Lossless Playback via Receiver from PC, How to get the best quality audio through a connected receiver. Options

[heyo_speaker]

I have a few questions regarding the best way to play audio from my PC through my surround-sound receiver.

I recently purchased a nice receiver that supposedly has good audio quality and can decode a wide variety of digital formats. I plan to use my PC as the main audio source when listening to music or gaming. I am aware of the benefits of digitally transmitting audio to the receiver to avoid loss of audio quality in the transmission, but I am unfamiliar with what goes on inside the computer to produce this digital stream. I plan to use the HDMI output from a graphics card (once I get around to installing it).

I am guessing that for the purest sound I should leave all the audio processing to the receiver, rather than allow the PC to apply any processing, but I don't really know. The computer could be allowed do the decoding of files (and so could the receiver), but my guess is that for the purest sound I should not allow the computer to do any modification to the audio itself before streaming it through HDMI. This PC doesn't even have a sound card as far as I know (but does somehow produce audio through the pre-installed HDMI and 3.5mm stereo connections), so perhaps it wouldn't do a good job of processing the audio.

I am running Windows 7. I would like to use Windows Media Player 12 for normal music playback (if doing so won't affect audio quality). I also have foobar2000 but my mom is familiar with Windows Media Player. I have installed some DirectShow filters on this PC, which I believe allow me to play certain audio file formats in Windows Media Player, as well as burn CDs from them using ImgBurn, but I don't know what exactly these filters are or how they work, or whether they alter the audio output at all after decoding a file.


Here are all the questions I can think of thus far:

-- Do you agree that I should probably leave all audio processing (EQ, surround effects, mixing, etc.) for the receiver rather than the PC?

-- Do I need to reserve surround-sound format decoding for the receiver, or would the PC transmit all audio channels through HDMI after decoding? (Will it automatically down-mix to 2 channels or anything like that before sending it to the receiver?)

-- Is it possible to send un-modified (but decoded) audio digitally through HDMI? Does this happen by default in Windows Media Player and/or foobar2000?

-- When playing music, how can I send un-modified (but possibly decoded) audio through HDMI? Do I need to install anything more / change any settings to get Windows Media Player or foobar2000 to do this? (I did a quick search and saw mention of something called "ASIO" that I should probably read about when I have time.)

-- When playing games, how can I send un-modified (but possibly decoded) audio through HDMI? Do I need to install anything more / change any settings to achieve this?

-- When transmitting audio to the receiver through WMP or foobar, if it is possible to bypass audio processing within the PC.... and if I have it set up properly.... Will anything happen if I start messing with the EQ settings in WMP or foobar, or will the sound / digital stream remain the same?

-- Is there a way to transmit audio files directly to the receiver to be decoded entirely by the receiver? (I understand this question might require me to look in the receiver manual.)

-- Does the use of DirectShow filters on a PC have any effect on the output, other than decoding certain file types?


It would help a lot if I understood what happens to the audio within the PC once an audio file is decoded.


I really appreciate any insights you can provide!!!! Thank you.

This post has been edited by heyo_speaker: Jan 17 2013, 11:54