Powerdvd and audigy issue

[Kazuya]

Hi. Im using an audigy OEM. Installed the drivers that came with the cd making sure they are xp compatible.
All seemed fine, the test in sorround mixer was good and the games sounded properly but the problem came when i tried to play dvds.
Powerdvd only let me select 2 speakers and spdif out, not 4 and 6 channels. Plus in the info says: multispeaker device: not detected and spdif out device: not detected.
The sound in the rear speakers its almost inaudible and with other friends with the same model of card and powerdvd: it will let them choose 4 and 6 speaker and in the info it will say: audigy (d800) not in use or something like that.
Do you know what is the problem?

[Quality's Proof]

Look at the post "Needing some major help", in the Software Section. Will Windows Media Player (as default player choice) allow the settings you want? You could read the posts and something might "click" for you.

Though, I'm not claiming to know the answer, still 12 hours have passed without forum's response to you, so this referral could help. You could ask the threadstarter for help, if the poster does know about the settings.

The forum is mostly helpful, but not every answer is quick.

[Crash Override]

Do you have an AudioHQ panel in your Control Panels? There are settings hidden there that control things like numbers of speakers, etc. I have an Audigy2 and had to mess with that to turn on and off some things -- although I'm using the SPDIF out -- you might want to check those settings because they're different than the PowerDVD settings and the Audio settings accessible from the tray.

[Quality's Proof]

There,

See how fast it can be.

[BJBBJB]

Powerdvd freezes and Audigy 2 ZS

First, this is a great forum, very glad I found it!
I am having a problem getting an Audigy 2 ZS installed and working for DVD playback.

It is in a Dell XPS which previously had a Dell OEM Audigy 2. I wanted the breakout box and some of the extra features so opted to install the retail zs.

I properly uninstalled the old, ran ctzapp, installed the new card and drivers and it worked fine with regular audio. However when using SPDIF out from PowerDVD (and using the creative decoding which is what I wanted), it hard-freezes the system after fast forwarding, and hitting play. Or skipping a track ahead sometimes. No three finger salute working here, hard reboot.

Creative suggested trying a different PCI slot, which I did. It still freezes. You can let it just play, and it will not freeze....audio might skip a bit at first, but then seems to play through. Using software player decoding seems to work fine.

Windows media player also froze. Regular wav sounds and cd's seem fine. I am running an ATI 9800 Pro (latest drivers) with a 3ghz proc and 1gig of mem. It is an OEM Intel Mboard.

I have one more PCI slot to use and try... I have 4 and nothing else plugged into PCI! First slot XP grabbed IRQ 22, now it is on 17. The sys report "says" that there is nothing else using that IRQ but I understand that over 12 it is all virtual IRQ land and hard to tell. I mean there are other IRQ's below 12 open but XP is not grabbing.

Of course I am assuming the issue is an IRQ issue. Any other suggestions from others that might have seen this issue? Bottom line I would like to be able to use SPDIF out from the player and utilize the Audigy 2 decoding and settings.

I have not upgraded to the EAX4 drivers as I do not care about EAX 4 right now, and I did not see a fix for this issue listed. Worse, I saw one post where the EAX4 driver made SPDIF out problems WORSE!!!

Thanks in advance.
BJBBJB

[Crash Override]

Have you tried a different DVD player than PowerDVD? I'm using TheaterTek and WinDVD with my Audigy2 ZS and things work great. I'm using the SPDIF out for everything except the DVD-Audio format, which is analog-only (I have the DVD-Audio plug-in for WinDVD, which is why I use it at all).

One question -- what Creative decoding are you using, if you're utilizing the SPDIF out? Aren't you just passing the stream out to your external processor at that point?

Originally I was having an issue navigating through a DVD and sound/picture getting out of sync, but I found that if I specifically set TheaterTek to use the Audigy2 DirectSound driver, rather than the "Default" DirectSound driver (which really should be the same driver, if you only have one sound card installed, but go figure) the problem went away.

Your problem really sounds like some sort of interactivity issue between PowerDVD and Audigy2, as odd as that is.

[BJBBJB]

Powerdvd freezes and Audigy 2 ZS

I tried Windows Media Player (FWIW) and that froze also (at least at the beginning of this saga, need to try it again to confirm). However, I cannot find anywhere on the microsoft player where you can set the audio output type anyway.

I am not using the SPDIF out of the creative card to an external decoder. I am just setting my software DVD player to "SPDIF out" which I understand sends the digital bitstream to the Audigy 2 ZS for decoding (as set in audioHQ), and then passed via analog speaker outs to my speakers.

I was going to give WINDVD a whirl just to see if that is it. Or perhaps play the install/uninstall game with the PowerDVD version I have. Crash Overide, are you using the zs drivers that came with the card or the EAX 4.0???

A thought. You may have noticed that the Audigy 2 ZS install just goes ahead and upgrades you to Directx 9b (without asking). After something like that do typically have to uninstall and reinstall your software DVD players? That would be a very msft-type thing to have to do....

BJBBJB

[Crash Override]

Setting it to 'SPDIF Out' only refers to sending the Dolby Digital / DTS / PCM bitstream out on the optical or coax connectors of the breakout box to feed to an external processor. Turn that off if you're only using the Audigy decoder. That may fix your problem.

