Does the XPS M1530 HDMI Port Output PCM?

Sorry for the multiple posts, I have started a new thread because the other ones may be deleted for bumping up a old discussion.

I have heard numerous comments stating that individuals are only getting Stereo Sound from their HDMI port but then other comments explaining that yes, indeed, it supports Dolby Digital....5.1 Audio etc.

The HDMI port is 1.2 which allows for a PCM 8 audio stream signal.

I have a receiver that allows for internal 7.1/5.1 Audio streams (all of the latest codecs can be decoded and processed) with HDMI output/input connections.

Will I be able to send a 5.1 PCM Audio stream to my AV Receiver and thereby utilizing the full range of audio?

PS: There are some hacked Sigmatel drivers that may allow for this, you can that here:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread212358.html

So confused

 

I use the HDMI all the time and I have full surround through my receiver.

 

I have 5.1 surround from my receiver through the HdMI on my 1530!

 

Can you go into a little more detail? What your telling me is your getting True 5.1 Surround Sound such as DTS, Dobly Digital and not some virtual 5.1 surround sound where you just have stereo sound blasting out of 5 speakers and one subwoofer?

What does it say on your reciever when your playing from the M1530 (it should say the type of signal)?

THANKS for all your help

 

OK here are my findings. I hooked my m1530 up to my Onkyo receiver that supports decoding all the latest HD formats. I had to disable the PC speaker device to get it to output the audio like other threads have mentioned. Under the HDMI setup I tested all the audio formats and DTS audio and Dolby Digital both produced sound and showed up as DTS and Dolby Digital on my receiver display. I also tested all the sample rates and they all produced sound as well. The player I was using was Dell MediaDirect 4. At first I put in a Blu-ray with DTS Master Audio and my receiver was getting a signal but it wasn't showing DTS MA. I didn't even seem to be a discrete surround signal because I could only pick the matrix formats or Dolby Pro Logic II or direct etc. If it gets multi channel PCM audio it will allow me to select multi channel, such as with my Playstation 3 that decodes the HD formats before it gets to the receiver. I then put in a Dolby True HD Blu-ray and had the same results. I also have a Blu-ray audio/video test disk and on the speaker tests the rear channels were coming out of the front. I then stuck in a DVD with Dolby 5.1 and I got Dolby Digital on the receiver. I then decided to go back and put in Blu-ray that had a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, Full Metal Jacket and I didn't get Dolby Digital so I was starting to think that it wouldn't work with Blu-rays but then I decided to try one more, Pearl Harbor and that one gave me Dolby Digital so I don't know what the deal is. I made sure that the audio was set to Dolby Digital and not one of the uncompressed sound tracks and I actually did try the uncompressed ones and got the same result. So I don't know if a different player would give different results. MediaDirect 4 doesn't have any down mixing options or anything that I was able to find. But the m1530 is able to at least put out Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 formats at minimum.

 

Awesome, thank you for your findings. The "problem" that your having 99.99% has to do with you using MediaDirect 4. If it can put out DTS/Dobly Digital 5.1 feed, just the fact that it can and outputted those signals and not some fake simulation, then more or less anything goes Just a matter of getting the configuration within the laptop straightened out.

Now it makes sense.

Regarding the DTS Master and TrueHD streams, with a HDMI v1.2, it will be resampled to a 2.1 stream, I think thats why you were having problems, at least that's the conclusion I have read, haven't heard anything opposed to it, although I have heard there are ways to get around this but cannot be done just with factory default settings.

Thanks again for your help!!!

 

From the laptop hdmi to samsung plasma to the receiver (onkyo) via optical. This was a bluray rip of 300. sorry for the crappy cell pics. It also depends on the rip I have heard(myself), some have 5.1 some do not, its glorified stereo.

 

Thanks for the pics but why are you using DTS Neo:6 instead of say PCM 5.1 or Dolby TrueHD 5.1? And why would you go from M1530 to Samsung to Reciever instead of M1530 to Receiver to TV/Speakers (is it because your Onkyo only does passthrough instead of decoding)?

DTS Neo:6 is an advanced matrix decoder. It will take any two-channel source and expand it into five or six channels, depending on the equipment used and speakers connected.

http://www.avland.co.uk/info/dtsneo6.htm

PS: To somekevinguy, just for clarification, you only used HDMI, no optical, SPDIF cables or 3mm cables were used?

And finally , I keep seeing this resurface, HDMI/SPDIF, can one use only an HDMI cable and transmit the SPDIF sound-output signal through the HDMI outlet/cable of the M1530 or are they mutually exclusive? Because if they are mutually exclusive why would anyone do that, is it because their receiver can only do Passthrough and not Decoding/Processing?

Thanks for all your help!!!

 

Its either the rip or the receiver, its 2 years old now(no hdmis), and my dad bought it so its a possibility, but I was positive it has true dts. there are other mide available, Ill take a look, those were the first 2 that were available so I snapped a pic of them.

 

I think thats the reason (bolded), Thanks again joepro for all your help.

