Audigy 2 ZS: SPDIF-coax Windows 7

etherboy · Jun 27, 2009, 02:55 PM

Hi all,

I thought I would start my quest for enlightenment here:
I'm trying to get a workable digital signal out of my Audigy 2 ZS, I've tried a minijack (2-pole) to RCA (red-white) with one of the RCA plugs connected... I get stereo sound and Dolby Digital when I do the tests in Windows sound manager, but there's a lot of stuttering on the Dolby output, almost like an echo...

This is with or without Digital Output Only enabled in sounds options for the Creative Speakers...

So I found a SPDIF bracket at work (I work in a computer store) designed for a Gigabyte motherboard, which has three wires and both coax and optical plugs on it... I assume the three wires are SPDIF, GND and +5V, so I hooked it up to the appropriate headers on the AD_EXT on my card, and jumped pins 25 and 35...

I get sound, but once again it's got an echo or stutter to it...

So I'm wondering if it's my cables? Or just a known bug... or what...

I really want to get 5.1 out of my PC and I'm being stymied in all directions...

My ATI videocard's HDMI is only giving me stereo as well because I believe it's reading the capabilities of the TV it's hooked up to, rather than the receiver the TV's optical-out goes into...

Grrr

edit: I guess I'll try my cabling with my SoundMax digital outputs tonight... sadly my motherboard has DTS-Interactive so I could do 5.1 sound, but it's got little glitches (EMI maybe?) and SoundMax drivers are horrible... plus I think there was another issue I was having with it in Windows 7 too...

etherboy · Jul 17, 2009, 01:29 PM

I hate double-posting, but that post was already quite long...

So despite my problems I powered ahead (taken from a post I made on AVSForum):

Recently I hooked my soundcard up to my surround sound system via coaxial digital and the sound was horrible--as if there was an echo or stutter, however the game Mass Effect has Dolby Digital in its launcher program and this came through fine! So on a whim (and with a huge leap of faith) I bought the Dolby Digital Live pack and lo and behold it actually sounded clear!

I thought I was set, but now a new set of problems has cropped up:

1) Whenever I change my speaker settings from 5.1 to 2.1 (so I can use my headphones) the volume of my playback AND recording devices gets changed, and same again when I switch back to 5.1!

AND

2) Initially quite rarely, but now every time I use it, the DDL encoder just craps out--my receiver goes crazy switching from Dolby Digital to PCM--and it used to come back after 30 seconds to a minute; however now the signal never comes back and I have to turn the encoding off and back on again...

Last night I discovered my Audigy driver had reverted to the Windows provided one (ugh) so I force-installed the latest Audigy 2 Support Pack by danielK, but still had the same problem, so I uninstalled, ran Guru3D driver sweeper and reinstalled the entire driver package... that was 11:30PM last night, and I haven't had a chance to test it since then...

Anyone have any insight?

Also I thought it might be the 4GB memory hole problem, but I have the same issues with memory remapping on or off in my BIOS.

OS is Windows 7 x64 RC

Thanks!

Jun 27, 2009, 02:55 PM	#1
etherboy DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Audigy 2 ZS: SPDIF-coax Windows 7 AND DDL problem Hi all, I thought I would start my quest for enlightenment here: I'm trying to get a workable digital signal out of my Audigy 2 ZS, I've tried a minijack (2-pole) to RCA (red-white) with one of the RCA plugs connected... I get stereo sound and Dolby Digital when I do the tests in Windows sound manager, but there's a lot of stuttering on the Dolby output, almost like an echo... This is with or without Digital Output Only enabled in sounds options for the Creative Speakers... So I found a SPDIF bracket at work (I work in a computer store) designed for a Gigabyte motherboard, which has three wires and both coax and optical plugs on it... I assume the three wires are SPDIF, GND and +5V, so I hooked it up to the appropriate headers on the AD_EXT on my card, and jumped pins 25 and 35... I get sound, but once again it's got an echo or stutter to it... So I'm wondering if it's my cables? Or just a known bug... or what... I really want to get 5.1 out of my PC and I'm being stymied in all directions... My ATI videocard's HDMI is only giving me stereo as well because I believe it's reading the capabilities of the TV it's hooked up to, rather than the receiver the TV's optical-out goes into... Grrr edit: I guess I'll try my cabling with my SoundMax digital outputs tonight... sadly my motherboard has DTS-Interactive so I could do 5.1 sound, but it's got little glitches (EMI maybe?) and SoundMax drivers are horrible... plus I think there was another issue I was having with it in Windows 7 too... Last edited by etherboy; Jul 17, 2009 at 01:28 PM. Reason: Change title

Jul 17, 2009, 01:29 PM	#2
etherboy DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Re: Audigy 2 ZS: SPDIF-coax Windows 7 I hate double-posting, but that post was already quite long... So despite my problems I powered ahead (taken from a post I made on AVSForum): Recently I hooked my soundcard up to my surround sound system via coaxial digital and the sound was horrible--as if there was an echo or stutter, however the game Mass Effect has Dolby Digital in its launcher program and this came through fine! So on a whim (and with a huge leap of faith) I bought the Dolby Digital Live pack and lo and behold it actually sounded clear! I thought I was set, but now a new set of problems has cropped up: 1) Whenever I change my speaker settings from 5.1 to 2.1 (so I can use my headphones) the volume of my playback AND recording devices gets changed, and same again when I switch back to 5.1! AND 2) Initially quite rarely, but now every time I use it, the DDL encoder just craps out--my receiver goes crazy switching from Dolby Digital to PCM--and it used to come back after 30 seconds to a minute; however now the signal never comes back and I have to turn the encoding off and back on again... Last night I discovered my Audigy driver had reverted to the Windows provided one (ugh) so I force-installed the latest Audigy 2 Support Pack by danielK, but still had the same problem, so I uninstalled, ran Guru3D driver sweeper and reinstalled the entire driver package... that was 11:30PM last night, and I haven't had a chance to test it since then... Anyone have any insight? Also I thought it might be the 4GB memory hole problem, but I have the same issues with memory remapping on or off in my BIOS. OS is Windows 7 x64 RC Thanks!