Asus recently added a new model in its Xonar sound card series, the ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3. The latest addition to Xonar family is the "world’s first and only solution to offer Dolby TrueHD audio bitstream on the PC platform." A powerful combination comprising of C-Media’s custom-made AV200 audio processor and ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre software player lets users be the first to enjoy Dolby TrueHD’s lossless compression rate of 24bit/192KHz over to their AV receivers. According to ASUS, this breakthrough in the emerging Blu-ray era was unprecedented before the release of the Xonar HDAV1.3.

The ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 is capable of providing bit-to-bit exact lossless Blu-Ray audio output—without any downsampling to DVD quality—allowing users to enjoy next generation audio enhancements such as DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus on the PC. Furthermore, the Xonar HDAV 1.3 also supports most Video Graphics Cards on the market, allowing delivery of both video and audio outputs through a single HDMI cable.

"Ever since Blu-ray technology was announced in the market, there has never been a solution capable of bringing lossless digital audio formats to users on the PC," said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group.

"Even some BD players and PS3 could not output bitstreams of Dolby TrueHD and other High-Bit-Rate audio so far, and we are glad to be the first inventors to implement the Protected Audio Playback System (PAPS) on PC platforms and fulfill the Full-HD AV entertainment desires for vast PC users," said Jason Liang, C-Media senior manager of System Business Division. "We are pleased to work with ASUS and ArcSoft to make this product happen."