Windows 7: BluRay Audio via HDMI

Hey guys!

I've been keeping an eye on these forums; I find that it provides the most succinct information regarding Windows 7. Thanks!

I finally bit the bullet and made myself a HTPC running Win 7 RC 64-bit. The whole purpose was to play ripped DVDs (to VOBs) from my NAS, any downloaded shows (as AVI's) from my NAS, and hopefully BluRays via the BD-ROM (I have a PS3, so this was not the main reason).

It seems that I was able to get the first two objectives working without any work. All I had to do was install the latest Catalyst drivers.

However, I can't seem to get Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 Ultra (or Windows Media Center) to play BluRays with anything more than 'stereo.' I've tried to research the topic, but there's just too many acronyms flying around (PAP, AAC, AC3, etc) that reading forums is like greek!

From my understanding, I know I can't get the DD TrueHD (or DTS-MA) to work via HDMI. However, I THOUGHT I could at least have PowerDVD "convert" (is the proper word downsample??) the DD TrueHD to a 5.1 Multichannel audio.

Am I completely wrong? Is what I want even possible?

Thanks in advance!
Kyle

In case anyone is wondering, it appears that CyberLink PowerDVD 9, build 1531 fixed this issue. It took the DD TrueHD from "Night at the Museum" and was able to send it as LPCM to my receiver. I got sound out of all 5 of my speakers.

Ok, glad you worked that out. For the Blu-ray, are you trying to convert them or simply play them off disc? The *best* way I've found to work with Blu-ray is to use MakeMKV, it will directly read a BD and rip on the fly. Your mileage may vary but I rip/convert a Blu-ray in 20 minutes or so. Once you have MKV's, it easy to convert from there.

See one of my samples here.


Duration: 1:05
Size: 82mb
Resolution: 1920x1080
Aspect: 16:9
FPS 29.97
Codec: H.264
Audio: mpeg4aac 48k VBR
Channels: 5.1 Dolby Surround

RapidShare: Easy Filehosting

Or maybe I have it all wrong and don't know what I'm babbling about.