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I have the RME fireface UC for my home theatre PC.
It has 6 Balanced outputs and 1 unbalanced headphone jack.
I route the L,R into the sub, and use the sub crossover for bass mangement, I also send the LFE channel through the L and R in RME totalmix software (which is awesome BTW) the have centre SR SL and RL out of the other balanced outputs and the RR out of the unbalanced headphone output.
It's using all the analogue outputs but works very well.
(The benefit of balanced outputs is you don't get ground loops inherent with active speaker setups, amongst other things)
My monitors are active (amp built in), as this is a better solution I find, If you spec'd up a passive speaker with matching (bi-amped) amplifiers and a dedicated hardware crossover you will be paying a lot of money to get even close to the sound quality of a mid range active setup.
The RME has superior DAC's to most (possibly all!) home theatre decoders and also has one of the most stable word clocks on the planet. This makes a huge difference in sound quality too.
The RME also has ADAT so I can add a lot more balanced outputs (perfect for atmos) as required.
A decoder is more expensive, doesn't have balanced outputs (unless you spend a lot of money) the routing isn't as flexible (check out RME total mix) it isn't expandable (RME has ADAT) , isn't future proofed (no having to buy new receivers/decoders/amps for 3d, 4k, DTS-HD, atmos, HDMI 2.0 (or whatever hoop they want you to upgrade to next) with the RME, Just good old fashioned balanced TRS/XLR outputs and USB, so it's also cheaper in the long term and short term.
The question is why are people buying all this consumer equipment when you can have a lot better setup that will last a lot longer?
Who would want to bitstream when powerDVD does the decoding for you and the audiointerface can do what it does best (digital to analogue conversion)
I also use an apogee setup for my mac home studio, but that's another thread.
It's the powerDVD channel limit that is restricting. + there is an option for 'use windows speaker configuration' so it would be nice to get an update from microsoft too.
If these receivers and decoders have firmware updates to enable atmos power DVD should have them very soon I would hope.
ASIO is for low latency recording/monitoring and is used for music production, it won't be utilised in powerDVD and the likes.
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I don't agree with your last statement.
Many av receivers have added support with a firmare update so it can't be that hard to implement. Bluray players support it too.
Also my soundcard drivers allow me to route my inputs and outputs anywhere (including adat out) for 100's of tracks for use in a daw.
It's just essentially panning info and as cyberlink pay for dolby licensing anyway (I assume) they should already have the license to do it.
I would have thought it would have been on pc way before being supported in firmare updates for AV receivers.
Don't cyberlink read their own forums, a estimated release date would be nice to know.
Thanks for the link!
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Go to the 3d settings and make sure you have 'side by side' or 'over under' selected.
Sometimes the auto format detection function chooses the wrong option!
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Quote:
Sorry, Billy7, but you are thoroughly confused, on several fronts. For starters, Atmos data is only 'in' the 7.1 stream insofar it's packed on top of it, as it were, as metadata. As such, the entire stream naturally uses more disc space. In a recent interview With Dolby, their spokesman said:
Q: How much extra disc space will an Atmos track take up on a Blu-ray? Are studios likely to have to choose between either Atmos or 3D in order to maintain a decent video bit-rate, or can a Blu-ray accommodate both Atmos and 3D on the same disc without too much compromise?
A: This depends on the complexity of the content itself. Our initial goals are to minimize overhead to 20% or less. We don’t expect video bitrates to be compromised [due to] the addition of the Dolby Atmos soundtrack on a Blu-ray disc.
So, about 20% it is (and no magical 0%, as you were suggesting). Reading your earlier statements, it's clear your 0% confusion stems from your (erroneous) thinking that Atmos is just some sort of clever upmix. It isn't. An Atmos processor *can* take a standard 5.1 or 7.1 soundtrack and upmix it to the additional speakers you have installed, btw, but that's just like upmixing stereo to 5.1 channels.
The recommended minimum layout is 7.1.4 (the .4 are your ceiling speakers), but Atmos is capable of scaling up to more speakers if you install them. The Blu-ray version of Atmos can even support up to 24.1.10 (!) discrete speakers.