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-HHjszl6GwSs/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=580HTS790B&tab=detailed_info

ok this is what we have its a was box system so that maybe the problem....its has all the specs listed. It was my impression that optical was able to carry 5.1, so it should matter(depending on receiver) if it goes to the tv first? It seems that the our receiver does not have a decoder in it! I though it did, sorry!

 

Yeah, but the quality of your signal is going to decrease since after going from the M1530 to the TV, the signal jumps to the Receiver and passes through to your Speakers.

Why not get a SPDIF USB dongle, run the SPDIF optical to your receiver and then the HDMI to your TV? That way your preserving the signal. But that is OT from this thread since it has really nothing to do with the M1530 but with AV Receivers.

 

I just got the 1530, and honestly only have limited knowledge of all this audio stuff, but thanks for the tip, Ill look into it! I run the hdbox and ps3 directly into the receiver via optical. Looks like we need so others here to figure this one out!

 

I only used an HDMI cable straight to my receiver. As you mentioned I am thinking with the right player we might be able to get the HD audio formats in bitstream or at least PCM format through the m1530 HDMI port. I also found it funny how Pearl Harbor on Blu-ray with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio worked but Full Metal Jacket with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio did not. This was just more academic for me though because I don't plan on using my laptop for this purpose. I do think I might hook it up to TVs directly as a portable player sometimes but not receivers. I already have two Blu-ray players for that. While I was at it I played around with the computer for a little bit with the display on the 60" Sony. It was pretty cool. I wish the web browser on the PS3 looked as good as it does with the m1530. I have also seen threads of people complaining about their desktop being cropped when displaying on their TV. The nVidia control panel has all kinds of dual display features and it was no problem to adjust the desktop to fit perfectly on the TV.

 

Thanks for this great testing and posting somekevinguy!

There is a vast amount of HDMI enabled graphics chipsets and each of them have different capabilities regarding Sound over HDMI. I'd appreciate a link to a table which lists all the capabilities for all different chipsets.

Real home theater enthusiasts really want 8-channel LPCM over HDMI (and hardly DTS HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD). While e.g. intel G35/G45, Geforce 8200/8300 and 9300 do support 8-channel LPCM over HDMI, the AMD 780G/790GX only support 2-channel LPCM. But e.g. the AMD HD 4350/4550 discrete graphics cards do support 8-channel LPCM again. 5.1 DTS and AC3 is in general supported by all chipsets - forgetting about some minor driver issue details. Anyway: It's a mess and I guess hardly anybody has an overview.

Back to the M1530: This chipset features a GeForce 8400M/8600M and as far as I know this GPU doesn't include any sound capabilities. I'm very convinced that the M1530 uses an external chip which mixes a TMDS video source and an S/PDIF audio source together for HDMI output. It will look like this:



That's more than guessing, which I want to talk a little bit about: I have an M1330 with GM965 (intel GMA x3100) graphics. This notebook uses the external Silicon Image SiI174 for video + audio mixing. The sound input to this chip is delivered by the STAC 9228 audio codec for which a datasheet is available. The STAC 9228 delivers up to 7.1 as an analoge audio signal und up to 2-channel (uncompressed) or 5.1 (compressed) as S/PDIF. Although I can't find a publically available datasheet to the SiI174, I'm pretty convinced the S/PDIF output of the STAC 9228 is used to mix the HDMI signal and not the analoge one. And this is why:

I do know that the M1330 with GeForce 8400M GS and the M1530 are different notebooks, but all share the STAC 9228 intel HDA chip. If you read the manual of the M1530 carefully, you'll see the following for the S-Video output:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1530/en/OM/about.htm#wp1212382

Although Dell ships cable adapters for S/PDIF output from the S-Video port ( see here), those don't work on the M1530! The only reason I can think of: Since the STAC 9228 has only one S/PDIF output this one is used to mix the HDMI video + audio signal. I remember some Dell tech posting this information in some forum, when people asked why digital audio out over S-Video doesn't work for the M1530.

This all suggests: S/PDIF output is used for the HDMI Signal on the M1530 (and M1330).

The downside of doing so is that S/PDIF has a bandwidth restriction compared to HDMI. In practice you can only output the following audio formats on S/PDIF:

• 2-channel PCM (uncompressed 16 bit 48kHz)
• AC-3/Dolby Digital (compressed, lossy)
• DTS (compressed, lossy)

No way to output 5.1/7.1 uncompressed via S/PDIF or any of the high bitrate 24.5 Mbit/s DTS-HD Master or 18 MBit/s Dolby TrueHD formats! 2-channel PCM 16 bit has 1,5 MBit/s and AC-3 over S/PDIF has 0,640 MBit/s.

