Cheap Way to Add HDMI port with Audio Support?

Mr. B · Post by **Mr. B** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:28 pm

I have a reasonably standard desktop PC (see sig) and I want to add an HDMI port with audio support to it. My mobo has spidf pin-out which I understand is required for audio. I currently have an nvidia 7800gt card which i'm using for my dual monitor setup. I'm not yet ready to upgrade my main card and I don't really want a future card for hdmi since I have two regular monitors already.

So far the closest thing I have found is the ASUS EAX1600PRO/I/256M/A, which looks like a bit more card than I need. I am curious what other options I may have. Any help would be much appreciated.

grazzhoppa · Post by **grazzhoppa** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:44 pm

prices change so fast on video cards, the best I can offer is search link.
From a large online retailer, this lists all cards with an HDMI port from lowest price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rder=PRICE

I see a few passively cooled ATI 3000 series cards in there.
The ATI 3000 series has better HD video decoding than the 1600 you were looking at.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:00 pm

Xonar HDAV1.3 might be right for you but I don't know whether it's been released. Seen at Computex.

nici · Post by **nici** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:00 pm

Interesting card that Xonar.. I have a HD4870 and the sound over HDMI doesn't work too well. Or it did at first, then it stopped working after resuming from standby. And sometimes it works when playing music, but videos have no sound. It's not a codec issue since analog output works just fine.