re: Soundblaster Live! XP prob
Monday, November 17, 2003 at 5:00 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by mikejmd
(5 messages posted)
After days of trying to get ac-3 s/pdif output from my soundblaster 5.1 card
to my dolby digital receiver via a coaxial cable under windows xp (used to work under
win 98), I ran across a link to this file at http://alive.singnet.com.sg/drivers.
It directed me to creative's asia website (I couldn't find it on the USA site).
The driver patch file is LIVEDRVL2030530.exe. This driver is supposed to provide
functionality of s/pdif passthrough when ac-3 passthrough is selected. I installed
it after installing the sb LiveDrvUni-Pack(eng).exe.
It worked for me, using a standard 2 black ring (stereo) miniplug to RCA coaxial
cable adapter from the rear digital output (orange) of my sound card. Using the
left channel (black) to connect to the RCA digital input on my Yamaha receiver.
It also worked using an RCA coaxial cable from my Live!Drive s/pdif to the digital
input on my receiver.
You must install an AC-3 filter capable of s/pdif passthrough on your system
as I believe PowerDVD and WinDVD do not do this. You can install this using the
Kazaa Lite++ codec pack or download one from Doom9.net (such as ac3filter_0_70b.exe).
Reboot your computer to make sure registry changes are in effect.
Make sure your sblive speaker settings are "5.1 speaker", "digital output only",
and "ac-3 decode" is turned off in settings.
Under audio settings in you DVD software, set sound output to s/pdif. You should
then be able to output undecoded ac-3 signal to be decoded by your Dolby Digital
receiver :-). The speaker test still only plays "right channel, left" channel, but
who cares!
To get ac-3 passthrough to your Dolby Digital receiver from Windows Media Player
(even 9 worked for me), it was necessary to perform an extra step.
These steps are through the courtesy of Doom9's site.
1) Download "graphedit" (available from Doom9) and extract it to your "temp" directory
or whatever directory you choose.
2)Double click the "register.bat" file.
3)Run the "graphedit.exe program.
4)Go to the "file" menu and select "Render Media File"
5)Choose the file you wish to render (I've done ac-3 encoded Divx avi files and
DVD vob files). This will load a graph telling WMP how to process the media file.
6)Go to "Graph" menu, select "Insert Filters", and under "Direct Show Filter's" select
"AC3 filter".
7)Connect the input pin of this filter to the audio stream pin of the "avi (or Mpeg)
splitter filter".
8)Delete the "Default DirectSound Device" filter as that does not provide ac-3 s/pdif
passthrough to your receiver.
9)Go back to the "Graph" menu and under "Audio Renderers" insert "Default Wave Out
Device.
10)Connect the "out" pin from the AC3 filter to the "Audio Input pin" on the "Default
Wave Out Device" filter. (There may be an audio rendering filter depending on the
type of DVD software you have (Intervideo, Cyberlink, Ravisent", etc), which I deleted
without ill-effect (I hope)).
11)Right-click on the AC3 filter, and select filter properties. Set the speakers
to "SPDIF".
12)Go to "File" menu and choose "Save As Graph(.GRF). However change the file extension
to ".avi" and save it to your hard drive. I chose ac-3.avi.
I think you can call the file anything you want as long as when you loaded the media
file you didn't chose "Render URL".
13)Reboot your computer for changes to take effect.
Check Doom9 for additional info on graphedit and ac-3 spdif passthrough.
I take no responsibility whatsoever for anything the software or these techniques
do to your computer or system. As always practice safe computing, and have backups
of your system software and data files. An image of your drive is very helpful in
case you don't like the way things turn out :-(
On Friday, October 31, 2003 at 3:02 pm, Brendan Walsh wrote:
>Hi all...I am just looking around for a solution to my problem. I have the soundblaster
>live 5.1 card. I have a digital coax out to my Onkyo reciever. When I do the speaker
>test with the digital out box checked all I get are front left and front right sound.
> I have tried everything and am hoping I didn't waste teh money on the card and
the
>cable for nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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