Bitstreaming with Radeon HD 6670

[watts3000]

Guys I'm wanting to get into bit streaming audio direct to my receiver as of right now I run everything through Windows 7 media center. However, I'm concerned about the video card I'm thinking about using I have a Radeon HD 6670 that I'm not currently using. I must ask you guys what do you think of the Radeon cards I remember back in the day they had poor driver support thus the reason I started buying Nvidia do you think this card will be able to do the job?

[barnabas1969]

According to this page, yes.

[mcewinter]

I use a lesser Radeon that does the job to my satisfaction. With any video card; you shouldn't go changing drivers unless you have something to gain. They all seem to have a pattern of bad drivers with one decent driver (in regards to MC) now and then.

[STC]

What Catalyst driver are you on out of curiosity?

I'm running 11.7 still.

[mcewinter]

I'll have to check when I get home but I know it is certainly an older driver. I remember 11.7 being good for me but I know I advanced past that when I upgraded to an SSD and used whatever driver was current. I do not update my video drivers...ever.

[mcewinter]

I'm on 11.8. I haven't even tried a new version since about this time last year. Maybe I'll give it a shot for sh*ts and grins. Apparently that's when I upgraded to SSD.

[watts3000]

I installed the Radeon into my current HTPC configured WMC for 5.1 sound uninstalled Shark codecs and installed Matroska. I'm now able to bitstream all audio formats to my receiver well I say bitstream

because my receiver now indicates which sound track is being played DTS, Dolby Digital etc. Now here is where the confusion comes in I was reading where audio codecs can have a negative effect on MC

I was running Shark codecs and at some point I think I had AC3 installed. I have an extra system that I'm not doing anything with so I did a clean install of 7 ultimate and installed my old Nvidia GT 220

with Matroska. After the install I hook it back up to the receiver now all of a sudden when I play Dolby and DTS videos I'm getting an indicator on my receiver now I thought that you could only bitstream if

you have a card that supports that feature and last time I checked the 220 does not support any type of bitstreaming. Also I even played around with some Total Media settings if I changed the audio to PCM the sound was a lot better. Anyway let me know your thoughts

[barnabas1969]

I may be wrong, but I would think that any video card that has an HDMI output would support bitstreaming DTS and Dolby Digital. You are probably thinking about the ability to bitstream "HD" audio. The 220 can't do the HD audio, but it should handle DTS and DD just fine.