I wouldn't say I was thoroughly confused! I admit I appear wrong about the disc space it takes up, but not about how it is implemented, how it scales and how many channels you can have. I also don't think it is some kind of clever upmix. It's a whole new way of rendering audio in realtime. More like a game than the classic audio channel route. The only reason they seem to be adding atmos into the 7.1 stream at the moment is in order to make it backwards compatable.
If you wouldn't mind posting a link to that interview as it is some info I haven't come across before. Atmos takes up 20% more of what btw? The bluray? The 7.1 audio space on the disc? It won't be significant anyway in comparison to the space 4k will take up!
He also said it wouldn't affect bitrate for the video.
In the future I imagine to render like a game. No individual channels just flags for every sound. It won't take much processing at all! I think you under estimate the power of a modern pc. If I can play a game in 7.1 being rendered in real time (gfx and sound) I'm sure a modern cpu can pan a few audio objects around while playing back a pre rendered video.
Anyway good find with the info, share the link so we know you aren't just blowing smoke out of your arse! 
Edit: this link points out the 7.1 stream is folded down from the atmos sound track and is actually different to a dedicated 7.1 audio track!
http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/dolby-atmos-home-demo/
Also says studios can take languages out for different regions at their discretion to make up for any additional space needed for atmos.
Also audio remains lossless and video doesn't lose bitrate. Win win!
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The latter! I think windows might have to support more than 7.1 probably aswell.
It won't take that much processing power. It's not like mixing a song in logic or cubase etc. more like rendering a computer game.
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Anyone know when powerdvd will be implementing atmos?
Arguing about whether you want it or not is not what this thread is about.
If it's going to be 7 months away with powerdvd 15 I'll look elsewhere
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Ask then to contact Nvidia about the 3d bluray issue as if you get it working you'll find the 3D is botched anyway unless you use the driver I posted earlier.
Read the thread, it's a disgrace.
Surely cyberlink know about this?
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It has been broken for over 6 months!
If I was cyberlink I would be fuming!
Hopefully their requests for a fix would carry more weight!
read this thread: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/767088/3d...-driver-introduced-unfixable-/
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Sorry to hear that.
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Hi. This might not apply to you but 3d is botched on a lot of the latest nvidia drivers.
Try reverting to 327.23 and see if it resolves your issue.
Read this thread. It applies to 3dtv but might affect 3D vision too.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/767088/3d-vision/broken-3d-bluray-playback-since-fake-3d-driver-introduced-unfixable-/
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Hi, do you know when you will be adding atmos support?
Thanks
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I should say a significant amount of data that would cause quality loss. Meta data is in the kilobits not gigabytes.
Hence the audio objects. You think dolby atmos has 32 audio channels incase you go for a 32 channel setup?
Read the link I posted under the section 'how do we fit all the info onto a Blu Ray disc' then get back to me.
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I think youll find if you read back through the thread it's you and your friends who are rude and insulting whilst at the same time spreading misinformation.
I'm just making an observation; but I digress.
Atmos audio doesn't take up more disc space. I'd love to see where you got that info from. It uses the audio that's in the 7.1 stream and just sends it though a different speaker. It doesn't have 4 extra audio tracks for the height channels like you are implying.
There is no loss I audio quality like you are implying.
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Kerrigan is wrong (apart from the meta data)
This elitist attitude and misinformation is not helping anyone!
Atmos uses audio objects and spatial coding.
Read it on their site.
http://blog.dolby.com/2014/09/dolby-atmos-goes-cinemas-living-rooms/
the first software player to support this new format will be getting my money.
I use an RME sound card which is better quality than most amps, through balanced outputs going to active studio monitor speakers.
I'm going to add extra outputs to my RME fireface via ADAT to get as many speakers in my room as possible.
To the people who can't get their heads around people not using receivers/decoders; if you go the audio interface route you are not forced to upgrade receivers/decoders/amps every time a new format (like atmos) comes out or a new HDMI spec comes out (like HDMI 2) etc.
An update from a cyberlink employee to give a time scale on when we should expect atmos support would be appreciated.
I'll be posting something similar on other home theatre application forums.
Thanks!
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