You only turn 'SPDIF Out' on if you've got an external receiver that does the decoding INSTEAD of the Audigy card. PowerDVD should be using the DirectSound API to interface with the Audigy hardware and the decoder will get used.

Turning on 'SPDIF Out', even on the PowerDVD application itself, tries to hijack the SPDIF Out of the Audigy card for its own use, and that could be screwing things up if you've set up the Audigy control panel not to use it.

PowerDVD may be mad that you're trying to both decode AND send the original stream out... not sure how the Audigy driver would deal with that.

When I installed my card a month ago, the wizard came up and said there were updated drivers, and it installed those... but I'm not clear whether they were the EAX 4.0 ones... how do I tell?

[BJBBJB]

Hmmm, man I thought I had this down!

The creative FAQ says to "choose SPDIF in the audio options of the program you are using NOT 5.1 or 6 speaker". Ensure the DVD has a DD soundtrack and choose in the menu...
"Audio passes along the IDE cable together with the other DVD information. ...IT is separated from this data by the decoding software and streamed to the card over the PCI bus.

Anyway, I thought you had 3 choices:
1) Choose 5.1 or 6.1 or whatever in the DVD player and it will do the decoding for you and pass along the analog decoded audio to the sound card (not best quality).
2) Choose SPDIF out in the software DVD player, it will send the digital bitstream to the card for decoding per the creative FAQ. Better quality?
3) Choose "SPDIF passthru" in the audioHQ which sends the digital signal through the sound card SPDIF out for external decoding. Sounds good, but you don't get 5.1 passthrough, just stereo. Anyway, I do not want to use an external decoder.

Hey open to ideas, but I am trying to do 2 above.

Bill

[Quality's Proof]

My Audigy card's software has the troubleshooting / testing mode. I have not had the problem you have had.

Would a fresh re-install of POWERDVD (after you change whatever Audigy settings needed) help solve this? If PowerDVD you have is same version as your friend has and Audigy card is same and O.S. is same, then there is obviously some software part which has been deleted, etc., or there is a setting conflict. Another Software dvd player is a waste of money when you can find cause of problem.

If you've gone through the audio codecs, etc. as contained on that other thread, and you've gone through Device Manager (looking for yellow question marks), then ask your friend to open up the audio part (as described on that other thread) and write down what their system contains and compare against your system's content and therefore, you could rule that in or out as a problem. Lots of O.S.'s missing parts and most persons aren't aware that other software, software uninstalls, etc., cause such problems.

[Kazuya]

I changed my powerdvd version from xp to 5. Now it recognizes my card in the info panel and i can select 4,6,7 and 8 speakers but now i have a problem. Selecting 6 speakers should give me 5.1 sound but when i choose spdif out the sound stutters a lot, almost every second.

[BJBBJB]

Kazuya,

Perhaps someone could clarify/confirm my understanding that when you set the software DVD decoder to SPDIF out, you then are using the audio card's decoding based on audioHQ settings. Which should be a good thing!

If you choose 5.1, 6.1, etc you use the software player's decoding and the sound card just passes the audio through...

When mine is working, with SPDIF out on the player, it does not stutter after the first few minutes. However if you fast forward and then hit play the whole thing freezes up..

The generic advice I got from creative was try a new PCI slot to grab a new IRQ and see if it helps...

BJB

[Crash Override]

I haven't tried what you said -- basically turning off my SPDIF in AudioHQ and turning it ON in my DVD player software -- primarily because I don't have external analog speakers hooked up to my home theater PC, where the Audigy2 card is installed.

However -- with a 3.0 GHz processor, there shouldn't be ANY stuttering. I have a 2.8 (overclocked 2.66) with 512 RAM and it's always smooth as silk. What other programs do you have running simultaneously? Even with XLobby2, Winamp5, and NewsRover running, I can still surf the the web and playback a DVD at the same time with no stuttering whatsoever.

I'm also driving dual monitors -- so I'm having a hard time understanding why there's any lag at all with your system. I'm wondering if some other device / driver is the culprit.

[BJBBJB]

Continuing Powerdvd and Audigy 2 ZA issue

The saga continues. Through various combinations and driver updates, I can get SPDIF out on Powerdvd to send the bitstream to the Audigy 2 ZS. It can decode with zs EAX 4 drivers but the audio is out of synch with the video. I see a lot people compain about this with their own work products, but this is on standard DVD's.

Any settings that help fix this?

Utilizing PowerDVD as a software audio and video decoder (not using the zs to decode Dolby Digital) is in synch....

BJB

[Crash Override]

I don't use PowerDVD, but I do use WinDVD5 and TheaterTek. Neither player has any sort of sync issues with my Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro card, and my HTPC is my main DVD player -- I use it all the time for store-bought discs, home projects, and extracted discs in folders.... even playing across the network from another machine.

While I generally use an external decoder with the S/PDIF stream, I've tried it with the Audigy2 doing the DD decoding as well, and everything is in sync as well. I also use it to play DVD-Audio discs, which of course necessitate the card doing all the MLP decoding, since at that point the S/PDIF is turned off.

BTW, I highly recommend TheaterTek if you use your PC to playback a lot of movies. It's really slick. I use WinDVD5 to supplement only because it's the only way to play back DVD-Audio. But for all DVD-Video I use TheaterTek.