Many new PCs and Laptops come with built in HDMI ports.  Can Sonar send 5.1 or 7.1 audio out the HDMI ports, or is special Dolby encoding needed?

This is an interesting question - and begs for a "why?" (I think)
 
Audio and midi outs are typically used by Sonar for creation/playback (midi) and monitoring (audio.) (A simplification)
So, will you be using your HDMI receiving device (mostly televisions right now) as a monitoring device?
My bet is that the HDMI ports are for video and its related audio - and may not be exposed to Sonar as an audio out.
Of course, I'm just waxing philosophical here!
 
Brian

I can see why. Sometimes it's the easiest way to listen to your mixes on another source like an HDMI receiver.
I dont see why it wouldnt work as long as your soundcard can decode and has an hdmi output.

dance_lets@yahoo.com


Many new PCs and Laptops come with built in HDMI ports.  Can Sonar send 5.1 or 7.1 audio out the HDMI ports, or is special Dolby encoding needed?

Yes!

On a per project basis....

From the menu choose Options/Project/Surround from there you can route the formats outputs to correspond with your hardware.

soundtweaker


I can see why. Sometimes it's the easiest way to listen to your mixes on another source like an HDMI receiver.
I dont see why it wouldnt work as long as your soundcard can decode and has an hdmi output.

The OP is talking about using an onboard system and not an external soundcard like one would normally use in Sonar. Remember also that HDMI is both video and audio and no none outboard audio interface has an hdmi output. He's going to have to dig into the computer's documentation or check with the manufacturer to see if he can run his Sonar audio into the HDMI out of the computer. I wouldn't be surprised if the only things that can route audio to the HDMI out are the internal dvd drive or TV tuner (if the computer has one).

Well, I did an experiment since my video card has HDMI output and Sonar does see it.

Does it work?  I don't know.  I don't have an HDMI system in the studio and I ain't bringing the one I have in here :-P

Anyways, just set the driver mode to WDM/KS and Sonar should pick it up.


HTH

I wouldn't be surprised if the only things that can route audio to the HDMI out are the internal dvd drive or TV tuner (if the computer has one).

My onboard soundcard is connected to my videocard via an internal spdif cable going from the mobo spidif out header into the vidcard spdif in header specifically to route audio out HDMI.  I've got my PC hooked up to my TV via HDMI, and all sound can be routed out to it, including Sonar. But since Sonar doesn't include an on-the-fly ac3 encoder, you can't do surround with it, just stereo.

tarsier

But since Sonar doesn't include an on-the-fly ac3 encoder, you can't do surround with it, just stereo.

Well, that sucks. :-(
 
 

tarsier But since Sonar doesn't include an on-the-fly ac3 encoder, you can't do surround with it, just stereo.

Jose7822: Well, that sucks. :-(

Reading that back, there might be some misunderstanding.

Sonar CAN do surround mixes/playback.   You just have to route each channel of your surround mix to one of your surround speakers.

What Sonar can't do is send that surround mix out a single digital cable (including an HDMI cable) into a surround playback system. That requires the on-the-fly encoder.

Quite true Jack, I hadn't taken that in fully.

It will depend of course whether Sonar recognizes the HDMI routing as specific outputs and they appear in the drop down selectors on the surround page as to whether anything will come directly out of the HDMI port.