HDMI carry Audio? HD Audio?

[edmc]

In another thread, a very interesting and important topic is only tersely discussed and needs more detail w.r.t. the actual feature set of the Fit-PC 2.

That thread asked for S/PDIF as a wish list item to which irads responded "No. fit-PC2 does not bring out digital audio." Alarming if true to say the least. Of course irads could have been solely referring to the 1/8" plugs the original poster was asking about. Let's very much hope so.

Several descriptions of Fit-PC 2 have reiterated support for "DVI via HDMI connector" thus drawing even more confusion onto what should have been a rather straight forward topic.

Let's get specific and clear the air with respect to what is supported over that "HDMI connector":

HDMI 1.1?
HDMI 1.3?
720p60?
1080i60?
1080p60?
8-channel (digital) audio?
AC3 (5.1 Dolby Digital) audio?
DTS audio?
Dolby TrueHD audio?
DTS-HD Master Audio?

Enquiring minds would like to know

[dako]

From what I've heard the HDMI-port is only used to carry the DVI-signal. They probably chose that over mini-DVI (as depicted on some Fit-PC2 images) as it's a more common type of video connection.

Also it says nothing about digital audio in the specifications.

I'm sure irads will clear things up her soon

[irads]

The display output brings out DVI-D - not HDMI, no audio, no HDCP. It does that through a HDMI connector that can be connected through HDMI cable directly to an HDMI flat-screen TV or through HDMI to DVI adaptor to a DVI display.

[edmc]

Thanks for the clarification, irads.

That about sums up the limitations on this thing being used as an HTPC alas... Maybe the next version... Still plenty of great target use cases for this slick little box!

[Jethro]

Another solution is to connect a USB soundcard that has S/PDIF optical out. But that somewhat defeats the purpose of having everyting in a small box.

I wonder why this technical specification was not addressed during design. I mean: why promote the Fit-PC2 as capable of HD playback without incorporating a proper option for sound output? Not through HDMI, let alone through optical output....

Please tell me upcoming versions do have this!

[irads]

In order to have HDMI there needs to be SDVO to HDMI chipsets and supporting drivers. During the development of fit-PC2 this eco-system was not in place, that's why there is no HDMI support for fit-PC2.

[Jethro]

Not familiar with the Fit-PC2's motherboard specifications, I guess you would need an additional interface chip that it is now lacking, something like a CH7315B HDMI transmitter. I guess this would also allow for playing from a(n external) BluRay drive, since HDCP will then be supported.

However, I can imagine there is an additional solution. Most networked media tanks (NMT), such as the Popcornhour A110, are not even capable of playing (De-CSS) a DVD from an external USB DVD drive, let alone play BluRay content- yet these players have optical out (Dolby DTS).
As far as I can see, all it takes is a soundcard (either internally - which would be the prefered solution - or externally, for example by using a USB soundcard) which has support for digital, multi-channel sound. By the looks of NMT sales, most people are more than satisfied with this option.

I have started a topic for enthusiasts on Tweakers.net, one of the biggest tech-sites in The Netherlands and I already noticed that the limited options for sound output has tempered the initial positive responses because this does put a bit of a blot on the usability of the Fit-PC2 as a HTPC. That's why I certainly hope that this may give rise to the development of a Fit-PC2 HT or something similar: a version of the Fit-PC2 with digital sound output, which addresses this issue.

[edmc]

However, I can imagine there is an additional solution. Most networked media tanks (NMT), such as the Popcornhour A110, are not even capable of playing (De-CSS) a DVD from an external USB DVD drive, let alone play BluRay content- yet these players have optical out (Dolby DTS).
As far as I can see, all it takes is a soundcard (either internally - which would be the prefered solution - or externally, for example by using a USB soundcard) which has support for digital, multi-channel sound. By the looks of NMT sales, most people are more than satisfied with this option.

Just want this comment to be as complete as possible ...

All of the NMT products (i.e. the "original" A-100, the DTS-licensed A-110 upgrade to the A-100, and tbe B-110 "bareboard" version of the A-110) not only support digital audio but can pass this over the HDMI connector. This despite the original A-100 being spec'd as only HDMI 1.1 btw.

Hard to understand the omission of true HDMI in the Fit-PC2 with all the "HD Audio" hype on the front page of the new site I gotta admit.

For those needing true HDMI-carrying Audio, there's an explosion of options arriving shortly (e.g. ASUS B-204/206/208, and the extremely cost effective Acer Hornet to name a few). Each of these, however, are about 2.5X the volume of the Fit-PC2 and draw 4X the power. Hence, my preference that the Fit-PC2 had adequately addressed Audio-over-HDMI