Another reason for HDMI is games with multichannel audio and room correction. Only high-en receivers do correction on the analog input (ext. in).
Signature game sounds received special consideration. “A lot of attention was placed on trying to replicate the power we experienced from the Abrams' [M1A1 tank] main canon,” explains Miller. “Each single shot is actually broken down into four separate components: The first two are the 3-D positional crack and boom of the initial part of the sound. The next part is the 3-D positional tail or decay. The fourth part is a stereo sweetener that envelops the player, playing out of both the front-left and -right speakers, but also the surround speakers.”
mixonline.com/game_audio/features/audio_answering_call_duty/
I first heard Audyssey demo'ed at the CEDIA convention last fall in Denver. Mike Thuresson, Audyssey Installer Program Manager, demo'ed a clip from the movie "Open Range". The demo was held in a tiny hotel room, maybe 18'X 20'. Mike played chapter 7 - a huge rainstorm with thunder. With Auyssey out, the front imaging was very good. I heard distinct sounds from the front left, center and front right speakers but very little from the surround channels. The thunder claps also sounded good from the sub. But when Mike switched Audyssey in (via the front panel bypass control), the audio suddenly surrounded me and I could hear distinct rain drops coming from all 5 speakers. The low frequency thunder claps shook me down to my feet. Mike referred to this as Audyssey creating an "Audio Bubble" around the listening area. What really amazed me was after I received and calibrated Audyssey in my home system, I tried the exact same movie clip and experienced the same "audio bubble" I heard during Mike's demo. The point is - this thing really works and works well!
www dot avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=795421
Film composers, musicians, and audio engineers create the mixes of your favorite movies and music at reference levels much louder than typical home listening levels. At a lower playback volume, voices change, bass disappears, and the surround soundstage becomes less enveloping. Now, Dynamic EQ lets you enjoy the original rich sound at any volume.
www dot audyssey.com/technology/dynamicEQ.html
1. Do game makers create the games audio at reference level?
2. Would you setup any bass management or speaker size in Windows, or let receiver/room correction handle it?
3. What about movies and the .1 (LFE) channel 10db quieter than the rest of the channels?
4. If you must set speaker mode in the game, and there are only 5.1 option, how would that work out on a 7.1 setup? Would windows extrapolate the extra channels or can the receiver do it?
5. Do game sound engines have access to the .lfe channel, or is it just used to route bass from speakers set to "small" in windows?