I think the best we can get from the M1530 is 5.1 compressed AC-3 sound on HDMI. Only if you have latency problems the second best option is DTS. The best direct show filter for doing so and playing arbitrary sources in AC-3 on S/PDIF is
http://ac3filter.net/projects/ac3filter

What makes everything in practice even more complicated: There are some severe repeater mode and HDMI receiver incompatibilities, which can make things very complicated. In addition: In the same way every display tells it's resolution capabilities to the graphics chipset by means of DDC2, the same mechanism is actually used to propagate sound capabilities. With a proper BluRay tool chain installed on your PC, you'll get only those HDMI sound formats which are supported by your HDMI receiver /TV. And this is where I'm stuck: I don't have a HDMI Receiver to do further testing.

Every notebook is different: You can't convey what I said to a different notebook such as the Dell Studio (have ATI/AMD graphics chipsets) or Inspiron line.

 

Interesting, I did not know any of the GPUs did the sound. I imagined that all computers were setup with the GPU signal and audio signal being merged into the HDMI. I did know about S/PDIF only supporting up to 5.1 compressed sound so if that is what it is using then yes we are definitely not going to get any of the HD 5.1+ audio formats through it. I had also read previously here about the S-Video port not supporting S/PDIF and speculation that it was because it was being used for the HDMI port but I guess I just didn't put the two together. Well anyway as I mentioned I don't have to worry about all this because the only time I plan on using my m1530 to play Blu-rays on an external TV, it would just be hooked up to the TV itself and playing out of two speakers. I wonder if a player could at least down sample Blu-rays that only have HD audio and at least give us discrete 5.1 compressed audio output. MediaDirect 4 didn't seem to have any of those options but some of the other players I have had in the past for DVD have had options like that.

 

There are still some things, I did not yet understand. Maybe there's somebody who's done testing and can enlighten me.

What exactly are disabling? I suppose you are enabling the HDMI device as standard Audio device, or something else?



Currently I don't have an HDMI device (except an DVI screen which attaches to the HDMI port) connected. If I configure the HDMI port, it does give me only the stereo Setups. In the properties of the HDMI device I can select DTS Audio, Dolby Digital, Microsoft WMA Pro Audio - however the speaker Setup is restricted to 2 (= stereo). The analoge Sigma High Definition Audio CODEC certainly offers me 4-Quadspeakers and 5.1 Speaker Setup. Or do I have to set the SigmaTel Codec to some 5.1 and enable in the HDMI Settings Dolby Digital and it will output 5.1 through HDMI. Ignore the fact that HDMI properties say stereo here, since the SigmaTel will output 5.1 and passthough HDMI SiI device?

I don't exactly know why this is the case: I know the HDMI conveys the audio capabilty information from the sink (Receiver/TV) to the source (notebook) device. Maybe this changes if I connect a real HDMI device and will offer 5.1 options.

I only have MediaDirect 3.3 and it also only offers me stereo Setups and a dolby surround, which is Matrix sound. Don't know again whether this is a limitation of MD 3.3 or my setup.

The HardwareID of the HDMI device is:
HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1095&DEV_1392&SUBSYS_1028020A
where
VEN_1095 = SiliconImage (the SiI174 chip I was referencing already)

Do you M1530 users also have this device? Check in device manager.

I'm using the
Microsoft High Definition Audio-Device 6.0.6000.16386 incoporating HdAudio.sys 6.0.5840.16387 driver.

If you download the intel graphics driver zip file (v15.11.2 is current) - you'll recognize a HDMI folder. This folder contains HDMI drivers which are compatible with this device. It has an IntcHdmi.inf file which has compatible DeviceID and VendorID entries. You can install this driver (IntcHdmi.sys 6.10.01.2064) and you'll soon find the Microsoft Audio device replaced by
Intel(R) High Definition Audio HDMI in the device manager.

However once I do that: The HDMI audio device as depicted in the above screenshot is gone. I don't have a device to select HDMI audio as output (only analoge SigmaTel and Bluetooth).

Maybe the HDMI Audio device pops up once I connect a HDMI audio source, but I doubt that.

Another thing I can't explain: The Inspirion 1525 uses the same GM965 (x3100) chipset that my M1330 has. It features the same SiI174 HDMI transmitter and the same STAC9228 audio chipset with just one S/PDIF output. However the inspiron 1525 guys do get S/PDIF digital audio out of S-Video (second comment here) and they get Sound out of HDMI as well (sorry german, but here it is). Did they just connect to both? What doesn't it work for the M1530?

That is definetly possible. I don't know whether MD 4.0, PowerDVD or ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre can do that. But for example with MPC-HT and AC3 Filter I sould be able to transcode any Video/Audio source in realtime to Dolby Digital. In that case, you'll have get rid of the AACS first otherwise those tools won't play BluRay media. But that's another story.

 

I disabled the PC speaker which would be that bottom one on your screen shot. I think you can actually just make the HDMI the default instead of disabling the PC speaker but IIRC you have to reboot if you do that to get the HDMI to work. By disabling the PC speaker it starts working without a reboot. I don't know anything about MediaDirect 3.3. Things might work differently with an M1330 though. I only show 2 speaker options in the windows sound dialog also but it says something about when in shared mode.