio over two different audio devices at the same time? meaning not needing to switch between HDMI (video card) when I'm watching movies to analog (audio card) when I'm at my desktop.
3) If 2 is not possible what's the best way to handle the situation?
4) since my HT receiver handles audio over HDMI, can I listen to music through my video card?

I'm basically interested in real experience.

 

[szwaba67]

What audio card do you have? Are you planning on using the same card for digital and analog? I've found that you won't be able to use both digital and analog at the same time on the same device. You can use two different devices, however, the software you are using will need to know which device to use.

For example, I have onboard sound which I use for analog, at the pc sound. This I have as windows default audio device. I also have a sound card which I use for spdif out to my receiver for when I play music. I use winamp for music (i'm old school) so I had to set winamp to use my sound card to render audio. That way I don't need to switch manually every time, however that also means i can listen to music at my pc without changing winamp to the onboard audio.

Not sure if any of that helps, newer hardware may be able to handle both so maybe others have had better experiences.

 

[Plyro109]

1) I can't help you much, there. :/
2) I have not tested it, but it should work....the program just has to be able to choose where it sends it's output.
3) Can't help you there, either.
4) It worked fine for me!