The ongoing development of computer hardware has brought a lot of nice end-user features to us, including high definition audio. Apart from the general performance improvements, the new audio standard has increased the possibilities of computer sound. The use of DVD movies, iPods and online TV has increased the demand for advanced audio technology. High definition audio, HD audio in short, has increased the possibilities of multichannel sound, like the Dolby Pro Logic surround sound.

With proper high definition audio device drivers, HD capable audio cards can now handle more audio channels at a higher quality. Multichannel speakers can really produce the sound that you want with HD audio, beyond what was ever possible with stereo sound. Multi-stream audio solutions even mean that you can play different music in different rooms!

In the case of the Windows operating system, Microsoft has adopted high definition in their Unified Audio Architecture (UAA). This architecture, which is actually based on the Intel HD audio chipsets, will offer one high definition audio driver for all of Intel’s HD audio controllers. Hardware manufacturers that create HD audio devices based on the Intel chipsets can extend the high definition audio drivers to offer additional functionality.

But HD audio is not just about audio output, the high definition audio standard also supports advanced microphone solutions. Using array microphones, advanced, high quality recording solutions are possible. With the high level of VoIP usage and low bandwidth cost today, this allows for cheap voice -communication solutions. And also think of text-to-speech solutions, voice quality is one of the key factors to the success of voice controlled computer commands and text recording.

A feature that most of us will welcome is the auto jack-sensing technology that has come with the HD audio standard. Whenever you plug a audio device in a jack of the sound card, the high definition audio device driver will suggest the device type and let you confirm your device selection. No more audio problems where the microphone or speakers are plugged in the wrong jack. This is truly the era of plug-and-play solutions.

As always, the critical part in the overall computer will be good software. So if you have a HD audio solution in your PC, make sure you have the latest high definition audio drivers for it. If could the difference between standard computer audio and an impressive multimedia experience!