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[jesseinsf]

I have the Asus Xonar Essence STX PCIe card. Let me explain how this card works first. The Asus ASIO control panel allows you to change the bitdepth and latency which is an independant setting from MC's settings. If you change the bitdepth within the Asus ASIO control panel then the output bitdepth will also change in MC. This is a fact and can be proven easily. Now my issue is when I play video in MC. If I set the Bitdepth in the Asus ASIO control panel to 24 bit and I play an MP4 video file then MC tell me that it is using ASIO but cannot have a direct connection because there is not enough bits to have a direct connection. If I change the bitdepth to 32 bit in the Asus ASIO CP then the video will play with a Direct Connection in ASIO mode. WMV files will play with a direct connection using a bitdepth of 24 bit in the Asus ASIO CP, but the sound is quite choppy. If I change the setting in the Asus ASIO CP to 32 bit then the WMV file isn't choppy anymore. Also the sound is not in sync with the video in either bitdepth mode but if I uncheck the setting to not use large hardware buffer in the MC ASIO settings then the sound is in sync with the video. I'm not sure if this is a MC bug or if there is a setting that will correct this. Or maybe it is an Asus driver issue. Maybe it is just a PCIe/PCI card only issue. I hope Matt or Jim can look in to this. thanks

[justsomeguy]

Have you tried the unified drivers for xonar cards? http://brainbit.wordpress.com/category/uni-xonar/

I had weird issues with asio with official drivers but have had much better luck with these unified ones.

[jesseinsf]

Already had them installed. When I installed them a month ago I chose the install option for the lowest latency. I'm still using them today.

[jesseinsf]

I'm waiting for a reply??

[Matt]

For video, use something like 0.1 seconds of buffering and disable 'Use large hardware buffers'.

24-bit output can't output 32-bit data directly, so what you're describing with regards to the direct light is normal and good.

[jesseinsf]

For video, use something like 0.1 seconds of buffering and disable 'Use large hardware buffers'.

24-bit output can't output 32-bit data directly, so what you're describing with regards to the direct light is normal and good.

Thanks Matt. 0.1 seconds worked. Again thanks :-)

[Hiram]

Hey Matt, is it still worth to set the Asus ASIO CP to use 32bits to achieve a direct connection even though it is going to be down-converted to 24bits by the soundcard?

[Matt]

Hey Matt, is it still worth to set the Asus ASIO CP to use 32bits to achieve a direct connection even though it is going to be down-converted to 24bits by the soundcard?

I believe the ASUS DAC is 24bit so sending it 32bit just means the driver will down-convert to 24bit before giving it to the DAC.

The bits delivered will likely be the same, but it might be a little more efficient to just pick 24bit inside Media Center.

[Hiram]

I believe the ASUS DAC is 24bit so sending it 32bit just means the driver will down-convert to 24bit before giving it to the DAC.

The bits delivered will likely be the same, but it might be a little more efficient to just pick 24bit inside Media Center.

Thank you.

[jesseinsf]

But if you play video, you have to change the ASIO Audio settings in the Asus ASIO CP to 32 bit or the audio won't be bit perfect. Audio only is best to set it to 24 bit. BTW Matt you can't change the ASIO bitdepth in MC but you can in the Asus ASIO Control Panel. :-)

[Hiram]

But if you play video, you have to change the ASIO Audio settings in the Asus ASIO CP to 32 bit or the audio won't be bit perfect. Audio only is best to set it to 24 bit. BTW Matt you can't change the ASIO bitdepth in MC but you can in the Asus ASIO Control Panel. :-)

How can it be bit-perfect though, if it is still going to be down-converted by the driver? And by the way Matt, when we are talking about the ASIO bit depth settings, we mean this:

[jesseinsf]

How can it be bit-perfect though, if it is still going to be down-converted by the driver? And by the way Matt, when we are talking about the ASIO bit depth settings, we mean this:

I had the same question in another post.

[Hiram]

I had the same question in another post.

You're talking about this thread(http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68703.msg462550#msg462550), right? If so, I suppose let's just ask the question again in a rephrased form and hope for an answer in this one.

