The endless quest for ac3/dts bistream capture from HDMI

[bani6809]

This thread documents my attempt to capture ac3/dts bitstreams from HDMI. Maybe help save other people some frustration and/or spending money on useless devices.

HDMI devices confirmed unable to capture ac3/dts bitstreams:
INOGENI - all products - confirmed by manufacturer
AV.io - all products - confirmed by manufacturer
PENGO - all products - confirmed by manufacturer - "Maybe future models will support it"
Blackmagic - all products - confirmed by manufacturer
Elgato - all products - confirmed by manufacturer
Yuan - all products - rebadged elgato cards

HDMI devices with possible support, but unconfirmed:
Magewell Pro HDMI - "support via sdk" - not useful to end users

A different approach is using an HDMI splitter to extract the bitstream into spdif. The problem is that all audio capture devices tested so far mute the input if the NON_AUDIO flag in the spdif stream is set - which it is with ac3/dts.

SPDIF audio capture devices confirmed unable to capture ac3/dts bitstreams due to muting NON_AUDIO content:
ESI U24 XL 24-Bit USB Audio Interface for PC/Mac
M-Audio Audiophile USB

[sebus]

Both ESI U24 XL 24-Bit USB Audio Interface for PC/Mac
M-Audio Audiophile USB capture bitstream (AC3/DTS) fine with ASIO4all

Magewell Pro Capture does allow capture the same

So the statement above is false and totally wrong