When you hear someone talk about computer audio you think Creative Labs, Turtle Beach, or other well established computer audio companies. One name that may never pop into your head is Intel. Well Intel is hoping to change all that with something they call HD Audio. HD Audio has been updated to support multiple in/out streams, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and other really cool features.
Sudhian: What should we expect the Signal to Noise ratio to be on most HD Audio solutions? I know it's up to the codec company but are there any imposed standards for SNR?
Thomas: No imposed levels are required by the HD Audio specification; however we'll likely see these levels increase over time on the HD Audio interface. The PC industry is beginning to see value in increasing these levels to those traditionally used by the CE industry.
Sudhian: Intel's Press release states: "The PC is a versatile platform for digital media and is playing an increasingly large role in DVD-Audio, streaming music services and home theater applications." It's known that the DVD Audio forum has been relatively tough on sound card manufacturers when it comes to DVDA Playback, will HD Audio offer DVDA playback capabilities on PC?
Thomas: HD Audio architecture supports the bandwidth required to deliver the high end sampling rates and multi—channel capabilities required for DVD-A playback. The full-rate DVD-A playback is a content protection issue that the PC industry will need to work closely with the DVD-A community to help ensure suitable protection of the content through the PC.
News source: Sudhian Media