So Matt, is the sound still considered bit-perfect if it's going to be down-converted by the driver from 32 bits to 24?

[Alex B]

In general "bitperfectness" isn't anything practically useful. All "bits" are utterly lost when the outputted signal is converted to analog (i.e to the output of the DAC).

"Bitperfect" output is only needed for transmitting undecoded compressed formats (like AC-3 or DTS) to an external decoder. For this purpose, it is easy test the output's "bitperfectness". If the external decoder can decode the signal then the output is as perfect as it needs to be.

I may have missed something, but what seems to be the problem? According to the original post "ASUS 32-bit ASIO" and "uncheck: use large hardware buffers" works. The reason to provide various output options inside MC is exactly to provide support for various hardware.

24-bit source data fits inside 32-bit. The 32-bit integer format just provides additional inaudibly quiet extension to the theoretical dynamic range. These 8 lower bits cover the range of -144 ... -192 dB below 0 dBFS. The top 24 bits survive just fine.

[Hiram]

My question in general is whether there is any point in using the 32 bit ASIO setting instead of the 24 bit one if it's going to be down-converted to 24 bits by the driver anyway? Because I see that MPC shows that if you use the 32 bit ASIO setting you get a direct connection with playing both 24 and 32 bit files and if you use the 24 bit ASIO setting you only get a direct connection playing 24 bit and lower files. So, once again, is there any point to a direct connection if the bit-depth is going to be down-converted by the driver to 24 bits regardless to your chosen ASIO setting?

[Alex B]

You can use whatever you want if it works. You will not hear audible quality differences. When the format is incompatible for some reason the outputted sound is seriously broken or payback does not work at all.

The 24 upper bits are not altered when the bit depth is changed from 32-bit to 24-bit. (...or at least the 23 upper bits if the device driver applies dithering to the least significant bit. Dithering a 24-bit signal would be totally unnecessary, but maybe some devices do it. In any case even 23-bit is more than enough for audibly perfect reproduction.)

You might find the following post by mojave enlightening: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67941.msg457108#msg457108
(to see his attached graphs you must be logged in as a forum user.)

[Hiram]

OK, so if I understand correctly using the 32 bit ASIO setting provides me with a direct connection and no difference in sound quality(compared to the 24 bit ASIO setting) when it gets down-converted to 24 bits. If so, thank you and if not, thank you anyway.

[Matt]

I think you're looking for a "what's better" answer, but in this case it doesn't matter.

There's certainly no harm in always sending 32bit data.  And in general it's best to always output the highest bitdepth hardware can support.

My understanding is that in this particular case (ASUS ASIO) the driver converts to 24bit at the end anyway, so sending anything past that has no benefit (either in practice or in theory).

And my guess is that the DAC can use something like 18 bits and any bits past that are irrelevant in practice.

[mojave]

Both the Asus Essence ST and STX have 24-bit Digital-Analog converters. They use the Texas Instruments PCM1792A and you can find the specs at the Texas Instruments website. Therefore, you should set the Asus ASIO Control Panel to 24-bit and use ASIO output in JRiver which will automatically send 24-bit output. The reason both 16-bit and 32-bit are options in the Asus ASIO control panel is so that the hardware is compatible with software that only outputs in 16-bit or 32-bit and you still want to use ASIO output. This doesn't change the output bit-depth because it is always 24-bit (as Matt said). It is only changing the ways the hardware is representing itself to the software for compatibility reasons.

If you set the Asus ASIO control panel to 32-bit, JRiver will convert to 32-bit and the Asus drivers will convert to 24-bit. If you set the Asus ASIO control panel to 24-bit, JRiver will convert to 24-bit. It either case the bit-depth you select in Output Format is ignored since ASIO bit-depth is dependent on what the hardware tells the software.

[Hiram]

OK, that settles it then, 24 bit ASIO setting it is. I'd like to thank all of you for your informative answers.

[jesseinsf]

OK, that settles it then, 24 bit ASIO setting it is. I'd like to thank all of you for your informative answers.

Some flash videos and phone videos seem to be encoded in 32 bit. I just found this out. But the properties say the sound is 16 bit. Weird